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Online Ad Czar Berates Adblockers As Freedom-Hating 'Mafia' (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Randall Rothenburg, the president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has made a speech branding the creators of Adblock Plus (who were banned from the conference where he made this keynote) as "rich and self-righteous," and accused adblockers of subverting freedom of the press. Speaking at the IAB's annual conference, Rothenburg characterized the Adblock Plus team as "operating a business model predicated on censorship of content."
Since when is advertising "content"?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Censorship is when someone else prevents you from viewing the content that you want to see. Freedom is being able to view only the content that I want to.
If I, as a private citizen do it...it is selective viewing and reading of content.
You know, these people seem to forget that the internet was NOT primarily created for revenue generation, but for free exchange of ideas on a network where every computer connected could be a peer with any other one connected.
Ok, I know if you go back to the DARPA creation...that was mostly just to make a network capable of breaks in parts of it and still survive, but I"m alluding more to the web portion of the internet with my argument.
But seriously, it was quite free before there were ads (and yes, I was on a long time before I saw any ads on the web)...and it continues to be free for ideas, but every individual surely should still have the freedom to view or not view certain content, and also, to block having their information captured.
The internet and the web were NOT created for commerce, maybe someone needs to remind them of that....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I agree. Plus, I paid for my computer, and I pay for my bandwidth. Therefore, I AM THE ONLY ONE THAT GETS TO DECIDE WHAT IS DISPLAYED ON MY COMPUTER! Ad-blocking is self defense. Far too many ad servers are infected with viruses and malware/spyware. These bastards are pissed because we are blocking their ads, but this didn't happen in my case (and many others) until their ads became extremely annoying and headache inducing! Not only that, but their ads (if not blocked) slow down the loading of the web pages that I want to see, waste my (capped) bandwidth, and waste my time and attention.
The advertisers and their organization are trying to make those of us who block their crap out to be criminals, but they are the REAL criminals, stealing what should be private information, stealing people's bandwidth, time and attention, and using it to further their greed at internet users expense, and against internet user's best interests.
As far as I am concerned, these advertisers (especially the ones complaining about ad-blocking) are EVIL BASTARDS and they can EAT SH*T AND DIE!
When the web page contains ads that include malware, in fact, yes, the web page does visit you. In much the same way diarrhea visits you after you visit the wrong hotel in Mexico.
And since distributing malware is a very serious crime, the visiting public is entirely justified in protecting itself.
Only an accomplice would argue otherwise. Since arguing otherwise makes one an accomplice.
I had expected that this ad blocker software was ineffective and didn't bother with it, but after this high recommendation by someone in the industry I'm going to install it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It's not my problem if a company is built upon a faulty profit model.
No, actually, it's much closer to the truth to say the web page visits you.
Remember, when you "visit" a web page, all you're doing is sending a request to a server saying "hey, please give me a copy of this document". The server sends that document in response, and you view it on your computer. You are morally, ethically, and legally free to choose which parts of that document you accept onto your computer and load into memory.
Your web page is a guest in my home. An invited guest, but a guest all the same. It will obey my rules if it expects to stay.
Of course, nobody in the soviet bloc or even china has ever experienced communism. They experienced totalitarianism
Communism + Reality = Totalitarianism
> I am sure that morally and ethically ad blocking is wrong.
> I am not sure that you are legally free to block ads.
So closing your eyes, turning your head, going to the bathroom (or some other room), pressing the mute button, OR using software that effectively does the same thing -- so you not watching the ads -- is now a moral / ethics issue???
Are you REALLY *that* fucking stupid???
Repeat after me: It is not my problem to support your broken business model.
When are we going to have a sudden outbreak of common sense ???
Maybe we could start with:
Ads are immoral. Ban the fuckers.