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Online Publisher Blocks LinuxToday Referrals
MadChicken writes "This weekend, LinuxToday found that their link to an article was blocked by CMP Media LLC (publishers of Information Week). The editorial with full details is here. Could this have impact on other online news sites?"
Can I tell my brower not to tell that I'm following a link when I enter a site?
yes. that would solve the problem.
in mozilla you can set the network.http.sendRefererHeader value to 0.
or just open the link in a new tab.
I just don't trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn't die.
Edit user.js and add/change
user_pref("network.http.sendRefererHeader", 0);
No more referers sent.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
2. Set 'network.http.sendRefererHeader' to 0
3. Enjoy.
This simply kills off the referer tag from being sent and lets you through. While it's very unlikely this will cause problems, some web sites might not work w/o the tag.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
On the other hand, some websites that don't like deep linking will only show you their deeper pages if you DO have a REFERER set from one of their other pages - so you have to go in through the front door. That's one reason you might not want to block REFERER permanently.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
While it's very unlikely this will cause problems, some web sites might not work w/o the tag.
Actually, quite a few use this as leech-protection, in order to prevent external direct links to downloads. Privoxy does this the smart way - it forges a referrer header from whatever site you're loading. If I follow a link to say, CNN, they will see "www.cnn.com" as the referrer.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Yes, they can block who they want, but they don't have a right to determine who will have fair use rights. The message that they displayed was "Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy this particular request because it comes from a source that is not authorized to redistribute our content..." That implies that LinuxToday was violating CMP's copyright (because CMP has no legal right to decide who is 'authorized' to make fair-use excerpts. Thus, CMP has slandered LinuxToday.
On a wider scale, we have seen large corporate entities go to great lengths to prevent fair use. The RIAA and MPAA have redefined fair use and put copy protection into place to prevent fair use copying and backup. Broadcasters will have a "flag" in HDTV broadcasts that tells digital recording devices whether a broadcast can be recorded. Software companies have long fought against fair use. I just bought Unreal Tournament 2004. It uses a form of copy protection and, on top of that, requires that a "Play CD" be in the drive. You can't back up that CD using normal methods and you're hosed if it gets damaged or lost. (There were cracks out the next day, but 99% of people will never know about the cracks.)
We need laws protecting fair use before large corporations effectively quash it. Should CMP be allowed to "punish" a site for exercising their fair use rights to excerpt? I see both sides of this one, but, given the big picture of corporations deciding to prevent fair use, I have to side with LinuxToday.
You are probably aware of its existence, but just in case...
MultiZilla (http://multizilla.mozdev.org) provides just such a GUI. Granted, it is not built-in to Mozilla, which is what you were referring to, but it does provide the function.
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
In Opera, You can toggle the sending of the Referrer Header at any time.
Use the quick menu: Just hit F12, then 'f'. (on v6.03 at least)
I can see lots of uses for this. You can use this to hide where you're coming from, such as clicking on info links from BitTorrent repositories of questionable nature. Or when trying to get through to sites who have blocked access via Referrer from Slashdot.
From the online docs:
"
Disabling referrer logging
Do you want Opera to send information referring to the page from where the document or picture was requested?
If you enable this option in File > Preferences > Privacy, Web servers can store information about the site that you last visited before you jumped to the current one. This allows webmasters to analyze how people find their way to his website.
Disable this option if..."
[Remainder of text deleted to fit within fair-use guidelines. Ahem.]
It would wreak havoc on the spirit of the internet to have user-definable Referrer fields, though...
-j.
A childish as, say, posting a rant without having read the linked article first?
Just so nobody is misled by your "entertainment publishing company" comment, here is a list of CMP Media's print rags (copy/pasted from their web site):
Bank Systems & Technology
BioMechanics
C/C++ Users Journal
Call Center
CMP Books
Communications Convergence
CRN
DB2 Magazine
Diagnostic Imaging
Diagnostic Imaging Asia Pacific
Diagnostic Imaging Europe
Diagnostic Imaging SCAN
Dr. Dobb's Journal
DV Magazine
EE Times
Embedded Systems Programming Magazine
Game Developer
Geriatric Times
InformationWeek
Insurance & Technology
Intelligent Enterprise Magazine
MSDN Magazine
Network Computing
Network Magazine
Optimize
Psychiatric Times
Software Development
SysAdmin
Technology & Learning
Transform Magazine
VARBusiness
Wall Street & Technology
Windows Developer Network
Xtreme Video
Several of which many SlashDot'ers probably read.
From time-to-time, I've gotten several of them. CMP is decidedly uneven -- some of their rags are good, some are woefully clueless. My personal assesment is that their management is mostly clueless, except for being able to sell advertising and bring those dollars to the bottom line.
So, while I agree with "I'd be worried, except that it is CMP media"... I think your characterization of them as entertainment media needs to be clarified as the sarcasm that it is.
In any case, their "please don't send me traffic" attitude is clueless.