Ben Edelman read through the 63-page EULA for Gator and found some pretty interesting clauses.
You agree that you will not use, or encourage others to use, any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer, or any GAIN-Supported Software from a computer.
Ad-Aware and Spybot are of course not on the approved list.
Gator displays advertisements on a computers with its software installed. These advertisements are triggered by the sites you browse, often showing a competitive offering for e-commerce sites. Like spam, the way to make companies like Claria (makers of Gator) go away is to simply not click the advertisements. Better yet, write the companies doing business with Claria and let them know their decision to partner with such companies has lost your business.
NexTag, my current employer, pays Claria and WhenU to serve advertisements on the sites of competitors. If you would like to voice your opinion on advertisers contributing to spyware, e-mail advertising@nextag.com or call (650) 645-4700 to let them know what you think.