Following a nearly three-year crackdown on spammers and phishers, the Federal Trade Commission has settled on a $1.5 million judgment in ill-gotten gains from an adware distributor known to have downloaded pop-ups via a complex network of affiliates and sub-affiliates.

DirectRevenue LLC and four of its principals have admitted to charges of unfair and deceptive business practices and to deliberately confusing consumers by making it nearly impossible to remove the adware installed on their machines. The company profited more than $23 million, the FTC said in a statement.

Marketers Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular Wireless have also agreed to pay fines ranging up to $35,000 for their business dealings with DirectRevenue. A case is still pending against the three companies in New York.

Critics of the FTC's settlement, including FTC commissioner Jon Leibowitz, claim the fine amount -- compared with how much DirectRevenue profited from adware -- was not nearly as harsh as it should have been.

"Even apart from the hundreds of thousands of hours people spent closing all of these pop-up ads, how many people lost important data because respondents' malware crashed their computer?" Leibowitz told the media. "How many people junked perfectly good computers that were so burdened with unwanted adware that they were useless?"

DirectRevenue's adware was based on programs such as ABI Networks, Ceres and Aurora, which monitored consumer behavior and then delivered targeted pop-ups consistent with that behavior. Inadvertent adware downloads were offered to consumers in the form of free offers for screensavers, software and free content, which when clicked on installed adware programs without the user's knowledge.

According to the FTC, it is a violation of federal law to download adware onto a computer and then obstruct the user from removing it.

Allegations against DirectRevenue also state that the company's affiliates exploited web browser vulnerabilities to download adware with user consent. Legal counsel for DirectRevenue claims that its affiliates sullied the company name and exploited its business model for illegal purposes.

"DirectRevenue's adware infected computers worldwide," FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said in a statement. "The FTC settlement brings unauthorized software downloads to a halt and stops DirectRevenue from sending pop-up ads to computers affected by prior unlawful downloads."

The FTC's settlement with DirectRevenue bars the company and its affiliates from downloading or activiating adware that was installed prior to Oct. 1, 2005. The agreement also requires that DirectRevenue make it easier for users to locate and remove the adware.

DirectRevenue principals named in the FTC complaint include Joshua Abram, Daniel Kaufman, Alan Murray and Rodney Hook. All four men are based in New York.

To crack down on such practices, TRUSTe last week released a list of applications that it certified as safe for clearly communicating key functionalities, obtaining informed consumer consent prior to download, and providing an easy uninstall with clear instructions, among other requirements.