Enigma Software sues BleepingComputer for alleged 'smear campaign'

By Jonathan Keane Published February 8, 2016

microsoft maintains right protect overseas data law enforcement lawsuit judge copyright patent infringement — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Enigma Software, the company behind the SpyHunter security program, is suing tech reviews site BleepingComputer over negative comments it made about its software and what it calls a smear campaign to disparage the company in favor of affiliates.

The post in question is on the site’s forum, which was published in 2014, and carries a number of negative remarks made against SpyHunter including accusations of deceptive pricing. Enigma Software, or ESG, says these remarks are disparaging and false. In its court papers, the company says it is bringing this “smear campaign” to an end.

Recommended Videos

“Bleeping not only has unlawfully benefited from its smear campaign to the detriment of ESG, it has damaged the reputation of ESG by refusing to take down its false and misleading statements which have been reposted numerous times on other anti-spyware related forums and websites,” said the company.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It also takes umbrage with BleepingComputer’s affiliate program, which it says encourages the site to drive traffic to these particular companies. Malwarebytes, a competitor of Enigma, is named as one of these affiliates.

“To further that interest, Bleeping has intentionally disparaged ESG and its products while simultaneously recommending that its “novice” forum members use Malwarebytes programs for which it admittedly is paid a commission,” said the filing. Enigma adds that it has not participated in a commission program like this with BleepingComputer.

In a follow up statement released last Friday Enigma Software defended its decision to take legal action. “ESG filed suit against BleepingComputer because BleepingComputer is misleading the public and harming fair competition in the marketplace,” said ESG spokesperson Ryan Gerding. “The company wrote to BleepingComputer before filing suit and asked them to stop, but they refused.”

He clarified that the case in question is not about a review, adding that site is free to write negative things fairly if it chooses. “What [BleepingComputer] are not free to do is pretend they are providing unbiased reviews in order to drive sales of products where they get commissions,” he said.

Enigma Software declined requests for further comment in regards to this statement and legal case. Another spokesperson told Digital Trends that it will not be commenting any further during the legal proceedings.

BleepingComputer has since turned to its readers for financial help in fighting the case. The site said it anticipates the legal process will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and is asking for donations.

“If BleepingComputer does not get the help we need and we lose this battle, it will only embolden Enigma Software to try to silence other bloggers, IT technicians, or computer security enthusiasts,” it posted.

The aforementioned Malwarebytes is supporting the site in its defense and its CEO Marcin Kleczynski has donated $5,000.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Jonathan is a freelance technology journalist living in Dublin, Ireland. He's previously written for publications and sites…

Computing

On my son’s behalf, I sought out the smart glasses that ‘give sight to the blind’

A prototype of the Soliddd Vision smart glasses.

Like many 4-year-olds, there's nothing my son loves more than cars. Despite my own complete lack of interest in the topic, he can already identify make and model of cars from across the street with uncanny accuracy, spurred on by his growing collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels.

But as we've had to explain to him, we still don't know if he'll be ever to drive one himself. The brain tumor that he was born with left him with stunted vision, particularly in one eye, with little hope of improvement.

Computing

The RTX 5060 will be Nvidia’s most important GPU, and I’m worried about it

Two graphics cards sitting on top of each other.

Nvidia just finished revealing its range of new RTX 50-series GPUs, the first of which will arrive in just a couple of weeks. They're some of the best graphics cards ever made, according to Nvidia, and for the flagship RTX 5090 that clocks in at $2,000, I believe the company. Lower down the stack, however, I'm concerned.

For the past couple of years, there's been a growing issue surrounding graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM, which is something we've seen on full display with games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Despite backlash in the previous generation concerning releases like the RTX 4060 Ti, I'm worried that Nvidia will repeat the mistakes of the past when the RTX 5060 inevitably rolls around.
It'll be popular

Computing

ChatGPT just dipped its toes into the world of AI agents

OpenAI's ChatGPT blog post is open on a computer monitor, taken from a high angle.

OpenAI appears to be just throwing spaghetti at this point, hoping it sticks to a profitable idea. The company announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out a new feature called ChatGPT Tasks to subscribers of its paid tier that will allow users to set individual and recurring reminders through the ChatGPT interface.

Tasks does exactly what it sounds like it does: It allows you to ask ChatGPT to do a specific action at some point in the future. That could be assembling a weekly news brief every Friday afternoon, telling you what the weather will be like in New York City tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., or reminding you to renew your passport before January 20. ChatGPT will also send a push notification with relevant details. To use it, you'll need to select "4o with scheduled tasks" from the model picker menu, then tell the AI what you want it to do and when.