The Morality of Web Advertisement Blocking 974
An anonymous reader writes "There has been some recent coverage of the over-hyped boycott of Firefox, in response to the rising popularity of the Adblock Plus Firefox extension. A recent editorial on CNET looks into the issue, and explores the moral and legal issues involved in client-side web advertisement blocking. Whereas TiVo users freeload on the relatively fixed broadcasting costs paid by TV networks, users of web ad-blocking technology are actively denying website owners revenue that would otherwise go to pay for the bandwidth costs of serving up those web pages. If the website designer has to pay for bits each time you view their website without viewing their banner ads, are you engaged in theft? Is this right? "
Ads? (Score:5, Funny)
Who will be the first... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh boo hoo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A non-issue ... (Score:5, Funny)
Still not necessarily wrong given how parasitic a lot of ads are now, hogging resources and making annoying sounds. But lets focus on the actual argument raised in TFA.
I hope that clears things up.
Re:No (Score:3, Funny)
Re:a better mantra (Score:5, Funny)
Re:a better mantra (Score:5, Funny)
Forget the t-shirts, it should be stamped on every MBA diploma and integrated into every word processor. Finally Clippy has found his purpose!
"It looks you are making a business plan. You do realize no one is obligated to behave in the manner required to make your business profitable, right?"
Re:Exactly. (Score:5, Funny)
Next up on Slashdot, if she won't blow you after you buy her a drink, is she guilty of "theft of resources"?
No, that is "denial of service".
And if it happens with every woman in the bar, it's "distributed denial of service".
Simple Solution (Score:2, Funny)
Just render everything (content + adds) as a single JPEG image or a flash video and stop whinnying for Christ's sake!
Re:Oh boo hoo (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Costs me money too (Score:2, Funny)