Movieland, also known as Movieland.com, Moviepass.tv and Popcorn.net, was a subscription-based movie download service that has been the subject of thousands of complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, the Washington State Attorney General's Office, the Better Business Bureau, and other agencies by consumers who said they were held hostage by its repeated pop-up windows and demands for payment, triggered after a free 3-day trial period.
[1] The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against Movieland and eleven other defendants in August 2006, charging them with having "engaged in a nationwide scheme to use deception and coercion to extract payments from consumers."
The ads offered a three-day free trial, with access to members-only content including music, news, updated sports scores and adult movies.
The ads said there were no forms to fill out, and no need to provide a credit card number or an e-mail address, making the trial appear anonymous.
[3][4] Media coverage as early as January 2006 recounted consumer complaints and mentioned that several anti-spyware companies were buying Google advertisements boasting their product's ability to "Remove Movieland Now".
[5] On August 8, 2006, the FTC filed a complaint in United States District Court "to obtain preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, rescission of contracts, restitution, disgorgement and other equitable relief for Defendants' deceptive and unfair acts or practices in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act".
[2] The complaint alleged that the defendants were demanding payment to fix a problem that they themselves created, and were installing disruptive software that could not be removed through reasonable means.
[3] According to the FTC complaint, Movieland repeatedly bombarded consumers with pop-up windows, accompanied by music that lasted nearly a minute.
"[2]The pop-ups had a large dark background and took up much of the screen, blocking access to other windows, and did not contain close or minimize buttons; forcing the user to continue.
[2] Clicking "Continue" brought up the next pop-up, a 40-second audiovisual clip featuring a woman who introduced herself as "your personal customer service representative" and stated "Because you did not cancel during your trial period, you are now legally obligated to make your payment as per the terms and conditions you agreed to when you installed our content delivery software."
[8] Without admitting any wrongdoing, violation of the law, or involvement in the acts and practices alleged in the complaint, the defendants agreed to make clear and prominent disclosures prior to any software download or installation, to not download or install software without the user's explicit consent and without disclosing clearly and prominently in the site's terms of service the nature, frequency, and duration of any pop-up windows that may appear regarding any purported obligation for payment.
[10] Without admitting any wrongdoing or violation of the law, the defendants agreed to make permanent the terms of the pre-trial stipulations including limiting the number, frequency and duration of the billing pop-ups; and to pay the FTC $501,367 to reimburse consumers who paid for the program as a result of the repeated pop-up demands.
[12] The agreement also requires Herd and Garroni to notify the FTC of any change of name, address or employment status, and of any new business affiliations, for five years.
"The defendants' claim that users are legally obligated to pay for their service lacks merit because consumers did not provide knowing consent to the installation of the relentless pop-up demands", he said.