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Prince of Pop-ups

Ric writes "From the article lead paragraph: 'If you hate pop-up ads, you might blame Brian Shuster. A long-time figure in the Internet pornography world, Shuster recently received a patent for the ad format and is now looking to make some money off the sites that use it. And that's just the beginning - Shuster has a long list of pending patents, including one for pop-up audio ads that cannot be turned off.'"

39 of 539 comments (clear)

  1. Hooray! by koreth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's hoping lots of sites don't want to pay the license fee and stop using popups.

    1. Re:Hooray! by Slime-dogg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No kidding. This is one patent holding that I will only object to from the sidelines, and not try to disprove. :-)

      --
      You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
    2. Re:Hooray! by bhsurfer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm not sure that giving this type of scumbag millions of dollars to play with would prevent any future annoying web "functionality". Hell, it might be providing him R&D money to do develop ways to REALLY piss people off...

      --
      Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
      Groucho Marx
    3. Re:Hooray! by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Because pop-ups will not go away. What he is claiming is that he invented and patented the pop-up, now that many people use it he wants to get paid. But the likelihood that he will get paid is yet to be seen - the likelihood that the pop-ups will go away very very doubtful.

      However, more telling about where blame for frustrations will lie - is in the quote regarding the popups with sound that you cannot turn off. This is VERY upsetting.

      I OWN MY COMPUTER - its fully 100% a resource of MINE and nobody else. I also PAY for my internet access, by the month.

      If he wants to force feed me ads - then he better damn well PAY me. And protect himself while walking around in public.

      Seriously - this is a major concern of mine and I am sure, many others.

      Advertising is getting totally out of hand and something needs to be done. I can understand certain forms of advertising, like on free TV stations - where I am getting the service (TV for free) and in return I am agreeing to being subjected to ads.

      However in any service where I actually pay for it - I should be asked, paid or otherwise consulted before being subjected to advertising.

      In fact I am in the process of starting an ISP where advertising of ANY kind is absolutely forbidden and technically (as much as possible) prevented. No details on how I am doing this, sorry... but one thing is that for a nominally higher rate you can have an ISP that will not tolerate any sort of advertising to its clients.

      Advertising is polluting the world we live in and even our minds with unproductive thoughts - and actually detracts from our quality of life. I hope to change this.

      On a related note - would you sign up on this ISP?

    4. Re:Hooray! by matrix29 · · Score: 4, Funny

      He could charge something like $.01 for everytime you use it and still make a killing.

      Personally I would prefer a Mafia-Hitman public donation killing machine.

      The idea is, everytime a public personality pisses you off you donate a buck to 5 bucks to kill them. The restrictions would be a limit of a maximum of 5 dollars per person per day. When the maximum bounty price is reached then whomever wants to claim the prize (with absolute proof of the resulting kill) goes out an kills that public personality. The money & day limit are to prevent the extremely wealthy from rigging a premature execution (as the extremely wealthy folks do not need charity murder events to reach their goals). This fund also would be limited only to those folks that are well known enough to be defined a "public personality".

      So if Windows XP crashes, then drop a buck in the "Off Bill Gates Bounty". If Tom Delay makes an ass of himself then $5 to the "Bye Bye Tom Delay Bounty". If someone actually wants Bill Gates or Tom Delay to survive another day then they can donate to the "Save Bill Gates" fund (with the money limit of a maximum of $5 per day per person) and the money they donate will be used to randomly refund a donation from the "Kill Bill Gates" donation list.

      Now the real Devil is in who is going to honestly and accurately administrate these funds and how will the public guarantee that the bounty will be paid in its entirety to the bounty hunter that does the job.

      Its strength is in its "Power to the People" mindset (keeping loudmouths from staying obnoxious asses for the rest of their lives or at least shortening that period to a tolerable length). Its strength is in the "Behave Nice or Die" mindset. Its strength is that it can afford-ably deal with individuals that have gone beyond the confines of sane human behavior.

      Its weaknesses lie in "The referendum of the pissed off". Its weaknesses lie in "Who can be trusted to set fair bounties and not rob the bank of the cash reward" (though another bounty on the crook that robs the first bounty would even things out I think). Its weakness is that every absolute power over life and death without a surefire method to prevent abuse will fail horribly in a very short time. Its weakness is that the wealthy and powerful will behave well at first then push lackeys into notoriety so they will be the fall guys to die for their criminal schemes (as is oddly already the case right now).

      Of course, this wild idea is immoral on its face, a complete violation of everything America stands for, and fairly insane. It does seem to be a much more civilized method than having America re-enact the French Underclass slaughtering the monarchs and French Upper-class in the wee days of the civil revolts of the French Revolution. God knows there is nothing keeping the top wealthiest 1% of America from abusing the much less wealthy 99% and the eventual obvious slaughter that will occur if the richest 1% do not remove their collective heads from their collective asses and stop the money siphon and overseas tax-free money sinkholes that they are using now.

      --
      "Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
  2. Excellent!! by Binestar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If this guy can start charging people for using popups then these webpages won't pay and popups will start dying off. While a patent like this is mostly a bad thing, the side effects are good!

    Of course I use mozilla with popup filtering enabled, so it's not really that much of an issue to me. =)

    --
    Do you Gentoo!?
    1. Re:Excellent!! by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

      A lot of sites (like the once really cool but now really pathetic Vintage Gaming Network) now block downloads or forum access or other features if you block popups.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    2. Re:Excellent!! by Binestar · · Score: 4, Informative

      Thats fine, so you allow popups for the 10 seconds it takes to start the download. In opera it's as easy as pressing F12, in other browsers like mozilla you can set it to allow popups for specific sites.

      Although a pain in the ass, you can make it so you don't lose any fuctionality of sites that require popups.

      --
      Do you Gentoo!?
  3. Use Mozilla ....... by Jeehoba · · Score: 4, Informative

    God Bless Mozilla .. no more pop-ups. Hopefully it will still block those audio pop-ups "that can't be turned off."

    1. Re:Use Mozilla ....... by Sylver+Dragon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Best solution I have found is to locate the advertising servers of the companies doing this crap, and blackhole them via your hosts file. I used to see this stuff all the time when reading the news on Yahoo!, but I have since managed to find most of their ad servers and redirect them to 127.0.0.1. Personally I keep a pretty long hosts file. If I find an ad/tracking server I simply add it to my hosts file. And ya, I run Mozilla as well.

      --
      Necessity is the mother of invention.
      Laziness is the father.
    2. Re:Use Mozilla ....... by iamkrinkle · · Score: 5, Funny

      audio pop-ups that can't be turned off? HA! I can't even get alsa/esd configured to have more than one sound source playing at the same time (and i always have music on). suckers...

  4. There's a simpler way... by ChuckleBug · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why doesn't he just cut through all the crap and patent the very idea of being a complete and utter asshole? Then he could demand royalties from all other assholes when they display their assholitudinism. Then, if they get pissed off and come after him, he can claim that in itself was assholish and sue for *that*.

    It's the perfect plan. What could go wrong?

    1. Re:There's a simpler way... by Eccles · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why doesn't he just cut through all the crap and patent the very idea of being a complete and utter asshole?

      Way too much prior art...

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
    2. Re:There's a simpler way... by Binestar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why doesn't he just cut through all the crap and patent the very idea of being a complete and utter asshole?

      Way too much prior art...


      Since when has this stopped the USPO from issuing patents?

      --
      Do you Gentoo!?
    3. Re:There's a simpler way... by frankie · · Score: 4, Funny
      Since when has this stopped the USPO from issuing patents?

      The USPTO is definitely a $2 whore, but they do demand some small amount of originality in patent applications. For example, this would be acceptable:

      PATENT: Being a complete and utter asshole on the Internet
      Add those three magic words, and the patent office will grant your wildest wishes.
  5. Anyone have this guy's address? by ManoMarks · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To inundate him with junk mail, of course, and also to hit him up for money. Or just hit him. No, wait, I'm a Quaker. I keep forgetting that...

    --

    That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere

  6. Good by dmarx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe this means that websites will stop using pop-ups.
    Oh, and I think I devised a way to turn off the pop-up audio:
    1. Press the power button on your computer's speakers.
    2. When you're done with the site, press the power button again.
    Gee, maybe I should patent this.

    --
    "Do I dare disturb the universe?"
  7. poetic revenge by Acts+of+Attrition · · Score: 5, Funny

    he's in internet porn eh? Maybe someone can fix it so he can't "pop-up" anymore

  8. Good! by earthforce_1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hopefully he charges astronomical licence fees for both "innovations" retroactive to the day he filed. Hopefully that will be the nail in the coffin that drives these scourges off the desktop.

    Heck, I wish somebody had patented spam as well!

    --
    My rights don't need management.
  9. How Ironic by UCRowerG · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wonderful! An anti-popup web article that uses popup advertising!

  10. I think he'll find... by radish · · Score: 4, Insightful


    including one for pop-up audio ads that cannot be turned off

    I think he'll find that everything can be turned off.

    --

    ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  11. I'm conflicted!!! by I'm+a+racist. · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do I like this man or hate him?

    Pro: He promotes porn on the Internet.
    Pro: He will sue a few people into not using pop-ups, at least for a little while.
    Con: He "created" annoying pop-up ads.

    The situation would be similar if Hillary Rosen, remaining the bitch that she is, was really hot and liked to give me blowjobs...

    Okay, well, the blowjobs would easily win out. But you get the idea.

    --


    Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
    1. Re:I'm conflicted!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don't be. It's not his fault. He didn't "create" anything. GeoCities deployed the first pop-up ad in mid 1997. I know this because I did, and I'm currently looking at the source code I wrote to do it (scheduling, etc.). Keep in mind this was during a time when internet companies couldn't figure out how to make a profit... oh wait, never mind that last point. I'll still be happy to see 'em go.

  12. Hmm by ShooterNeo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a rhetorical question : how can one possibly patent a 'feature' built into web-browsers? Popups are only possible because some idiot decided that opening another window without the users consent (and even doing this recursively!) was "friendly" behavoir and belonged in the javascript spec. The same applies to sound. This is another consequence of our failing legal system (lets be honest : its on life support at best. Its BROKEN. While the basic tenants of judges, juries, and appeals might be good, the implementation is falling apart). If the legal system worked without application of large sums of money (and I would not call giving the victory to the one with the money 'justice') this patent would have no meaning.

  13. I have to p by L.+VeGas · · Score: 5, Funny

    So in other words...

    Patents pending for porno pop-up prince?

    1. Re:I have to p by gosand · · Score: 4, Funny
      Patents pending for porno pop-up prince?

      Precisely.

      Postscript: pounding penis to pornography, provided by pop-up prince, prevalent among programmers posting postulations on slashdot.

      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  14. Swift, merciless, brutal death is required by mao+che+minh · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Shuster has a long list of pending patents, including one for pop-up audio ads that cannot be turned off."

    He must be murdered immediately. The consequences of any other course of action are too dire to even be conceptualized.

    Murder.

    1. Re:Swift, merciless, brutal death is required by Have+Blue · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, the correct course of action is to place large speakers outside his house playing audio that cannot be turned off 24 hours a day until he shoots himself.

    2. Re:Swift, merciless, brutal death is required by daeley · · Score: 5, Funny

      He must be murdered immediately.

      This post should be modded +1 Inciteful. :)

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    3. Re:Swift, merciless, brutal death is required by Loki_1929 · · Score: 5, Funny

      " No, the correct course of action is to place large speakers outside his house playing audio that cannot be turned off 24 hours a day until he shoots himself."

      I propose the "Hampster Dance" song.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  15. Re:Great.. by stratjakt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Popups arent similar to telemarketers. If you don't like them, you needn't visit sites that use them. They aren't unsolicited in that regard.

    People throw around phrases like "vote with your wallet" but seldom practice what they preach. Don't like a certain method of advertising? Don't visit those sites.

    Same as if (for example) Nickelodeon started running ads for cigarettes and beer during "The Wiggles". Stop watching nickelodeon.

    But everyone sits through it, not wanting to be inconvenienced by their principles, and waits for some sort of law to make it alright.

    And now we have a billion zillion conflicting laws restricting what we can or cannot do. Bah.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  16. oh, it's better than that. by twitter · · Score: 5, Funny
    Here's hoping lots of sites don't want to pay the license fee and stop using popups.

    It's not just the money, it's who's collecting. Anyone who wants to use a pop up having to bow down before the porn master who dreamed up the sleazy idea? Classic. I hope someone makes a big fuss and that it becomes common knowledge that advertisers are paying porn masters to be able to irritate you. Guilt by association and tribute! Suffer, you dick heads!

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  17. Not a moment too soon by ncc74656 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I got the first unrequested popup I've ever run across in Mozilla when I was reading a NYTimes article linked in this article. The ad-filtering proxy I use at least made it a blank popup, but a change to the config file fixed it so that it closes as soon as it opens. We could only be so lucky that the Times would be targeted by Shuster.

    (The popups appear when you click a "next page" or "previous page" link in the article, so Mozilla must be treating it as a requested popup. In addition to a whitelist of sites that are allowed to throw popups, Mozilla needs a blacklist of sites that are never allowed to throw popups.)

    --
    20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  18. As good of place as any by SomeOtherGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was asked a question by a co-worker yesterday, and did not have a solid answer. Since it somewhat relates to this story and google did nothing but bring back ads for popup blockers, I thought I would loose it to the /. people. Simple question -- Anybody who has used Firebird, Mozilla, Opera, etc -- has seen how much better the browsing experience is without countless popups. What is stopping Microsoft from putting out a version or patch of/to IE that has this feature? I know that the conspirecy theorists could speculate to no end on this one, but is there a simple answer?

    --
    (+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
    1. Re:As good of place as any by kmac06 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I hope they don't. As soon as they do, a lot more people will disable pop ups, and web sites would stop using them.

      Good, right?

      No, that means they come up with some other really annoying way of forcing you to look at ads.

  19. As Dave Barry once said... by fobbman · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I have a dream that a guy who designs popup ads is having a major colonoscopy, and the proctologist is saying, 'It's the darnedest thing! Every time I snip a polyp, two more spring up in its place!'"

  20. Shuster, Shyster... what's the difference? by Temsi · · Score: 5, Funny

    the dictionary says:

    shyster

    n. Slang
    An unethical, unscrupulous practitioner, especially of law.

    Seems to fit Shuster quite well.

    --
    -- This sig for rent.
  21. Not on general popups, but misleading popups only. by doublem · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "interact with the browser to modify or control one or more of the browser functions, such that the user is directed to a predesignated site or page, instead of accessing the site or page typically associated with the selected browser function."

    So he patented misleading people via a web browser...

    Intersting.

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  22. yeah, great. I've got some patent ideas too by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shuster has a long list of pending patents, including one for pop-up audio ads that cannot be turned off.'

    I think I'll file for a patent on "Honking a truck's horn in a residential area from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., advertising a sale of one or more goods". I think I could get some license fees for that. To up my income, I will also file for "Yelling at a carefully chosen target group of people at prominent city places until they agree to buy one or more goods".

    Jeez. Indeed, leaving the oceans was a bad idea, after all.

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns