Don't think of it as a fine. Think of it as an early campaign donation.

An agency gets their interactive ass hauled into court for their use of spyware. I'd be inclined to applaud this, except it's a suit by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the ad spyware in question had already been discontinued by Intermix. Spitzer's tactic here is predictable: he "exploits the threat of stock declines and business losses to force industries to change." And indeed, Intermix's "'stock price has halved since it became public two weeks ago that Spitzer was investigating,'" observed one analyst. Intermix now faces either impossibly heavy fines or a settlement. I'm not sayin' they don't deserve it. I'm just counting down the days until Spitzer runs for governor, loses, fades into obscurity and thereby enables New York to become a business-friendly state once again.