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Three to become first European network to block ads

irishtimes.com

21–30 of 37 posts

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a huge proportion of the internet economy stopped existing, the only real losers would be the big ad firms like google. I think we can all happily live without 99% of youtube's shit

If you blocked 99% of ads though, youtube couldn't exist. It would have to become pay to watch. Don't be stupid.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, though the last time I said it people thought I was a complete loon and down-modded me to oblivion:

If we had real, viable micropayment services, where you could click a mouse button and spend $0.002 to read an in-depth news article or $0.008 to watch a YouTube video (these amounts are probably more than the content owners are getting per-impression from the ad networks), I think ads would mostly die out and these sites would be self-supporting.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#22
post #5
post #2

This is illegal under EU law: https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/despite-the-hype-isp-adblocki... What makes it illegal is Deep Packet Inspection.

I can't spot a reference to DPI or Shine in the article, but they could block ads somewhat effectively without DPI using DNS blacklists, for example.

Apparently:

Li Ka Shing (owner of Hutchison Whampoa -> owner of Three) is also investor in Shine

Seems to be true:

http://uk.businessinsider.com/digicel-becomes-first-mobile-c...

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#23
post #20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People think this is some sort of fancy "Ad Block Plus" -- it's not." Uh... http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/over-300-businesses-...

A browser plug-in modifying/controlling traffic. Acceptable. An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent. What makes it different in my view is that in one scenario the end user is in control in the other the ISP is in control.

> An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent.

Some ISPs have already been adding ads. The only precedent here is that those guys are removing them instead.

Maybe we will live to see times when ads injected by ISP1 end up filtered by ISP2 and replaced with others by ISP3, all within a single TCP stream :)

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#25
post #23
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A browser plug-in modifying/controlling traffic. Acceptable. An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent. What makes it different in my view is that in one scenario the end user is in control in the other the ISP is in control.

> An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent. Some ISPs have already been adding ads. The only precedent here is that those guys are removing them instead. Maybe we will live to see times when ads injected by ISP1 end up filtered by ISP2 and replaced with others by ISP3, all within a single TCP stream :)

This is why we need to switch to https.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#26
post #7

Right now there is a free rider problem with internet content. If this becomes more prevalent the market will have to adjust to deal with free riders. If you believe that content creators have a right to earn money there are two ways that can happen: 1) directly - you pay directly for the content that you want to consume or 2) indirectly - you see ads or sell your data in some way. I wonder what people will choose if…

There's only a "free rider problem" if you view the internet as a tool to generate income, as opposed to a tool you can use to offer something to the world. If all ads were gone tomorrow I wouldn't see a single website I regularly use drop off the internet. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the quality of web content on average would skyrocket if you couldn't make a dime off of ads.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#27
post #9

I'm all for ad blocking. But I'm even more for net neutrality. ISP blocking ads is tiny step away from "blocking all ads expect the ones ISP is paid to let through" and selectively blocking any other kind of content. ISPs are utilities, not censors, nor cops. Someone else mentioned "opt-in" which would not violate net-neutrality and I support.

Indeed. I have a much broader Press Release that is actually pretty clear in stating that Three believes it that ads publisher should pay for the data they use to bring the ad on the user's phone. This is a slippery slope, and certainly a threat to net neutrality.

Three also believes that users shouldn't have to pay for the data that advertisers use to bring ads to their phone, which seems reasonable enough - I think we've reached to the point where users are paying more in data costs to view ads than the advertisers are paying to advertise to them which is ridiculous.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. I have a much broader Press Release that is actually pretty clear in stating that Three believes it that ads publisher should pay for the data they use to bring the ad on the user's phone. This is a slippery slope, and certainly a threat to net neutrality.

Three also believes that users shouldn't have to pay for the data that advertisers use to bring ads to their phone, which seems reasonable enough - I think we've reached to the point where users are paying more in data costs to view ads than the advertisers are paying to advertise to them which is ridiculous.

This is also true, indeed, but I don't think it's a provider's role to decide what kind of ads should pass or be blocked, especially if such decision will be based on who's paying and who's not.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#29
post #7

Right now there is a free rider problem with internet content. If this becomes more prevalent the market will have to adjust to deal with free riders. If you believe that content creators have a right to earn money there are two ways that can happen: 1) directly - you pay directly for the content that you want to consume or 2) indirectly - you see ads or sell your data in some way. I wonder what people will choose if…

There's only a "free rider problem" if you view the internet as a tool to generate income, as opposed to a tool you can use to offer something to the world. If all ads were gone tomorrow I wouldn't see a single website I regularly use drop off the internet. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the quality of web content on average would skyrocket if you couldn't make a dime off of ads.

I don't know which sites you use specifically - but i would guess many people on hn use at least one of the following: Google Search, Gmail, Facebook, Chrome/Firefox.

Re: Three to become first European network to block ads

#30
post #7

Right now there is a free rider problem with internet content. If this becomes more prevalent the market will have to adjust to deal with free riders. If you believe that content creators have a right to earn money there are two ways that can happen: 1) directly - you pay directly for the content that you want to consume or 2) indirectly - you see ads or sell your data in some way. I wonder what people will choose if…

There's only a "free rider problem" if you view the internet as a tool to generate income, as opposed to a tool you can use to offer something to the world. If all ads were gone tomorrow I wouldn't see a single website I regularly use drop off the internet. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the quality of web content on average would skyrocket if you couldn't make a dime off of ads.

How does ads affect this hypothetical world where quality of web content skyrocket?

The web isn't a closed platform for a limited number of service. Multiple website are trying to survive without ads, Wikipedia is one of them. Nothing stop them.

Ads allow for content creator that still need to pay rent, to actually produce content while still paying rent. You know like any job.

The one that still can produce without anything, are still free to do it currently and plenty are actually doing it.

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