This is not a link baiting blog. I repeat this is NOT link baiting – this story is 100% true! I just found the story in Yahoo News while searching for the latest stories about spyware. Shawn Collins did just file a law suit against Ebates for it’s spyware tactics – only it’s not ‘our’ Shawn Collins. This guy is an attorney out of Illinois. Back in Sept 05 Atty Collins helped start a lawsuit against 180 Solutions which the industry also tried to give ‘our’ Shawn credit for.

Very interesting though that this guy is technically challenged and new to the net. He is focusing his background in environmental law issues and applying to the Internet the same kinds of laws he has used against groundwater polluters and charging spyware purveyors like Ebates with trespassing on personal property.

Pop-up foe targeting trespassers | Chicago Tribune Attorney Shawn Collins employs novel legal twist in federal lawsuits attempting to block spyware from infesting personal computers.

“On Friday, Collins filed his third suit in federal court in Chicago using trespassing laws. He claimed that Ebates Shopping.com Inc. downloaded software onto a client’s computer to track his Internet behavior. Ebates is an Internet company that refers people to online retailers in exchange for a commission. Ebates did not respond to questions on Friday.

We attacked it as if someone was coming on your property without your permission,” Collins said. And they were “staying there without your permission and doing surveillance on you without your permission.”