Kaspersky Lab has secured a legal victory against infamous adware firm Zango in a ruling that will do much to prevent the Internet’s pests from dumping bogus lawsuits on the doorstep of security firms.

Zango has been lambasted on numerous occasions for its spyware-like behavior, most notably on StopBadware which outlines several behaviors which any reasonable person will recognize as spyware:

• Behaves as spyware (Transmits private info)
• Bundled software cannot be closed (Interferes with computer use)
• Automatically runs on startup (Interferes with computer use)
• Installs adware (Potentially deceptive installation)
• Displays pop-up advertisements (Interferes with computer use)
• Modifies Internet Explorer (Modifies other software)

Despite the obvious design of the software, Zango took Kaspersky to court in May of 2007 when the security firm classified Zango software as malware. The suit aspired to get Zango’s software reclassified as benign and legitimate so its nefarious ways could operate unimpeded.

The recent ruling reinforces that of a lower court which permitted Kaspersky’s actions under the Communications Decency Act (CDA), as a provider of “interactive computer services”.

The security firm is understandably rather chuffed.

The ruling protects a consumer’s choice to determine what information and software is allowed on their computing systems, and protects the ability of anti-malware vendors to identify and label software programs that may be potentially unwanted and harmful to computer users. Kaspersky Lab’s software is designed to do just that. Users can adjust the settings to allow certain programs of their choice to come through at all times.

And as Zango shoved off in April of this year, it has no power to contest the ruling. Security firms are happy, the Internet suffers one less spyware vendor, and the peasants rejoice.