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And meanwhile Axel Springer won an interim injunction to have Eyeo (makers of Adblock Plus) stop accidentally filtering tweets and other live content on their "

by cm3 10y ago

And meanwhile Axel Springer won an interim injunction to have Eyeo (makers of Adblock Plus) stop accidentally filtering tweets and other live content on their "news" sites. Ignoring Eyeo's whitelisting business model for a moment, Eyeo's laywers are right in explaining that the filters accidentally block non-ads because sites deliberately make the actual content fit into ads' patterns, which then requires updated filters. The interesting part is that Axel Springer's lawyers argue that filtering content undermines freedom of press. IANAL, but that's like saying if I put headphones on because I don't want to hear the public radio at a train station, then I'm filtering content and restricting freedom of press. The judge accepted the argument, but it doesn't make sense logically and goes against another pillar of contemporary societies: informational self-determination. If we don't fight this, we might actually end up in a world as depicted in that one Black Mirror episode[1]. Sorry, couldn't find anything in English: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Adblock-Plus-Axel-Springer-erwirkt-Einstweilige-Verfuegung-wegen-Overblocking-3294993.html http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Adblock-Plus-Axel-Spr... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits

zeta0134 10y ago
I mean, I'm going out of my way to try to stop my computer from running code I don't like. (In this case, advertising and tracking code.) There are tonnes of alternatives I could try, but I think the easiest way for me to block Facebook ads is just to stop visiting Facebook. Ads are more than just annoying. They take away my valuable time and resources. I don't care what business model you think I'm destroying, my attention is mine and mine alone, and I will not have it wrenched away from me by dancing bottles of soap accompanied by the whir of my computers fans as it struggles to play yet another poorly coded flash applet. (I realize Facebook ads very rarely use flash, but they are still distracting in the worst way.) Facebook can try to do a lot of things here, but they can never win my trust back after all these years, and I consequently refuse to trust their advertising platform more than any other. It's an intruder into my system, I will not allow it to run, and they may kindly deal with it and move on. I run my life ad free, I stopped watching television for similar reasons because I didn't feel like paying money for a service that seemed engineered to waste my time with product placement. If your business model does not agree with my preferences, too bad. I'm still not letting you run your code on my computer.
- cm3 10y ago
  I don't go to the movies anymore. You have to sit through ads in the beginning, then they pause to sell snacks, and all the while you have to cope with people's disruptions. On top of that, you cannot temporarily enable subtitles or seek back to rewatch a moment. And let's not forget how expensive it is for a single showing. I suppose if you treat it like a real theater or a concert, then it's fine, but it's not comparable to watching a movie yourself or with two friends.
  - icebraining 10y ago
    That's why I like living in a (relatively) large city. Here we have enough audience to sustain a couple of "weirder" theaters without concessions, ads or interruptions which show older and/or more independent films.
  - fossuser 10y ago
    Agreed, but the movie theaters are in a tough spot here. They're dying - they make almost no money from the ticket sale since the costs of showing movies is extreme. Most people don't go that much anymore because streaming services are quite good and in home TVs are a lot nicer now. A lot of the money they make is from concessions - which is why I usually buy some when I go.

by cm3 10y ago

zeta0134 10y ago

I mean, I'm going out of my way to try to stop my computer from running code I don't like. (In this case, advertising and tracking code.) There are tonnes of alternatives I could try, but I think the easiest way for me to block Facebook ads is just to stop visiting Facebook. Ads are more than just annoying. They take away my valuable time and resources. I don't care what business model you think I'm destroying, my attention is mine and mine alone, and I will not have it wrenched away from me by dancing bottles of soap accompanied by the whir of my computers fans as it struggles to play yet another poorly coded flash applet. (I realize Facebook ads very rarely use flash, but they are still distracting in the worst way.) Facebook can try to do a lot of things here, but they can never win my trust back after all these years, and I consequently refuse to trust their advertising platform more than any other. It's an intruder into my system, I will not allow it to run, and they may kindly deal with it and move on. I run my life ad free, I stopped watching television for similar reasons because I didn't feel like paying money for a service that seemed engineered to waste my time with product placement. If your business model does not agree with my preferences, too bad. I'm still not letting you run your code on my computer.

cm3 10y ago
I don't go to the movies anymore. You have to sit through ads in the beginning, then they pause to sell snacks, and all the while you have to cope with people's disruptions. On top of that, you cannot temporarily enable subtitles or seek back to rewatch a moment. And let's not forget how expensive it is for a single showing. I suppose if you treat it like a real theater or a concert, then it's fine, but it's not comparable to watching a movie yourself or with two friends.
- icebraining 10y ago
  That's why I like living in a (relatively) large city. Here we have enough audience to sustain a couple of "weirder" theaters without concessions, ads or interruptions which show older and/or more independent films.
- fossuser 10y ago
  Agreed, but the movie theaters are in a tough spot here. They're dying - they make almost no money from the ticket sale since the costs of showing movies is extreme. Most people don't go that much anymore because streaming services are quite good and in home TVs are a lot nicer now. A lot of the money they make is from concessions - which is why I usually buy some when I go.