Website owners ready to sue the developers of Adblock extension


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I dont block ads and i generally have no issue with them even ones that are plastered between each news article on other websites.

What i do take exception to are intellitxt ads and flash ads with video that automatically begin playing but sound muted wether i want them to or not, i dont like my browser being hijacked and my 1s and 0s wasting my bandwidth.

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This story indeed presents an interesting argument. I have seen this as well. I tried ads for a short time on my blog with the goal of covering hosting costs, but it just didn't work. My ad views were MAYBE 5% of my total pageviews to the site, which did **** me off a little bit since my ads were not intrusive at all (just a simple google ad on the sidebar, nothing more).

I feel that webmasters have a right to earn money off their hardwork and free services that they offer. BUT what I do not agree with is sites that cause a ruckus on your screen with flashy seizure-inducing ads and malicious ones. I will freely admit that I actively block ads to keep the flashy ads and popups away from my network. But with that said, I also support the sites that give me services that I enjoy (hence the subscriber badge on here for instance).

This is definitely an interesting argument though, and it will open a pandora's box for these sites. They want adblock gone? Ok, get rid of your epiliepsy-inducing ads and needless popups then.

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Yes some people take it WAY to far with the ads, but adblock should only be concerned with popups and ads with malicious code.

there is no reason for adblock to be blocking google ads.

I must respectfully disagree with you on this point. Adblock is working in the best possible way - the choice is left 100% up to the user. Adblock is just the tool, and it's the user's call how to actually apply it. To deliberately cripple its functionality out of some misguided sense of respect to advertisers or webmasters is really, at the end of the day, just another form of DRM.

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what's with these frivolous lawsuits of late??

Some webmasters report even 70% lower earnings by advertisements since Adblock appeared on the Web.

and therefore it must be because of adblock? how about it's because the anti-ad sentiment has increased, reducing the number of people who clicked on ads and also causing the creation of adblock?

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I wonder what people would do , if something very similar to adblock would be inserted into IE or FF as a core part , instead of being just an extension

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bump for opinion that matters:(not that everyones opinion in here doesn't matter, just his, as a webmaster of a HUGE site, matters more)

This story touches a nerve for me, while I'm not one of the 100 or so sites suing AdBlock. It does make me sick sometimes to read comments like "I paid for my Internet connection already" yeah you did. But we created a service here completely funded by the ads shown on the website. People who say they have every right to block the ads shown here make me wonder if I'm supposed to pay for Neowins existence from my own pocket (which I did for the first couple of years with Marcel, Ad free) but with popularity comes ever increasing resources.

They talk about bandwidth being cheap these days, but who buys the dedicates servers then, or the dedicated blocks of bandwidth or pays the staff to maintain it?

The people suing Adblock aren't the hobby guys with their virtual hosted servers for $10 a month and "unlimited bandwidth (yeah right)", they are people with costs of over $1200+ a month to keep their site online, just like Neowin.

I applaud the guys responding to this topic who understand what I mean, and have made the effort to whitelist Neowin, because we aren't displaying those obtrusive ads, but the people who consider everything to be free on the Internet really need to wake up to the facts, even displaying our ads still makes us a free site, its more laziness and lack of understanding IMO.

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Seriously, if you don't like the ads served by the site you visit, don't visit the site. I don't know how it can get more simple than that. I don't use adblock because I run sites too. If I don't like the ads a site is using, I won't visit the site.

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No one is forcing people to block their ads either, if they can sue someone for creating a tool to block the ads then i should be able to sue them for plastering ads all over the website using up my bandwidth.

Except you're actively taking a service without paying for it. Content is rarely free (isn't free on Neowin, either). Taking such content without acceptable payment is, with some flexing of the terms, theft.

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I think there's maybe one or two occasions I have ever intentionally clicked an advert - and that's Google adverts on an underground music forum that I frequent. Other than that though, ads are a part of the website I never pay attention to. I don't visit sites that don't sell products because I want to buy products - If I want to buy something I will look for something myself. Of course that's me, not everyone.

For example, take the Techinline advert I can see at the bottom of the page. I don't care in the slightest about that product. If I wanted a Remote Access product, I'd be searching for one, not on a discussion forum.

Edited by Michael1406
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No one is forcing people to block their ads either, if they can sue someone for creating a tool to block the ads then i should be able to sue them for plastering ads all over the website using up my bandwidth.

No you cant sue for that. If you could then why not sue the owners of the website also because they allow the ads to be placed there.

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Seriously, if you don't like the ads served by the site you visit, don't visit the site. I don't know how it can get more simple than that. I don't use adblock because I run sites too. If I don't like the ads a site is using, I won't visit the site.

there isn't always a replacement for every website out there.

what if you absolutely need to use a website (required by someone else, for instance), but it has obscene amounts of obtrusive ads?

what do you do?

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there isn't always a replacement for every website out there.

what if you absolutely need to use a website (required by someone else, for instance), but it has obscene amounts of obtrusive ads?

what do you do?

How many respectable, 'hard to replace' websites have that many ads? None that I use are like that.
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I rent seasons on netflix to avoid the ads on cable T.V. I do not like paying to watch a program then have ad's presented to me. Its the same with the net.

Justin.tv sells "gifts" at $1.00 each to help pay for it's site. Other sites could do similar items. I know it does not totally pay for the site but it helps.

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I rent seasons on netflix to avoid the ads on cable T.V. I do not like paying to watch a program then have ad's presented to me. Its the same with the net.

The equivalent of renting via Netflix is subscribing/donating to websites. What you're saying is like renting seasons from Netflix for nothing. Someone needs to get paid somewhere along the line.

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Except you're actively taking a service without paying for it. Content is rarely free (isn't free on Neowin, either). Taking such content without acceptable payment is, with some flexing of the terms, theft.

Brings to mind the statement in some of the Public Service Announcements going around right now on the TV..(Can't seem to find it online at the moment).. It shows a teen girl who is being greeted by her first name, asked when her next pic is coming out, or complimenting her, getting creepy looks from older men etc...says (paraphrasing here) "Just because you upload something doesn't mean it stays private or those you intended to see it." In other words....

If you put something online and don't take the proper measures to protect it (behind password doors, encrypted etc), then archive.org, google, yahoo, etc... will keep a record of what is put up there and indexed for ANYONE and I mean ANYONE with access to read it freely and w/o paying for the content. I for example have a couple of sites online that are indexed of course via Google and so on. I want it to be read and viewed. I would imagine that the same premise is here as well... To generate traffic, which in turn generates revenue by pageviews, clickthroughs, etc... the text imprinted on the site is therefore made available and used freely by the content owner(s) to use as they see fit.

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I rent seasons on netflix to avoid the ads on cable T.V. I do not like paying to watch a program then have ad's presented to me. Its the same with the net.

In your case with Netflix, though, you are financially compensating the copyright holders to view their content without ads. The studios get money from your Netflix subscription. What about for web ads that you may block? What compensation do you give to the websites that you visit?

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This story touches a nerve for me, while I'm not one of the 100 or so sites suing AdBlock. It does make me sick sometimes to read comments like "I paid for my Internet connection already" yeah you did. But we created a service here completely funded by the ads shown on the website. People who say they have every right to block the ads shown here make me wonder if I'm supposed to pay for Neowins existence from my own pocket (which I did for the first couple of years with Marcel, Ad free) but with popularity comes ever increasing resources.

They talk about bandwidth being cheap these days, but who buys the dedicates servers then, or the dedicated blocks of bandwidth or pays the staff to maintain it?

The people suing Adblock aren't the hobby guys with their virtual hosted servers for $10 a month and "unlimited bandwidth (yeah right)", they are people with costs of over $1200+ a month to keep their site online, just like Neowin.

I applaud the guys responding to this topic who understand what I mean, and have made the effort to whitelist Neowin, because we aren't displaying those obtrusive ads, but the people who consider everything to be free on the Internet really need to wake up to the facts, even displaying our ads still makes us a free site, its more laziness and lack of understanding IMO.

(Y)

Neobond, I just want to say I used to block all ads, not because I am against advertising, but because of things like intellitxt which block content and make surfing the web an annoyance. I have never purchased anything on one of those ads and refuse to click on them because that type of in your face advertising is just plain wrong. I use my mouse cursor to keep my place when reading because I am ADHD and it makes it easy to find where I was at when I get distracted. (It is really easy to distract some one with ADHD.)

Another reason I used to block all ads is because of the large number of legit sites that were infecting PC's unknowingly because of malware infested ads. This is a cancer that is spreading across the web and staying away from the seedier side of the web is no longer a guarantee that you can keep from getting infected with all sorts of malware. The protections built into Windows Vista and Windows 7, including User Account Control, Address Space Layout Randomization, enabling Data Execution Prevention for all programs, running as a standard user and Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection have mitigated this issue for the most part as long as the end user is aware of these protections and uses them all together. I would never run a XP box without ads blocked because it is just too dangerous, even as a standard user.

I have heard you and others on sites I love to frequent about the loss of revenue and have decided to no longer block all ads by default. I now only block the ads that are in your face and intrusive which blocks the content and degrades my web experience. Please consider getting rid of itellitxt, kontera, tribalfusion and infolinks and I guarantee many people will be more inclined to whitelist Neowin. Suing Adblock is no way to fix this issue and will just alienate the users that love to visit the sites involved. Respect needs to be mutual between the site owner and the client browsing the content. Ask nicely on the front page for people that use the site to whitelist you and respect us enough to not block the content with the advertising. There are some that will refuse no matter what because they are anti-capitalist and that is a shame. Hopefully most people will listen and whitelist the site as long as you remember to keep the ads unobtrusive and respectful of the visitor.

(After I move and get settled in this fall into my new place, I will become a full subscriber because I love what you are doing here.)

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You ever see those annoying smiley face ads that react to your cursor? Whenever you unknowingly hover your cursor over the ad, you hear some annoying voice go "Helllllloooooooooooo!" or "Say something!" or even "Oh my gosh! No way!" At first, I'd ignore it but it really gets under your skin when you hear it for the 100th time. Wanna know what's worse? The ad itself is flash based.

Curious? Click here to see for yourself. Don't worry, it's a YouTube video. I'd embed it but I'd rather not put my fellow Neowinians through audio-visual torture. Don't sue the developers of the AdBlock extension. Sue the people that created the dreaded smiley face ad that currently plagues the Internet.

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I don't mind ads. But I block the kinds that I have no interest in or don't interest me at all. Besides when I go to a website I'm not going there to shop. Lately even Yahoo Mail has lots of ads that advertise about finding women. I'm happily married, been that way for years and don't need any ads offering me women. So I block them. Online college degrees is another that I block. There are too many here to list that are down right disgusting. I don't mind any ads I have found on Neowin and I am not saying that because I visit here a number of time daily.

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Why do i get the feeling that the "upto 70% less money" some webmasters 'claim' due to adblock is a vastly over inflated number similar to how the RIAA wants you to believe they lose an arm and a leg(and then some) from p2p?

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This story touches a nerve for me, while I'm not one of the 100 or so sites suing AdBlock. It does make me sick sometimes to read comments like "I paid for my Internet connection already" yeah you did. But we created a service here completely funded by the ads shown on the website. People who say they have every right to block the ads shown here make me wonder if I'm supposed to pay for Neowins existence from my own pocket (which I did for the first couple of years with Marcel, Ad free) but with popularity comes ever increasing resources.

They talk about bandwidth being cheap these days, but who buys the dedicates servers then, or the dedicated blocks of bandwidth or pays the staff to maintain it?

The people suing Adblock aren't the hobby guys with their virtual hosted servers for $10 a month and "unlimited bandwidth (yeah right)", they are people with costs of over $1200+ a month to keep their site online, just like Neowin.

I applaud the guys responding to this topic who understand what I mean, and have made the effort to whitelist Neowin, because we aren't displaying those obtrusive ads, but the people who consider everything to be free on the Internet really need to wake up to the facts, even displaying our ads still makes us a free site, its more laziness and lack of understanding IMO.

While I've had issues regarding the quality of Neowin of late, I agree 100% with Neobond on this issue.

There is a culture of pure ignorance and greed on the part of most web users these days. They seem to have absolutely no understanding of the way the Internet actually works, and in fact they don't actually care as long as they can get whatever they want for free. All you hear is lame excuses as to why people should be allowed to have everything and anything without contributing anything towards it.

Well the fact is that people use adblock to block ads on sites which don't have annoying advertising, and they're steadily putting a range of quality sites out of business. Ever stop to think how a website owner pays their bills? If you want quality content you have to do something to contribute, whether it's subscribing or viewing the ads on a site, or even sending a donation. Since most people don't do any of these things, really they have a lot to answer for.

I hope this lawsuit has an impact at least on the way people think and opens their eyes to the real world, where nothing is really free, everything has a price.

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You ever see those annoying smiley face ads that react to your cursor? Whenever you unknowingly hover your cursor over the ad, you hear some annoying voice go "Helllllloooooooooooo!" or "Say something!" or even "Oh my gosh! No way!" At first, I'd ignore it but it really gets under your skin when you hear it for the 100th time. Wanna know what's worse? The ad itself is flash based.

Curious? Click here to see for yourself. Don't worry, it's a YouTube video. I'd embed it but I'd rather not put my fellow Neowinians through audio-visual torture. Don't sue the developers of the AdBlock extension. Sue the people that created the dreaded smiley face ad that currently plagues the Internet.

Whilst reading this thread, I've come to realise that the ads that annoy me are the Flash ones that don't stay still. This is where NoScript is my friend. I've disabled ABP but left NoScript enabled as that blocks the aggravating stuff.

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In your case with Netflix, though, you are financially compensating the copyright holders to view their content without ads. The studios get money from your Netflix subscription. What about for web ads that you may block? What compensation do you give to the websites that you visit?

I don't think you can draw parallels between Neftlix and public websites. If you use Netflix without paying eventually they'll cut you off. There is no model where you can continue to receive content from Netflix without paying. You can, however, continue to visit public websites without viewing advertisements. What you're doing by displaying advertisements is the equivalent of asking for a donation, which is optional.

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