I had a bit of a chuckle today reading the Why Firefox is Blocked site. If you can’t be bothered to read all of it, the basic message is this person is pretty angry about Firefox’s AdBlock Plus extension. Lets have a look at some of the best bits:
Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers. … Accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing.
People always like to roll out the “Stealing” line. I am no lawyer, but “stealing” and “theft” is attempting to permanently deprive someone of something. If your server voluntarily sends me a copy of your site, what exactly have I just taken away from you with the intent to permanently deprive you of it? And what exactly are these rights (other than basic Copyright etc) that us web site owners and developers have?
Many site owners therefore install scripts that prevent people using ad blocking software from accessing their site.
I’ve never heard of these scripts before to be honest - if anyone has any links I’ve love to hear about it in the comments - but this could possibly be considered a “unauthorized access offence” under the Computer Misuse Act 1990…but again, I am not a lawyer…
Its tempting to start quoting the entire site but I’ll resist the temptation. They don’t seem to realise that even if they could somehow disable the blocking of the ads, are these users (users that do not want to see adverts remember) actually going to click them? Of course not!
They go on to show how to redirect users to their site with some basic PHP and Javascript code that totally relies on the user-agent string containing “firefox”, apparently not realising that the sort of users who can find, install and use AdBlock are probably the very same ones who can find, install and use a User-Agent switcher extension.
Personally I am not bothered - my other sites all have adverts on and frankly I am amazed that anyone clicks on the ads at all. If a few people block them then I am not fussed in the least. Sure its good to get some income from your hard work, but you cant have everything, and throwing your toys out of the pram certainly isn’t going to help!