Slashdot Mirror
Gator Will Replace Ads On Sites
Bill Dimm writes "This CNet article says that a new version of Gator, a browser plug-in for managing passwords that also can display pop-up ads for competing products when you visit web sites, is being developed that will launch its own ads over top of the banner ads on the sites you visit. The software achieves wide distribution by bundling (much like TopText) with file-sharing utilities, with over 18 million installations of the current version claimed on their web site."
Baing a linux user I wont have to view ad's anymore? as I believe there is no verson of gator that exists for linux. (See there are advantages to not having an app ported to your platform yet!)
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I just recently installed WinMX and it tried to install Gator with it. I simply pressed the decline button and all seems well, but for other banner progs - a simple firewall will block any programs wanting to access the net.
Will someone come up with a program that removes ads altogether?
Now does this mean we'll get ads for Kuro5hin when we log on to Slashdot?
the ad for Micro$oft I saw when I logged into Slashdot...
If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
As long as the user knows what he's installing on his system, there's nothing illegal about it. If I downloaded a program that disabled banner adds when I visited a web site, would that be illegal?
As long a the user knows what's happening when he's intalling the software, the competitors have nothing to say.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
It's times like this I am glad I use a txt browser.
I never have to deal with any of the following:
pop-ups
pop-unders
banners
200k flash pages
java madness
half page ad boxes
And none of that distracting pr0n.
It has its down sides but over all its faster and more efficiant than putting up with all of those things.
Ascii artist &
...and it's call theft. If Slashdot is using banner ads as a revenue stream and Gator's ads pre-epmt these then the person paying for the original banner ad loses. That's theft or fraud or something far more concrete than what happened here.
one better than mcleodeight
Well, I will certainly root out any piece of this software on my disk. Use a netbrowsing utility that gives you control of what happens. Opensource webbrowsers, konqueror for instance, puts YOU in control. Same with Omniweb for mac. Vote with your feet for your freedom to decide.
Boycott products carrying spyware, adware etc. Or at least force suspect companies to be truthful about what features their software carries, their function, potential security risks and if they gather info about you, they should state what info and why they gather it etc.
Remember the Alexa settlement. Dont be sheep.
Geir K
a simple addition to my little proxy filter program and I won't see those ads either. heh.
thought it kinda strikes me funny: the staunch hatred for spam out there, yet there doesn't seem to be as much disgust for the banner ads that consume (x)k in download. and with gator you'll now be getting 2*(x)k in bandwidth wasted* in the ads you both do and don't see.
-'fester
* for wasted == "shit I could care less about and simply clutters up my browser viewing space."
-'fester
...when the latest unregisted version opera browser does the same thing. I clicked through an OSDN (or whatever it's called nowadays) ad for webhosting that appeared on k5 (hurricane?) and Opera spit out a "check out company x" ad. I remember when Opera was the alternative browser, now it id's itself as IE5x and spits ads at you.
AC's cheerfully ignored
The only way i see to make money is subscription based services. However, we've had years of the web giving us free things (news, p0rn, warez, linux, whatever) I dont think most people will take too well to paying for content
IMHO, the only effectave ad's would be those that took over a users computer for a period of time (like an ad on tv) But, I for one would not stand for that...When i use a computer, i do more than one thing at once, and i dont like ads telling me where to look....
Banners, I can stand...popups/popunders I'll get used...The only reason I dont block them is to send a message to the people who buy the ads "I'll look, but I wont click"
The opinions in this post are ficticious. Any similarity to actual opinions, real or imagined, is purely coincidental.
Web sited that make their money through banner advertising have got to be unhappy about this development. Which leads me to wonder: what are they going to do to ensure to their customers (read: advertisers) that their banner ads will not be gator-substituted?
Blocking web browsers that are Gator-enabled? Probably not the best idea, but if enough important sites band together, this could put Gator out of business.
Lawsuits against Gator? This might not be a bad idea, although I have no idea how it would go through.
Hacking Gator to get around banner-ad substitution?
Offering text-and-hyperlink-only ads, Google style?
What I'm really hoping to see is Gator offer a "subscription service" to web sites..."pay up or we'll substitute your ads." That would lead to a most interesting fight indeed. And to a lot of lawyers making a lot of money.
Finding God in a Dog
Well, sites are going to want to fight this kind of thing, but I don't know if they have any legal grounds to stop Gator. Nobody is obligated to view ads on the internet - there's nothing in the TOS of most sites that says you can block the ads.
Of course, this may change. I could see sites requiring you to run a small plug-in, or analyzing your traffic to make sure you actually downloaded their banner ads.. When you agree to the terms of service, you'd be agreeing to view all the ads, and only the ads, that the site indended for you to view.
Companies like Yahoo will probably make a stink about this software, but I don't think there's any law supporting them. Even if Gator released software that redirected you (say if you went to Amazon.com, bn.com would come up instead) I doubt it would be illegal.
Overall, what Gator's doing is irresponsible. There is plenty of crap advertising, but as little as it may pay, sites depend on it. With software like Gator out there, ad rates will only drop even lower.
Also, with IE and Mozilla/Netscape now offering password management, is Gator relevant anymore?
Someone needs to develop a browser plugin that will place itself on top of Gator, or simply kill Gator off. Gator will of course respond with updated versions that retailiate.
The instant messaging wars are much more exciting than the browser wars were, but the "Ad Wars" may be the action we were all waiting for.
Many users dont see what they are installing with the share ware they download, I have also herd it acts like spyware.
15 million uninstalled it twice, the other 3 million just reformated.
1) It's windows-only. Yawn. I won't even see the replacement ads.
2) I run Junkbuster with the transparent GIF patches. I don't see ANY ads.
Will people really care that the banner ads they normally see are replaced by other banner ads?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Ads that catch our attention, even if through somewhat annoying means, are one thing.
But everyday another marketing gimmick pops into creation that pushes the line a bit far, going from mearly attention-getting, and into outright annoying and alienating potential customers.
What's it going to take until these marketing people get the fact that annoying customers is not the way to make a successful company? Will it be the first marketeer killed by a slightly unhinged web surfer who gets pushed too far by these constant advertising attacks on our lives?
*sigh*
in case the site gets slashdotted.. the google cache link is here
The Slashdot Effect: A new for
If websurfers knowingly understand what Gator does and install it, than those complaining don't have a leg to stand on.
If I want to build a device that puts a Coke poster in front of my TV every time a Pepsi ad comes on, there ain't nothing Pepsi (or their ad company, or the channel that sold them the airtime) can do about it. Similar examples work for radio as well. The key is that the switch is done in my domain. This is not like putting a big ol' poster in front of a billboard on the interstate, because that isn't in the viewers domain of choice.
Gator is giving away this device. Sure, I don't get to decide if it will be a Coke poster or a 7-Up poster -- but I do get to decide if a poster will be displayed at all or not. I also have the ability to move the poster or get rid of that particular poster altogether if I so choose.
So, why should netspace be any different from meatspace?
This all hinges on if consumers understand exactly what Gator does and consent to it. The bundling presents an additional problem that I suspect they will lose, but thats for another post.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
We all hate ads, but remember, the ads you see help pay for the pages you see.
Gator, on the other hand is a complete and total leach. They are selling advertising on other peoples content without compensation.
If you want to take it to the next step, why don't they replace ads with some gratuitous porn. I'm sure people would pay for that, too.
Too big to fail? Does that make me to small to succeed?
This is the ultimate insult to legitimate businesses trying to make a honest buck on the internet. When people download Gator, do you think they're trying to download a password manager, or a banner ad replacement program? And why does Gator have to HIDE this program deep within it's TOS? And when the user un-installs its software why do they have to do it TWICE? Once for Gator and once for the adware program?
And as a legitimate website owner, how would you like to have to spend time, money, bandwidth, hardware, just so gator can STEAL all of your ad spaces? This is trespassing of the worst kind. You don't even know about it!
It's guys like Gator that give business and capitalism a bad name. What they're doing might be legally ok, but it's MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE.
eTrade SUCKS
This is one of the worst things I know, SpyWare - I simply hate freeware/shareware/ad-ware programs that use SpyWare - I recently installed KaZaa (p2p filesharing) - but 5 minutes after, not having run it, I uninstalled it, because it had installed Cydoor software on my computer (when I explicitly told it not to install it). I removed Cydoor - but then KaZaa wouldn't run.
Worried if you have SpyWare? Get ad-aware from LavaSoft - it's free and reliable.
Or you can just check your programs here - just enter the name of the software...
Or Steve Gibson's (grc.com) OptOut
Don't use SpyWare!
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
i know it can store passwords, does it do any real *good* as a product?
i saw on thier website that it:
*fills in forms with no typing (does moving to the mouse and figuring out gator make you more lazy, or more work for you?)
*remembers passwords automatically (i can do that myself... with a piece of paper... or a brain)
*lets you compare prices while you shop online (useful, prolly compares prices of their advertisers/partners... not everyone)
*protects and encrypts data on your computer (yeah, that is if your computer is secure... why just NOT do it in the first place?)
*gator comes with offercompanion-both products deliver special deals and information based on the websites you visit (now that must be the advertising part)
i don't see how this program jumps out at me as a must have. but then again, i consider myself of above average intelligence. sucks for the stupid people.
Runnin' On Empty
A company called Bannerama tried this. They offered software to replace banners not with other banner ads, but with pithy quotes & other content. Don't know what happened to them--bannerama.com isn't working.
The gist of the Forbes piece is that "companies won't give up their lost ad value without a fight." Of course CPMs were much higher when the article was written.
Still searching for my Inner Adult...
They are turning into advertising pirates, hijacking the ad properties of large commercial sites. They are pretty much begging for a legal ass-whooping. We can only assume that they think they're being clever, somehow circumventing intellectual property/copyright laws, by overlaying their ads while not truly modifying the original. I remember back in Junior High, there was this student gov't election where one candidate taped his posters up over another candidate's. His defense was that there was no available room. Result? He was pulled from the election. People have to realize that a web site is as much a private property as someone's front yard. Sure, everyone can go take a look at it (or not). But you sure as heck can't mess with it.
In my opinion, Gator is a virus. It is attached to the software installations for other products, and it usually installs itself on user's systems without their permission. When you try to remove it, it creates a copy of itself so it is not deleted.
It also interferes with the running of your computer. When I go to a website, I want to see that website, and view the ads that paid for that website. Gator changes that, and thus in effect is altering content without my permission. It uses up my computer's cycles and bandwidth to alter the contents of my computer's memory.
So is Gator only legal because it is a company, and has corporates paying them? Gator does appear to be a protection racket as well - pay us money, or we will take away your business (by showing competitor's ads on your page).
Christ, someone set the FBI onto this company. IMHO, of course.
Hmmm. This is one time I won't mind if there is not a Linux version of the plug in...
main(i){(10-putchar(((25208>>3*(i+=3))&7)+(i ?i-4?100:65:10)))?main(i-4):i;}
dude, i can't believe you n0000bs even use X, fuckin amateurs, i bet you use a browser too huh? real men just download the HTML source and look for themselves! fuckin pussys using lynx
Photos.
With Mozilla nearing 1.0 and Konqueror looking more awesome by the second, everyone should expect this type of 'ad warfare' to come to Linux/UNIX soon.
The truth is that I am *amazed* it has taken this long to happen. About 2.5 years ago I was working for a company that implemented this. It would have been a great ad revenue stream. Unfortunately the company was fucked and nothing ever happened.
The only way for companies to combat this is to deploy an 'electronic warfare' counter-attack against gator.
The sites would deploy a plugin which would detect gator modifications an remove them.
Of course this means that gator would detect it's detectors and remove them too.
The result would be an 'ad cold war' which would only leave users as victims.
This is similar to the toner wars from Diamond Age. If you don't abide by the rules expect to get into a fight...
Kevin
Intrusive and irritating banners (in particular, but not limited to, popups and pop-unders) are the main reason I've been using using Mozilla almost exclusively instead of IE lately. Yes, even on Windows (2000). It's just better. It takes a bit of memory, but since that's cheap nowadays, I could care less about that...
n ", "noAccess");
Adding this line to your prefs.js:
user_pref("capability.policy.default.Window.ope
will get rid of those popups forever! However, clicking a link that opens a new window still works (taget=_BLANK still works fine).
Most banners are fine and I sometimes click on them to show my apprecitation for certain websites. But when there are REALLY annoying ones, just hit right-mouse->Block Images From Server, and you'll never see a single image from that specific server again.
If I could do that in IE, I might start to use it again, since I don't really care about the differences otherwise. Both IE and Mozilla are great browsers, but IE just doesn't have all the functionality I want at this moment....
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
Wouldn't that mean you are running Micro$oft Windows at home, where you have a choice? It is the weekend after all...
Bow before my sig, for it is good.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
i've seen twm documented and talked about in books and shit before. not so with wm2. it's much more 1337.
I wish you were dead, you horrible old man.
I think I just pissed myself.
[slashdot.org]
If I take a copy of Time and republish it with my ads aren't I infringing on the copyright of time magazine? What Gator is doing is taking the copyrighted web page and altering it and republishing it with their software. Pop ups are fine, but this is copyright theft.
I hate DMCA as much as evryone else, but using a Bad Thing(tm) against another would be at least ironic, don't you think ?
What ? Me, worry ?
I'll be going off on a tangent here, but it's relavent in regards to advertising in general. Here's what I want to see as a consumer and I think the increased benefits for both the consumer and advertiser make it worth the while.
I'd like a way to fill out a universal advertisement interest topic list. It would consist of thing such as the following:
Ok, so that's my list . I'm sure we all would have our own, and they'd change from time to time. In addition to this sort of thing, I wouldn't mind having the sites I visit / shows I watch known. Of course, you'd better have a clue as to what that means. I may visit a site and see it's crap and close it, and if anything, that should count as a *negative* viewing, not a "hit". Same with TV. I'd love it if real 99% accurate ratings were known.
My point with this isn't that I want ads. However, at this point, they appear to be a necessary evil for both TV and websites. If I have to see them, I'd prefer seeing things that interest me. I wouldn't even mind having my interest/info shared with my mailing address (although, without my name), as that costs the advertiser money and I usually sort through it on my way driving so it's lost time anyway.
Fucking fuck fick-ity fuck fuck! Fucking ficker on the fucking fuck! FUCK! Fuck my fucking fucer, fuck. You stupid fuck.
yeah...get a better isp. :)
I want something that replaces everything on slashdot with something that isn't crap. Cripes, I have less crap coming out of my asshole after a night of cheap beer and Taco Bell.
It's amazing. MS propose Smart Tags and the rebellion against them is world-shattering enough for even the great Microsoft to back down. The major argument made against them is not so much that Microsoft will (at least initially) control the changes that you see. No, it is the fact that they are adjusting the page you see when you surf, and it is no longer what the original web site publisher wanted. This, apparently, is Sacrilege.
And yet, this lot come along with something else that lets you see alternatives when you browse a web page and suddenly it's OK. Rejoice, /.ers, for extra information as you surf is a Good Thing!
Don't you think that's, well, just a teensy bit hypocritical?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Easy. Like this.
Think about it. This is fair use. Yes, the Gator people are using it rather mischeviously. But you did (either knowingly or unknowingly) install Gator. It was in a click through, somewhere or other. But do we want it to be illegal to modify content once it has been downloaded. Gator does not go around an hack IIS/Apache to provide modifiyed pages. Rather, it modifies pages that the end user has already recieved. Much like Smart Tages. Much like Junk Buster.
Sure, get rid of these things, on your own system. But I want my right to use these things.
Everyone seems to posit this as some conflict 'over the internet'. That is simply not the case. Its a conflict over the software you have upon your computer. You download Netzero, you have to use their stupid banner thing. You download Gator?* All your ads are belong to them. You download JunkBuster? All your ads are belong to you. Simply enough, I think.
*I Realize that not everyone installs Gator knowingly. So it goes with ad-ware. Blame the companies who package their software with Gator. Don't decry software that modifies end-user content illegal/unethical.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
My homepage is a link to an ad blocking hosts file. There's no obligation for anyone to view ads on websites. I and a whole lot of others essentially turn them off by default and if you really want to support a site, remove the adserver address that site uses.
You know the old economic vote.
I won't get into how sites dependant on only ad revenue are doomed anyways. But look at fark.com, they cant get any ads so they just asked for money. Next thing you know theres more than a few grand to buy the new server they wanted. I'm not jumping on the "micropayment is the future" non-sense but when used correctly a donation or pay-for service blows banner ads away. Especially the pop under/top variety.
I heard something about microsoft disabling all plug-ins in IE 5.5 SP2, including QuickTime and you-name-it. However im not sure if it would apply to password manager plug-ins and such.
Anyhow its a great article.
The sick thing is, people trust this software in the first place. [or any]
I'm not going to let any application store my passwords - even if they are only passwords for slashdot.
It would be much safer to just use "LOVE" everywhere.
Get your Unix fortune now!
I find it odd that ads aren't processed on the server side.
It's not like the server can't pass on to the ad server the browser information.
It's seems like that would be harder for programs like gator to launch ad windows overtop of where the site's ads are or the ones that draw a transparent image. If this was done on the server side and the browser was dished up a static html page the browser wouldn't even know the ad servers IP address.
The content site request an ad from the ad server. The content site inserts the ad into the request html page and servers the page. The requesting browser wouldn't know what IP address the content site got the ad from nor should they really know the ad is indeed an ad.
And wouldn't this solve the problem(for the ad companies) for the programs that disallow ads to be shown by using proxys to block know urls of ad servers. Because they can't see any url's with in the html file to disallow.
But, I'm probably wrong.
Chad
chad
ERROR 404: sig not found
Because of stuff like this.
Pop-ups. Pop-unders. Spam. Redirections. One typo gets you 27 pop-up porn windows. Get rich quick. Dear friend. Hijacked ads. Hijacked sites. Web bugs. Sites that require special downloads before you can even view them.
To the average person, the web looks like a slime pit. They'll put up with it for a while, but it gets old, and they go elsewhere. And people in the tech industry really thought that everyone was going to go through all that just to buy dogfood that they'd have to wait 3 days to get?
The web has always treated it's customers like shit. Idiots. Fools who wouldn't mind getting insulted over and over again, who would just point and click their dollars away. And now the web has turned on it's advertisers, treating them like shit also. Does ANYBODY think that this is going to work in the long-term?
The commercial web is dead, killed by the greed and arrogance of our corporate culture and its basic hatred for its customers, who don't always do what the advertisers spend 3 billion dollars a year telling them to do.
Maybe out of the ruins of the tech revolution, we'll learn to respect our customers, that they, and not the shareholders, are really the kings. And maybe we'll learn to build a web that treats them like human beings, and not pre-programmed consumer units.
But I doubt it.
--
You guys, I don't hear any noise. Are you sure you're doing it right?
--My Life With The Thrill Kill cult
Windows users read on if you want to permanently kill banners. Instead of getting the banners when you surf the net, you will get a 'page not found', and you will not give the greedy webmaster any money from banner revenue!
How I get rid of them is by creating a Windows HOSTS file in the windows directory. That is just a file called HOSTS (no extension). There is a hosts.sam file that you can open in notepad, to get an idea of what to do but remember, this is just a sample file (*.sam, get it?).
Most of these banner sites run using a special server for their ads that serves the ads to the public, which is what this HOSTS file will be set up to ban. And you want to kill the image host and the link host so remember they are sometimes the same but sometimes different.
First get the DNS of the host you want to ban by reading the page source which can be done if you save the page (for all those lame javascript page source blockers) or by right clicking --> view source.
Then add the host to the HOSTS file in your windows directory and set the IP to be that of 127.0.0.1 (which is your localhost IP, thus causing banners to not work), like so:
# blah banner banning stuff goes here
# ie:
#
# 127.0.0.1 www.flowgo.com
# here are some samples from my HOSTS file
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 www.flowgo.com
127.0.0.1 207-87-18-203.wsmg.digex.net
127.0.0.1 Garden.ngadcenter.net
127.0.0.1 Ogilvy.ngadcenter.net
127.0.0.1 ResponseMedia-ad.flycast.com
127.0.0.1 Suissa-ad.flycast.com
127.0.0.1 UGO.eu-adcenter.net
127.0.0.1 VNU.eu-adcenter.net
127.0.0.1 a32.g.a.yimg.com
127.0.0.1 ad-adex3.flycast.com
127.0.0.1 ad.adsmart.net
127.0.0.1 ad.ca.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.de.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.fr.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.jp.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.linkexchange.com
127.0.0.1 ad.linksynergy.com
127.0.0.1 ad.nl.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.no.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.preferences.com
127.0.0.1 ad.sma.punto.net
127.0.0.1 ad.uk.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 ad.webprovider.com
127.0.0.1 ad08.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 adcontroller.unicast.com
127.0.0.1 adcreatives.imaginemedia.com
127.0.0.1 adex3.flycast.com
127.0.0.1 adforce.ads.imgis.com
127.0.0.1 adforce.imgis.com
127.0.0.1 adfu.blockstackers.com
127.0.0.1 adimage.blm.net
127.0.0.1 adimages.earthweb.com
127.0.0.1 adimg.egroups.com
127.0.0.1 admedia.xoom.com
127.0.0.1 adpick.switchboard.com
127.0.0.1 adremote.pathfinder.com
127.0.0.1 ads.admaximize.com
127.0.0.1 ads.bfast.com
127.0.0.1 ads.clickhouse.com
127.0.0.1 ads.enliven.com
127.0.0.1 ads.fairfax.com.au
127.0.0.1 ads.fool.com
127.0.0.1 ads.freshmeat.net
127.0.0.1 ads.hollywood.com
127.0.0.1 ads.i33.com
127.0.0.1 ads.infi.net
127.0.0.1 ads.jwtt3.com
127.0.0.1 ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 ads.lycos.com
127.0.0.1 ads.madison.com
127.0.0.1 ads.mediaodyssey.com
127.0.0.1 ads.msn.com
127.0.0.1 ads.ninemsn.com.au
127.0.0.1 ads.seattletimes.com
127.0.0.1 ads.smartclicks.com
127.0.0.1 ads.smartclicks.net
127.0.0.1 ads.sptimes.com
127.0.0.1 ads.tripod.com
127.0.0.1 ads.web.aol.com
127.0.0.1 ads.x10.com
127.0.0.1 ads.xtra.co.nz
127.0.0.1 ads.zdnet.com
127.0.0.1 ads01.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads02.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads03.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads04.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads05.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads06.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads08.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads09.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads1.activeagent.at
127.0.0.1 ads10.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads11.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads12.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads14.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads16.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads17.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads18.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads19.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads2.zdnet.com
127.0.0.1 ads20.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads21.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads22.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads23.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads24.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads25.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ads3.zdnet.com
127.0.0.1 ads.admonitor.net
127.0.0.1 ads3.zdnet.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.ugo.com
127.0.0.1 ads5.gamecity.net
127.0.0.1 adserv.iafrica.com
127.0.0.1 adserv.quality-channel.de
127.0.0.1 adserver.dbusiness.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.garden.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.janes.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.merc.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.monster.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.track-star.com
127.0.0.1 adserver1.ogilvy-interactive.de
127.0.0.1 adtegrity.spinbox.net
127.0.0.1 antfarm-ad.flycast.com
127.0.0.1 au.ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 banner.media-system.de
127.0.0.1 banner.orb.net
127.0.0.1 banner.relcom.ru
127.0.0.1 banners.easydns.com
127.0.0.1 banners.looksmart.com
127.0.0.1 banners.wunderground.com
127.0.0.1 barnesandnoble.bfast.com
127.0.0.1 beseenad.looksmart.com
127.0.0.1 bizad.nikkeibp.co.jp
127.0.0.1 bn.bfast.com
127.0.0.1 c3.xxxcounter.com
127.0.0.1 califia.imaginemedia.com
127.0.0.1 cds.mediaplex.com
127.0.0.1 click.avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 click.go2net.com
127.0.0.1 click.linksynergy.com
127.0.0.1 cookies.cmpnet.com
127.0.0.1 cornflakes.pathfinder.com
127.0.0.1 counter.hitbox.com
127.0.0.1 crux.songline.com
127.0.0.1 erie.smartage.com
127.0.0.1 etad.telegraph.co.uk
127.0.0.1 fp.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 gadgeteer.pdamart.com
127.0.0.1 gm.preferences.com
127.0.0.1 gp.dejanews.com
127.0.0.1 hg1.hitbox.com
127.0.0.1 image.click2net.com
127.0.0.1 image.eimg.com
127.0.0.1 images2.nytimes.com
127.0.0.1 jobkeys.ngadcenter.net
127.0.0.1 kansas.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 leader.linkexchange.com
127.0.0.1 liquidad.narrowcastmedia.com
127.0.0.1 ln.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 m.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 macaddictads.snv.futurenet.com
127.0.0.1 maximumpcads.imaginemedia.com
127.0.0.1 media.preferences.com
127.0.0.1 mercury.rmuk.co.uk
127.0.0.1 mojofarm.sjc.mediaplex.com
127.0.0.1 nbc.adbureau.net
127.0.0.1 newads.cmpnet.com
127.0.0.1 ng3.ads.warnerbros.com
127.0.0.1 ngads.smartage.com
127.0.0.1 nsads.hotwired.com
127.0.0.1 ntbanner.digitalriver.com
127.0.0.1 ph-ad05.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ph-ad07.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ph-ad16.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ph-ad17.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 ph-ad18.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 rd.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 realads.realmedia.com
127.0.0.1 redherring.ngadcenter.net
127.0.0.1 redirect.click2net.com
127.0.0.1 regio.adlink.de
127.0.0.1 retaildirect.realmedia.com
127.0.0.1 s2.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 sh4sure-images.adbureau.net
127.0.0.1 spin.spinbox.net
127.0.0.1 static.admaximize.com
127.0.0.1 stats.superstats.com
127.0.0.1 sview.avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 thinknyc.eu-adcenter.net
127.0.0.1 tracker.clicktrade.com
127.0.0.1 tsms-ad.tsms.com
127.0.0.1 v0.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 v1.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 van.ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 view.accendo.com
127.0.0.1 view.avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 w113.hitbox.com
127.0.0.1 w25.hitbox.com
127.0.0.1 web2.deja.com
127.0.0.1 webads.bizservers.com
127.0.0.1 www.PostMasterBannerNet.com
127.0.0.1 www.ad-up.com
127.0.0.1 www.admex.com
127.0.0.1 www.alladvantage.com
127.0.0.1 www.burstnet.com
127.0.0.1 www.commission-junction.com
127.0.0.1 www.eads.com
127.0.0.1 www.freestats.com
127.0.0.1 www.imaginemedia.com
127.0.0.1 www.netdirect.nl
127.0.0.1 www.oneandonlynetwork.com
127.0.0.1 www.targetshop.com
127.0.0.1 www.teknosurf2.com
127.0.0.1 www.teknosurf3.com
127.0.0.1 www.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 www.websitefinancing.com
127.0.0.1 www2.burstnet.com
127.0.0.1 www4.trix.net
127.0.0.1 www80.valueclick.com
127.0.0.1 z.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 z0.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 z1.extreme-dm.com
127.0.0.1 www.popuptraffic.com
127.0.0.1 www.popuptraffic.org
127.0.0.1 www.popuptraffic.net
127.0.0.1 www.qksrv.net
127.0.0.1 usads.futurenet.com
127.0.0.1 www.weatherbug.com
127.0.0.1 ww2.weatherbug.com
127.0.0.1 www.commission-junction.com
127.0.0.1 216.219.242.7
127.0.0.1 servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1 ads.fortunecity.com
127.0.0.1 www.avenuea.com
127.0.0.1 64.209.141.232
127.0.0.1 www.admonitor.net
127.0.0.1 ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 www.focalink.com
127.0.0.1 www.fastclick.net
127.0.0.1 gm.preferences.com
127.0.0.1 hg1.hitbox.com
127.0.0.1 www.linksynergy.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.ign.com
127.0.0.1 www.karasxxx.com
127.0.0.1 www.mcdonalds.com
127.0.0.1 adclick.gamespy.com
127.0.0.1 www.adultpop.de
127.0.0.1 www.xxxteenclub.de
127.0.0.1 www.hardcorepornos.org
127.0.0.1 www.xxxexchange.de
127.0.0.1 www.megatipp.de
127.0.0.1 dialercenter.com
127.0.0.1 www.erotic-ad.com
127.0.0.1 www.allsexmovies.tv
127.0.0.1 connect.247media.ads.link4ads.com
127.0.0.1 www.qualitywarez.com
127.0.0.1 www.easywarez.com
127.0.0.1 www.found404.com
127.0.0.1 www.sexybase.com
127.0.0.1 popup.found404.com
127.0.0.1 www.teenframe.com
127.0.0.1 www.edirectdownload.com
127.0.0.1 www.warezframe.net
127.0.0.1 courier.karelia.ru
127.0.0.1 www.yellowonline.com
127.0.0.1 www.warezheat.com
127.0.0.1 www.cumxxxdaily.com
127.0.0.1 www.warezfounder.com
127.0.0.1 www.penilesecrets.com
127.0.0.1 www1.cp1.campoints.net
127.0.0.1 www.clickxchange.com
127.0.0.1 www.gaming-shop.com
127.0.0.1 www.clickheretofind.com
127.0.0.1 www.actionsplash.com
127.0.0.1 www.geocities.com
127.0.0.1 www.excite.com
127.0.0.1 www.aol.com
127.0.0.1 www.cangetit.com
127.0.0.1 ads.popupsponsor.com
127.0.0.1 ads.mircx.com
127.0.0.1 www.freeonline.com
127.0.0.1 a97.g.akamaitech.net
127.0.0.1 www.getmusic.com
127.0.0.1 www.netbroadcaster.com
127.0.0.1 adcontent.gamespy.com
127.0.0.1 ads.gamespy.com
127.0.0.1 ads.xoasis.com
127.0.0.1 affiliate.aol.com
127.0.0.1 www4.cp1.campoints.net
127.0.0.1 www3.cp1.campoints.net
127.0.0.1 www2.cp1.campoints.net
127.0.0.1 www.cp1.campoints.net
127.0.0.1 www.charge.com
127.0.0.1 adfarm.mediaplex.com
127.0.0.1 www.erotik-portal.com
127.0.0.1 ads.tucows.com
127.0.0.1 banner.linkexchange.com
127.0.0.1 ad.linksynergy.com
127.0.0.1 banners.nextcard.com
127.0.0.1 adserver.arttoday.com
127.0.0.1 www.onResponse.com
127.0.0.1 www.gozing.com
127.0.0.1 www.dotmusic.com
**********
If it says "Troll" on this post,
I successfully annoyed a nerd herd!
I don't even look at the first 20 or so pixels of a web page because I know it's going to be an ad. Actually, the only ones I look at are on slashdot, and the only ones I click on are for ThinkGeek. Even though they've tricked me into thinking they have new stock.
In windows I use McAfee Virus Scan, which works wonders for blocking internet access to sites such as doubleclick.net .
Although, there are a few sites which use these new 'pop-under' adverts. There is a simple solution to those also. I send 1000 e-mails to x10, usually some spam that was sent to me from them. I know this isn't going to help get rid of those ads, but it makes me happy.
Other than that, either get something to block the ads (which will just take up more memory, cpu cycles, disk space...) or ignore them. I get up and go snack or something when TV commercials come on, it's in my generation's (x) blood. We've evolved.
Didn't the TV networks want to sue when VCRs (PVRs too) came out because people can 'skip' the commercials? Will this ever go away?
Get your Unix fortune now!
Let the lawsuits commence!
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
I can't believe he is dead! :((( This just ruined my weekend :(
Quoting the parent:
... I don't ever want to see...
... Feminin protection products... Birth control and/or pregnancy tests... vasectomy... Credit cards... I love my Linuxfund Penguin card... The Chase Toys 'R' Us card is great... Caravan... Toyota Tercel... The Legend of Beggar Vance... Constipation / Depends / Hemeroids / Atheletes foot... Bail bond... UPN... Voyager... M*A*S*H... I hate... MS, SBC... Home/garden stuff... pokemon...
It seems that the advertising world has got you in its deadly embrace, my friend. You can rattle off trademark after trademark, they're ingrained into your brain. You misspelled the generic terms but spelled the trademarks with high accuracy. You form your opinions around brands jsut as much as around generic types of products. Not that I'm any different, but it just goes to show how powerful advertising is, in our lives.
[
halol lolha heheh rotfl halolhehlolol hehehhehehrotfl
halol lolha heheh lolol halol lolha heheh
halol lolha rotfl rotfl halol lolha rotfl
halol lolha heheh rotfl halol lolha heheh
hahalolol lolhahahehheheh rotfllololhalol lolha
halol lolha heheh rotfl halol lolha
halol lolha heheh rotfl halol lolha
rotfl rotfl lolol heheh hahah rotfl
rotfl rotfl lolol hehehlolhahah rotfl
Being too poor to afford computers capable of running X effectively, I've gotten very used to using Lynx to browse. In fact, I use Lynx everyday, and the only time I need to use a GUI I'm at work anyway, where the worst "ads" are the ones that show up from time to time on Perl Sites.
I advocate that we all go back to our console-based roots and dump these fancy-schmancy pop-up windows and all that advertising B.S. that seems to attract every get-rick-quick marketing ho there is.
Thank you.
BTW, WTF is Invalid form key: ndEmB3GXk5 ! ?? Jeez. We need a new Banjo.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
I still run Junkbuster just because sometimes sites use the same server for both ads and nav glyphs... but despite the fact that there's no GUI yet for popup control, it's too easy in Galeon in tab mode to just go harvest the little buggers without ever having to see'em.. a click of the "x" box on the tab, and bye bye popup....
Boo Hiss!
Stop this! It's irritating! And false!
I fully believe that the people behind gator are wide open for a lawsuit from the web sites that depend on ad revenue to survive... you can't just "replace" another site's ads whenever you want, even an idiot can understand that.
Of course none of this affects me... I use Webwasher to filter out all the ads and annoying pop-up windows. It's not without it's faults but it's made my web browsing so much more enjoyable.
When you only could access www.startrek.com when you had a Micro$oft internet connection. :-)
:-)
It was back then, where Compuserve still was big.
But they seemed to change that after a while.
(both the part about Compuserve being big and the part about limited access to Startrek online)
I don't know where this comment came from, but I wish it would go back!
Firstly, this has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.
Secondly, Take your old world views somewhere else. There is no reason to insult the black community just because the stereotypical view of a few people blanket all that is wrong with people on one race. Anyone can be an asshole loser. Like you.
" I fully believe that the people behind gator are wide open for a lawsuit from the web sites that depend on ad revenue to survive... you can't just "replace" another site's ads whenever you want, even an idiot can understand that."
Actually, you can, from the client side. Most of these spyware/adware programs HAVE an EULA that gives the program permission to do it's thing. Most people never read EULA's.
So, legally, it's the USER, not the company behind this program that is "replacing" ad content with Gator's. Which, I suppose, they have just as much right to do as they do to use Mozilla and other tools to block ads in the first place.
What worries me is that the large media sites (owned by large media companies that depend on ad revenue) will go to Congress and get a "Digital Millenium Marketing Act" passed that makes it illegal to manufacture or use any "anti marketing circumvention" devices that allows you to bypass advertising...
I know that sounds crazy, but it's BEEN DONE before...
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Is it legal? Although Gator executives say the practice is a service for consumers and is fully disclosed when they install the software, legal experts say that because Gator is profiting from the sale of advertising that feeds off another Web site's advertising, it could be in a sticky legal situation.
I'll look properly into doing this in the next week or two when I get my hands on Visual Studio 6 (cheap student license deal, and as I'm a happy VB5 addict already *braces for linux zealot attack*, might as well take cheap upgrade and learn C) - if anyone wants to assist in this or wants me to let them know if I make a "finished item", email me. (hint - I don't use the old bbx.org.uk domain any more - follow the spamprotection!)
If advertisers paid users for their time directly. Users could then spend that money on content. This would result in more relevant ads and better content.
(Of course, if you weren't in a valuable demographic, you wouldn't be able to get free content like you can now.)
I would have to guess that this is quite legal.
As proof, CBS and other major networks have been doing this for some time on live network broadcasts?
Did anyone see the obviously fake sign around turn 4 of the Indy this year and last? What about the broadcasts from Times Square on New Years? Did you notice the suspicious CBS logo where some background advertising on billboards and stuff was? I've even seen it in use on network broadcasts of baseball games. Ads appearing, disappearing and changing on the base of the backstop behind the batter. Real enough looking that Joe Average probably doesn't even notice.
Slashdot even had a story on this technology somewhere, though I'm too lazy too look for it at the moment. Add a reply if you find it.
If this kind of real-time replacement of ads on TV is kosher, I can't imagine how the same would not be extended to websites.
Not that I -like- this or anything. I think it's downright scummy, but then again, so are most Marketing folks.
if( read(this) ) { you = programmer; }
BFD, jesus.
I'm not sure people will want adaptive systems replacing ads for them. How long until we see father and son researching something on the web together, and a pop-up ad appears based on the father's web usage..."Daddy, what is that woman doing?"
.... is to convince the makers of all of the popular anti virus software to mark this software as a virus, because that is perhaps the best way to describe it. See if they can wither out of that one.
I can't believe I ate the whole thing!
But it is the only one in my area to offer DSL.
i dont want any software on my computer that keeps track of what i do while on the net, and who's to say that this is ALL they monitor.
Some of these spyware programs (most in fact) are installed during the installation of shareware programs and most people dont even pay close enough attention during the install to notice it.
I'm sure most people who read here aren't so unaware of what goes on with ther boxes, but Joe Q. Public i'm sure would be surpised to find out how much spyware they have running, if they made a trip to www.lavasoftusa.com and downloaded ad-aware and scanned for this kinda crap
Recent customers include Dell, Enterprise Rental Cars, ESPN, Priceline.com, FTD.com, People magazine, Intuit, Sears, Foot Locker, H&R Block, Eddie Bauer and Earthlink. Just in case you want to know who's behind these shenanigans.
i dont think any program which is required to mess with the registry to remove spyware should be unknowingly installed to anyones box, no matter how good the motives. But i do wish more people knew of the ad-aware program which is great for killin spyware and used it on their own.
...to not see ads.
Really, I'd rather not have to pay to see any web site, so I take ads as a necessary evil... kinda like I watch 40 minute buffy episodes with 20 minutes of commercials, thus paying for the show.
Ads on the 'net do have to mature... and stop being so stupid (pop up/under/anything for example) -- I close those windows before they even have a chance to load their content...
BlackNova Traders
HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 02:02:58 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.20 (Unix) mod_gzip/1.3.19.1a mod_perl/1.25 X-Powered-By: Slash 2.001000 Connection: close Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
OK
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, pater@slashdot.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
Uh ... who promised that? The only thing I knew of the internet to promise was easier access to more information, not some ability for assholes to get in my face. This is the kind of stuff that makes me so glad I use Linux (same would go if I used BSD).
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
What happened to all the comments?
all the articles are missing .... Sweet, Nice Upgrade Guys !!!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm sure they will be. Then again, since banner advertising doesn't work, it's not much of a loss...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
In the US, the public has leverage over software producers because we grant legal protection for ideas. Even for the ideas of those who try to steal from us using trojan software and traps (like secret APIs, file formats, and network protocols). That's crazy.
We can change the rules to reward only those who treat us fairly. Like this:
No software is eligible for trademark, copyright, or patent protection unless the software producer documents the location and format of all information that the software reads and/or writes.
Documentation may be in the form of unobfuscated source code. If documentation is provided in any other form, it must be designed to be understood by any intended user of the software, and it must be made freely available without purchase, transfer, or use of the software itself.
------DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE------
I had a program install gator "for me".
Thats what "add/remove" programs in the contro panel is for.
Well, they can change ads on your machine if they want to. Does that mean you'll click them anymore than you currently do? Yeah, right. I click banner ads on sites I love (read /.) because that's good for business. I sure as hell don't click them on annoying sites. Advertisers need to learn about users, not just bombard them. If we don't know where ads come from, we can't trust anything.
While I'm not all-out against this philosophically, I *do* have certain reservations, namely privacy concerns (duh).
With banner ads, I at least know the code doesn't have local access to my box. With client software such as Gator (and the look-alikes that will undoubtedly appear soon), local access is inherent by design.
Now, people like us (the average
Thoughts?
August 18th, 2284 - Just when we thought it was over, the notorius GatorX has striked again. The FBII (Federal Bureau of Internet Information) has received top secret info on the next GatorX version, 328.38 which will supposibly tap into your brain and read you mind to see what products you want. GatorX will follow you around in your brain, and secretly transmit the data telepathically to their headquarters. With Microsoft-Alpha teamed up with Gator on their new version, Windows Omega-Inferno X372 for the Nanocomputer, which will be forced on every computer system by 2285, this is very heartbreaking. "We are brainstorming ways to defeat GatorX 328.38, but everytime I think about, an image of that new Ford-AOL Corvette flashes in my mind, I wonder why? I think I'll stop by a dealership after work." said Peter Norton the 78th, president of Nortan-Pulsar Anitvirus. When we contacted Microsoft-Alpha and GatorX they just told us this: "ALL YOUR BRAIN ARE BELONG TO US" reserchers are currently trying to comprehend what the *&#% this means, stay tuned into CNN-Nebula for upcoming news breaks!
Well, the main thing is that it is completely user configurable. The Gator ad pops up after a delay so that you can notice that there is an ad under it. You can move the Gator pop-up out of the way or configure it to pop up someplace else.
It isn't like it just copies over the content without any indication, there is a tab on one side that allows you to change the default settings.
If I am going to see advertizing anyway, I would rather have something pop up in a part of the webpage that I ignore out of habit rather than over top of the stuff I am reading.
I do not see why people are so opposed to ads, now that the dot-com bubble popped and people realized they actually needed money to pay their employees web based advertising has taken to a new level, which is necessary. I don't not go to sites based on their advertisements I goto sites based on their editorial skills. I also don't go running for the remote when commerials come (I actually only watch a few shows with commericals these days anyway, most of my programming is on HBO). Which brings me to my next point, I personally am not opposed to subscription based sites depending on what type of site it is. I wouldn't mind paying for The Onion, I feel the site is usually pretty funny and worth the money (assuming they don't charge too much of course). The content is usually also better, as it should be, if you are paying for something then you should be getting a better product then when it was free (common sense). But for community sites (like /.) I wouldn't pay. The reason I come here is 1 part the front page stories and 3 parts the comments, which have a wealth more infomation then the parent stories to which they are responding. Even if /. was able to get a very generous 25% of its current memembership that would still be 75% less comments then before, thus a subscription wouldn't work. Just my 2 cents
Most people never read EULA's
That means that most people never agreed to those EULAs, and that most people are not bound by the terms in the EULA, and that any wording in the EULA is completely irrelevant.
Go for it in small claims court. They'll have to send somebody, and just hearing them explain it to the judge would be worth it.
After running WebWasher for a few months, I've almost forgotten that the Internet has ads.
It's been mentioned on a few other posts this go-around, but needs mentioning again. Having just run across this myself, I'm amazed this information hasn't spread further. The single easiest way to block most ads isn't with some program or extension mucking around with your system, it's just by redirecting the most common ad-servers by using your hosts file.
This page shows you how to do it for Linux/BSD/Solaris/Unix, BeOS, Windows NT, and Win '95-'98. Extremely simple, it has succeeded in blocking most banners and pop-up ads from my web browsing. The only thing this doesn' t work for is for sites that serve their own ads. I imagine this'll kill Gator as well (whew...just under the wire there in making this post relevant!)
I have some idea of what Gator is for, and what (little) benefit it offers to the user but I don't really understand -why- it's being covertly bundled with so many other programs? I can only assume that software authors are getting some kind of kickbacks for packaging Gator with their programs.
Which brings it down to two separate issues; One of the issues deals with the software itself, it's ad manipulation & pop-upping. The other issues deals with the untrustworthy software that installs Gator for you. The second issue can't entirely be blamed on Gator, even though they've provided the incentives, they're not directly responsible.
But, until deceptive software like this starts getting the kind of mainstream media attention that other virii get, I don't see anything changing much. I hate to say it, but, perhaps somebody should come up with a simple, detailed "Evils of Gator, and how to remove the scourge" type message and spam it to a few million ppl, start a chain-letter, or whatnot.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
Can't I sue these fscker's asses for messing
with my copyrighted web content? My graphical
designers sometimes recommend guidlines for
me to pass on to advertisors for what will/won't
look good on the site. If gator messes with that
don't I have some say in the matter? It's my
freaking page, after all.
Davo -- Free speech, free software, AND free beer.
I'd say there is 18 million installations where I work alone! I do workstation support (most of the time) at a "nameless" printer manufaturer in a city called LEXington. I also work with a guy named MARK. Well, with that out of the way ;)
I see this anoying thing every day, and every time I have to do something on these poor peoples computers it's there to annoy the hell out of me. Like a frigging purple monkey I see as well, or maybe an anoying paperclip, or a boot screen with a Windows(tm) logo, or a..........</rant>
The difference is that it'll be way easier to remove on linux...
Just my $.02
One shall speak only if what one has to say is more beautiful than silence
I formulate my opinions without any outside influence, while I am enjoying a cool, refreshing Coca-Cola.
It's the pause that refreshes!
So now you ignore ads from some other company.
...for bringing this to my attention. I had noticed "whagent" in the tasklist and assumed it had to do with WinAmp Agent (in spite of the H). I went straight to Add/Remove and, before reading *that* specific portion of your post, uninstalled. *THEN* I read that part, and immediately went to Ad-Aware, ran it, rebooted, and everything's working fine 'n' dandy.
Thanks again.
After I have received the wisdom of good teaching, I will untiringly teach all people. - The Teachings of Buddha
Then the counter measure will be to block them from view on-screen. And that might be overrun by encryption to the display device.
/jeorgen
euliberals
This happened to me *twice*. Both times, suddenly I couldn't connect to the 'net at all -- whether it was via modem, local network, whatever. For *months* each time I worked at fixing it, surviving on my Mandrake partition. Both times, the only solution I found was just to reinstall Win2k. And now it all makes sense... Oh, how I hate spyware.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
..Gator programmers and company officers if they enter the UK in a similar manner to Skylarov ?
Surely Gator breaches the UK Computer Misuse Act and/or the Data Protection Act in some way.
Actually that would be quite a good laugh, we could show the US the stupidity of the DMCA as well as bollux a rather insiduous program, which to me seems little different from a form of virus.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
What, are you trying to start a new Urban Legend? The user is asked. I know, I refuse every time I see it. Adware sucks but at least be honest.
I normally don't use ad blockers because I don't find banner ads intrusive and most sites do use them as their income - but Gator has this charming feature in that half of the programs it comes with that it offers 'optional' installation, it will install itself even when you say now.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ - adaware always helps get rid of these pests
After all, a company is entitled to its profits,
and anything that stands in the way of that
is theft!
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Ad-aware just detected Gator after I installed AO, and I haven't installed anything else since my last spyware check.
Just kidding.
The solution is for you to put a bullet in your head. People run what they want to run, get over it.
I didn't even know I had this until I went to go check. Thanks for the tip.
DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
What if one put a click-through license on one's
website: "Each page of this site is to be viewed
in its entirely, without filtering." If a website
user can opt in to a device that filters
and modifies content of the
site, then a website owner should be able to opt
out of that. Symmetry. It takes two to tango.
Curtains for windows?
why not complain to microsoft, as a customer, and see if you can't get the beast to go after them for causing problems with their product. =] wouldn't it be funny to see one huge company take out another one we don't like. kind of like in doom when the imps kill each other.....
- I can deface your site all day long, as long as it's for my own personal use.
- It's unethical to block ads. Don't like them? Don't visit sites that use them. Else, you are stealing.
Blocking ads is exactly the same as inserting ads, from a conceptual viewpoint. I, too, can change anything, so long as I don't redistribute it.My VCR automatically marks commercials when I record off-air programs, and skips them on playback. Am I stealing? I throw away snail-mail advertisements unopened, too.
If you want SmartTags, use a browser that ignores the metatag and inserts them anyway. But don't attempt to coerce me into changing the content of my site.
To paraphrase: What I do within my own web server is absolutely, positively none of your business.
Mail? Put "slashdot" in the subject to pass the spam filters.
I don't want any of the ads, so I use Bugnosis to detect the web bugs and the free WebWasher proxy with IE to scrub out the cruft, which is somehow available for free on Linux, though I'm told that Squid and Junkbusters can do the same. AdSubtract is another alternative that comes packages with the ZoneAlarm firewall these days, but I found it to not be as flexible as WebWasher. Unfortunately there are a few sites that do not work with WebWasher, most notably EBay and no matter how I tell it not to touch EBay's cookies and content, it still blocks something that keeps that site from working.
What is needed is some sort of plugin that works directly with the browser, sets all pages and cookies to be filtered out by default, and which lets you just right click on a page to tell it this site is OK to not filter and remember to let these cookies through. All browsers have the cookie feature, but management is usually a pain with what they provide and often left up to third party tools like all of the above. Sounds like Mozilla has some of this built it, so I'll give it a try...it may be time to make a switch. IE6 is supposed to have some of this cookie control, though I'm not sure if it's to that level of convenience.
I haven't seen an ad or a web bug on pages since I've made that change. I look forward to being popup/under and ad free in the future.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Gator is crap >__
Gator is crap.
I remember installing some programs and then all of a sudden I see popup ads coming up when I wasn't even on any site!
I then see that Gator is quietly hidden inside my system without any detection at all except for the fact that ads are coming up.
Go to Add-Remove Programs and you will see Gator and some other program there... uninstalling them both will get rid of it of your system but how will everyone know what to do!?
I didn't want Gator installed but I guess you have to read through all that fine print to find out about it.
Who does that!?
I say get rid of gator... damn crappy program.
The defense to this isn't "fair use". Section 107 of the Copyright Act gives four factors that must be considered when determining whether a use is fair:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Looking at these factors, Gator's replacement of banner ads is obviously unfair use, as it "steals" advertising dollars from an otherwise unchanged work.
However, it may not be copyright infringement; the argument used is that the work is not being published, performed, or publicly displayed. This depends on who makes the modifications: if the company behind Gator is creating the works, then they're publishing to their users and violating copyright. If the user of the software is creating the works, then it's no more illegal than Junkbuster.
The way to determine this, I think, is to look at who has control of the modifications made. In the case of Junkbuster, the user can determine what ads are stripped. The impression I get about Gator is that it doesn't inform the user, much less give her any sort of authorial control--and therefore it infringes the copyrights of the web pages it modifies.
People throw around the term "fair use" all the time here, with no idea what it actually means. Gator does not have an affirmative "fair use" defense; the use is arguably (depending on who is creating the derivative works, Gator or the user) not a proscribed use at all.
When I'm browsing news sites, maybe it can replace all instances of "Bill Gates" with "Fred Flinstone" or something. I wouldn't notice. This is a frightening thing when you combine the fact that Gator installs without permission or acknowledgement to the user, and then changes the content you are viewing.
I don't like pop-up ads either, but content is content, and I view it because I want to. I don't want the content being changed before I get to view it, either in mid-stream or at my client. If I wish to turn off ads, there are about 20 ways listed right nearby this post.
What scares me most is that this world is full of evil people like those who write and distribute Gator, and think that what they are doing is even remotely ethical or tolerable in a civil society.
Ok, you load a page, see an XYZ-ad, and XYZ paid for the content. And guess who pays XYZ for the advertising? Their customers, one of which might very well be you! Let's say on the average enough readers of aforementioned page prefer the advertised products over competing products, so the costs for advertising is paid by the slightly higher price (if not, why advertise at all?). So at the end of the day the readers of the page not only pay for the content, but also the advertising company by paying more for the products. And all that for obnoxious ads?
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
Gator is a very annoying product. It will be these ad pushing software that will drive people away from the internet, much like television commercials have pushed people away from TV. People do not want company's pushing products down their throats 24 hrs a day.
I don't think this stuff can survive in open source software. If it comes in an open source package, guess how fast a fork would exist without this "feature"? And if the software it comes with isn't open source, then people would just go for OS-alternative, or even program one themselves.
Another thing is, that the typical Linux/UNIX user is less inclined to have the control over his box wrested away by the OS or some stupid application as most windows users who are used to giving up control over their computer when installing the OS.
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
Actually, its more like you picking up your subscription glasses from the optrician, in which they've installed this "feature" without bothering to tell you. And, once having figured out something is wrong, returning them to be fixed, and getting the same glasses back.
He's not dead!
I tried that program for a day, it was a peice of shit. Use an encrypted text file with your passwords if you can't remember them. Fuck gator!
it's a sig, wtf?
In the article a rep from Gator said users INVITED them to install this adware crap??!!! How dare these people spin the truth like this?
How do you like it when you invite a someone over for dinner and he brings along a 600 pound sumo wrestler?
eTrade SUCKS
Hm, that would be something. Last time I looked, my /etc/mailcap looked like this:
/etc/mailcap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9415 Jul 12 2000
If RealPlayer can somehow override that, hats off to the hackers who wrote it. Otherwise, every Linux user should know better than running untrusted binaries as root.
There need to be laws wrt. what's being installed on your system. For instance, the "default install" should have to say something along the lines of "Click this to install our product plus several pieces of annoying shit that will make your computing experience much less enjoyable and suck up so much extra bandwidth that your already pathetically slow dial-up connection will become unbearable."
Actually, I'd like to see laws demanding that truth be told in a lot more situations. Like, my boss the other day feeding me this line of crap about how the economy sucks and so there won't be raises or bonusses this year. How about "We don't have to worry about our programmers defecting to another company anymore so fuck you!" Or those adverts on TV, "For only 4 easy payments of $49.99, you can get this bizarrely shaped metal whatzit that you will use once and never touch again."
But I digress...
Anyway, it should be absolutely required of software like this that it at the very least modify the HTML headers so that site operators know it's running. That way we can pop up a page saying "Sorry, your browser is running extensions that we don't like. Disable them or PISS OFF!"
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Actually I know some people that work at a similiarly named ISP.. unfortunately they get alot of Luser mail destine for 'Gator'.. so sad..
On a side note, I wonder if the Gator people paided IP rights to the University of Florida for likenesses (Orange and Blue with an Alligator)... the Gator page used to have a more predominate alligator there.. ah well..
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
...some unknown, evil little entity (me^H^HJane Morgandorfer) created a program specifically to hijack Gator's over-ads to display over-over-ads? How long do you suppose until Jane gets a nasty letter from Gator lawyers and have to hire Crocodile Dundee to protect herself?
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
Tickware perhaps? It's a bloodsucker, digs in and is hard to remove.
...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
I sent you an e-mail
Onepoint
if you see me, smile and say hello.
we could show the US the stupidity of the DMCA
;)
We already know it's stupid.