Are you a thieving Firefox user?
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Firefox on
I am not going to suggest that advertising revenue is not important in the overall web business model scheme of things, for a huge swathe of such enterprises it is vital. But suggesting that using ad-blocking technology within your web browser client is tantamount to theft is just daft. Not as daft as blocking anyone who uses the Firefox client because it comes with some rather effective ad-blocking technology built in, mind you, but daft nonetheless. The fact that one site has done both is shockingly stupid.
Take a look at whyfirefoxisblocked.com and you’ll see what I mean. Sure, it could all be some kind of elaborate hoax. Reverse psychology marketing perhaps, suggesting that Firefox users are the scum of the earth and detailing a (very primitive) way of blocking access to them, all to stir up media attention and get some free advertising (no pun intended) for the Mozilla browser.
Somehow, I doubt it though. I am inclined to lean more towards it being a genuinely ridiculous campaign by the hard of thinking. And here is why…
“Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers” claims the site, continuing “accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing.” OK, they have a point so far, and the ethical approach would be not to visit a site and make use of that content if you are unwilling to take the advert rendering alongside. Indeed, this is pretty much what I practice. If a site provides quality content, gives me access to a resource that is valuable, then I will happily put up with some unobtrusive advertising. IT Pro falls nicely into this category as far as I am concerned. I disable ad-blocking on a site-by-site basis where I believe the content deserves it. However, where a site is geared towards feeding me adverts, filling their coffers in the process but without any worthwhile content or user experience alongside then the adverts are blocked. That is called freedom of choice, and unless there is a specific legal requirement which stipulates I must not block ads in order to access the site, I don’t think I am doing anything wrong.
Then again, I don’t think that site owners who try and prevent access by people using blocking software is wrong either. Na
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