It is super ironic that the co-founder @jameshartig was previously at GrooveShark aka "The legality of Grooveshark's business model, which permitted users to upload copyrighted music, remains undetermined."
Ad blocking is under attack
321–330 of 598 posts
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#322Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#323It 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…
> And if github cannot standup to DMCA abuse, then well, easylist and all other developers should be giving a clear hard though to their continued use of the github platform.
This. This is the main topic here. The wide use of centralized services (such as Github, but it applies also to Facebook, Google et al.) makes you dependent to corporate decisions, including coward (or maybe rational) decisions towards freedom of their users.
This is also why linux kernel developers will never, ever use a service like Github. Apart from scalability issues, the single point of failure that these services are (not for technical reasons, but for political reasons) is simply scary.
TL;DR: Assholes who send buggy DMCA is not the issue here. Depending on a centralized service is.
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#324I hate to say it, but the ad-blocking community is handling this problem the same way governments often handle things: Reactionary instead of pro-active.
The real source of the problem with ads, is that almost every ad network allows ads to be self posted with little to no filter. This opens us all up to the abuse from ads we've been experiencing for over a decade now.
Could you imagine what would happen if you were allowed to self-post an ad on television without the network manually approving each one?
It's time to hold ad networks responsible for their own content. If a virus spreads because of their ads, THEY should be sued, just like MTV and others were when they violated FCC decency rules during the Super Bowl.
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't consider a url to be IP. So the encoding isn't skirting anything. It is just removing an easy, incorrect loophole. They are getting away with the DMCA complaint filing because most providers will allow them if you can find the "matching infringing text" on the page, without further justification. Encoding it forces the DMCA filer to more comprehensively explain what is being violated. Basically it just raises…
No one is getting away with the DMCA complaint. The target in this case did not file a counter notification. If they'd done that, then the DMCA complaint would be invalidated. You can argue that's unfair, but we don't have a justice system. We have a legal system. And these are the rules. Encoding it forces the DMCA filer to more comprehensively explain what is being violated. Basically it just raises the bar to a po…
Filing a counter notice has risk...being right still has costs.
Obscuring it makes the DMCA filer have to better explain the why in the request. Something more than just "this short piece text is on this page and I don't like it".
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if folks could get sneaky and change the design from a literal url to a regular expression tailored to single out that url but would also include additional sites that are just gibberish and could be relaxed if useful sites ever do fall into the URL overlap. This might be a new line of research to craft regExs to filter out a specific string while also throwing out a bunch of sister gibberish strings that wo…
How about having EasyList clients fetch the whole history of the repo? That way any domain that was ever added would be in the blocklist. True negatives should be pretty low.
Then they would purge it from the repo. In fact, it's questionably the case that they have abided by the DMCA order, for the very reason that it still exists in the repo history. As far as I know, DMCA takedowns normally lead to closing the entire repo.
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#327I 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…
IIUC, the DMCA says that if there's some technological mechanism X that's used to enforce copyright, and a tool Y that is (or can be) used to circumvent X, then making or distributing Y is itself illegal (as opposed to the act of using Y to circumvent X, which is already illegal even without the DMCA). The DMCA then provides a notice-based method for 'taking down' online copies of Y. In this case, X is the Admiral te…
Oh no, now I'm confused again... :-/
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't consider a url to be IP. So the encoding isn't skirting anything. It is just removing an easy, incorrect loophole. They are getting away with the DMCA complaint filing because most providers will allow them if you can find the "matching infringing text" on the page, without further justification. Encoding it forces the DMCA filer to more comprehensively explain what is being violated. Basically it just raises…
No one is getting away with the DMCA complaint. The target in this case did not file a counter notification. If they'd done that, then the DMCA complaint would be invalidated. You can argue that's unfair, but we don't have a justice system. We have a legal system. And these are the rules. Encoding it forces the DMCA filer to more comprehensively explain what is being violated. Basically it just raises the bar to a po…
Technical solutions to get around the legal system can work quite well. Just go ask all the not-in-jail users of The Pirate Bay.
Github is a very above the table solution for distributing a list of things. But if it gets to expensive to host it there, due to frivolous lawsuit threats, I expect other solutions to distributing these lists start to pop up.
The best advantage of encoding or even encrypting this stuff would be obfuscation. It would make is much more difficult for someone to even become AWARE that they are being blocked, if the info is hidden.
Not everybody has the resources to fight off trolls, even if what they are doing is completely legal (as in this case). Sometimes technical solutions are your only option.
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
> It is very naive to think the current Republican congress is anything different or new The Democrats are doing now what the Republicans did for the last 8 years. And I imagine in 7 years the opposite will happen.
The Republicans control congress and the presidency. With some exceptions, Republicans don't need a single Democratic vote to pass legislation.
Re: Ad blocking is under attack
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blockchain would be great for this.
what would block chain give that git wouldn't? Wouldn't anyone beable to remove a domain or add a domain.
No, you just have a hash of the "official" version of the list. And when the list needs to be updated, the person with the private key publishes a new list again.
The advantage of using the bitcoin blockchain, for example, is that it can't be censored. DMCA trolls now have to go after every single bitcoin company in the world, to stop them from "hosting" the copyrighted work.