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Ad blocking is under attack

blog.adguard.com

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Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#101

Post by nkkollaw »

I didn't get what the hell happened.

So, Admiral—an anti-adblocker company—contacted EasyList and told them to remove a domain from their list. This domain was a server they needed for their anti-adblocker platform to work.

EasyList told Admiral that they would only do it if GitHub agreed, so Admiral contacted GitHub and the domain was removed from the EasyList list after GitHub told EasyList they should comply.

The "attack" is that any company can tell lists to remove their website via using a DMCA violation, so lists become useless.

I have two questions:

1. how would a domain name on a list violate copyright

2. why aren't lists hosted anywhere else but the US so that they can't be controlled by DMCA requests.

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#102

Post by such_a_casual »

frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #96
such_a_casual wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidence does. Maybe you should learn the difference between just calling someone a name and providing evidence that their character is shit.

And yet your evidence is glued to the bottom of the discussion because you called him a fag. You've only degraded the conversation.

Only to oversensitive children who can't handle the word fag.

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#103

Post by jlarocco »

zanny wrote: post #59
exabrial wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad but true :( If we could only remove the logjam in congress right now to get some real work done... currently the two parties are deadlocked in a power struggle and have completely forgotten why they're there.

> currently the two parties are deadlocked in a power struggle You mean since about 1790? There have always been two parties in congress (minus the era of good feelings) and they have always had opposing ideology, and have almost always blocked one another's proposals. It is very naive to think the current Republican congress is anything different or new. Their inaction is intentional - they need to pass their anti-c…

> You mean since about 1790? There have always been two parties in congress (minus the era of good feelings) and they have always had opposing ideology, and have almost always blocked one another's proposals.

That's by design, actually. The goal was never to create a government that can efficiently create a million laws and regulations.

The point of having multiple parties is that each of them will block each other and only the laws and regulations that everybody can agree on will actually get through.

Unfortunately, politicians have been learning to game the system for ~200 years now, and it's not working exactly as designed.

Another big difference lately seems to be that everybody's an extremist because nobody can change their mind or compromise without getting called out in the media for back pedaling or giving up or "working with the enemy" or whatever.

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#105

Post by [deleted] »

chad-autry wrote: post #90
anilgulecha wrote: post #32

It was admiral that did this: https://blog.getadmiral.com/dmca-easylist-adblock-copyright-... They even clearly state they used the only tool available to them, DCMA. From all the current summaries on this, DMCA does not apply to a line entry in easylist. A domain can be trademarked. This should be added back in. And if github cannot standup to DMCA abuse, then well, easylist and all other developers should be giving…

From what I can tell, the DMCA does apply (sort of) Admiral seems to be a paywall server basically. If blocking their domain gave access to paywalled content, then the DMCA seems to apply http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/circumventing-copyright-cont... However, that defense is a bit flimsy to me since the fall back to having the paywall blocked could/should be a "Paywall blocked, please disable your addblocker to gain…

[deleted]

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#107

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

such_a_casual wrote: post #102
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet your evidence is glued to the bottom of the discussion because you called him a fag. You've only degraded the conversation.

Only to oversensitive children who can't handle the word fag.

Actually no, your comment has been flagged so no one, oversensitive or not, can see it. Do better. Damore doesn't give a pass for these kind of childish antics.

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#108

Post by anilgulecha »

chad-autry wrote: post #90
anilgulecha wrote: post #32

It was admiral that did this: https://blog.getadmiral.com/dmca-easylist-adblock-copyright-... They even clearly state they used the only tool available to them, DCMA. From all the current summaries on this, DMCA does not apply to a line entry in easylist. A domain can be trademarked. This should be added back in. And if github cannot standup to DMCA abuse, then well, easylist and all other developers should be giving…

From what I can tell, the DMCA does apply (sort of) Admiral seems to be a paywall server basically. If blocking their domain gave access to paywalled content, then the DMCA seems to apply http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/circumventing-copyright-cont... However, that defense is a bit flimsy to me since the fall back to having the paywall blocked could/should be a "Paywall blocked, please disable your addblocker to gain…

By that logic, ad servers themselves could cite their own copyright of ads, and thus request removal from easylist!

EFF has gotten in touch with easylist according to [1]. That's good.

[1] https://torrentfreak.com/dmca-used-to-remove-ad-server-url-f...

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#109

Post by warrenm »

bradleyankrom wrote: post #61
exabrial wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad but true :( If we could only remove the logjam in congress right now to get some real work done... currently the two parties are deadlocked in a power struggle and have completely forgotten why they're there.

also, few (if any) have the understanding of technology to affect appropriate reforms, which leads to industry lobbyists crafting legislation.

what happens when lawyers are elected to congress

Re: Ad blocking is under attack

#110

Post by neogodless »

xigency wrote: post #54
richardknop wrote: post #4

There has been a growing trend of websites that will ask me to either: a) whitelist their site in my adblocker b) or subscribe to their monthly subscription and keep reading their site with adblocker

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this alternative: disable JavaScript. It's fairly easy in any browser to create a list of websites to ignore JavaScript on.

I see some disagreement with you, but I am somewhat of the opinion that I agree (though I don't think it's a great "common user" solution.)

ScriptSafe is running and I allow some sites, trust a few domains, and the rest get, at best, temporary access to run local JavaScript if specific content I want isn't loading. I get the feeling the majority of sites don't even function without JavaScript at this point, and some intertwine their ad system with other "necessary" JavaScript, so it's tough to surf the web without some hassle.

I don't think this is a perfect or even passable long-term mainstream solution.

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