Best of the ISP-Lists

Bootlegging the Ad-free Internet

Members of the ISP-Caching list discuss laws and ethics regarding blocking banner ads for customers. It's clearly a desired service but is it right and is it legal?

[September 27, 2000]

On the ISP-Caching list in September, CR asked,

"Is it legal to block ad content at a cache or re-direction point? I've always been under the impression that blocking ad insertion was a violation of the publishing site's content, but I've never seen hard evidence either way."

DH responded that blocking ad content seems patently unfair:

"I can only say that, as someone with banner ads on his site, I'd be fairly ticked off at anyone who blocked my ads. I run my own server, pay for that, and have my own deal with ad suppliers. If someone views content on my site that I put the banner ad code on, without seeing the ad, then they are stealing. If I catch on that it's happening, I'll block that IP address."

Others offered some more balanced options:

[KE suggested] "My thought on the way we use ad blockers is simply to give the consumer a choice. They may choose either to receive normal content, or to have the ads removed-though the percentage wanting ads is pretty low! Doing it this way, we are legally clear, as it is customer choice and not ISP-mandated."

[SB explained] "What I have asked Cacheflow to do is to allow me to sloooooow the filtered sites way down. This way, philosophically, I'm not denying access-just making it painfully slow to get that file. When they do this, I will buy their filter list each month."

BD observed that blockers are everywhere, and that they're impossible to prevent:

"Ad blockers seem to be legal — and fairly common. I found the following ad filtering sites with one quick search:

• http://www.adsubtract.com/
• http://www.falken.net/webfree/

Remember, copyright law does not control the prevention of copies. But other laws, such as freedom of speech and contractual obligations, might be more closely related to filtering."

[Editors' note] It seems to us that although individuals may elect to block web-based ads by installing filtering software on their computers (as they can turn off the sound on their TV sets — or turn the set off altogether), for an ISP to do so would be ethically questionable. As soon as a service provider begins interfering with or altering content provided by others, it has crossed a line into forbidden territory.

—End