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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 28 2017, @04:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the your-browser-my-way dept.

It's being reported on HackerNews that the Pale Moon Browser is blocking the AdNauseum extension, an ad blocking extension designed to obfuscate browsing data and protect users from tracking by advertising networks.

The main story link is to the Pale Moon Forum which summarises the issue as follows:

After investigating the AdNauseam extension's behavior and the results for web publishers, the extension has been added to the Pale Moon blocklist with a severity level of 2 (meaning you won't be able to enable it unless you increase the blocking level in about:config to 3). For those unfamiliar with this extension: it generates false ad "clicks" to ad servers in an attempt to generate "noise" for the ad networks in a protest against the advertising network system as a whole.

While the premise behind this is similar to poisoning trackers with false fingerprints (which we are proponents of, ourselves), and we normally let users decide for themselves what they want to do with their browser, we are strictly against allowing extensions that cause direct damage (including damage to third parties). There is a subtle but important difference between blocking content and generating fake user interaction.

[...] Because this extension causes direct and indirect economic damage to website owners, it is classified as malware, and as such blocked.

From the forum threads this decision has been slightly controversial with some users.

If you're not familiar with Pale Moon, it is an Open Source web browser, forked from a mature Mozilla code release, and has been covered on SN before.

[Update: Added text re: blocking level; bolded text that was bold in the original posting. --martyb]


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @04:38PM (56 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @04:38PM (#560302) Journal

    It only took me fifteen seconds to figure out that the extension doesn't have a "hard" block. From the first post in the discussion linked to,

    "added to the Pale Moon blocklist with a severity level of 2 (meaning you won't be able to enable it unless you increase the blocking level in about:config to 3)"

    So, any savvy Pale Moon user can go into his browser's configuration, and enable the extension. I suppose I'll go back and read the rest of the thread, but the extension isn't really "blocked".

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Informative=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @04:43PM (41 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @04:43PM (#560307)

    It doesn't matter if it's a "hard" block or a "soft" block. That's an irrelevant distinction.

    If you read the rest of the discussion you will see that the problem is that this blocking is being done not for practical reasons, but for ideological ones.

    It turns out that a lot of Pale Moon's users don't agree with ideologically-driven software development. That's why many of them moved away from Firefox in the first place!

    • (Score: 3, Disagree) by arcz on Monday August 28 2017, @04:46PM (30 children)

      by arcz (4501) on Monday August 28 2017, @04:46PM (#560309) Journal

      I think the main reason this is controvesial enough to block is that what this browser extension is doing is arguably illegal.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Monday August 28 2017, @04:50PM (20 children)

        by crafoo (6639) on Monday August 28 2017, @04:50PM (#560311)

        Oh bullshit. If a site operator can send a random selection of ads to my browser I can send a random selection of nonsense information right back at them. How these fuckers process it or assign value to it IS THEIR FUCKING PROBLEM. If site operators are not compelled to operate in good faith (malware ads, sending unsolicited information, wasting my bandwidth) they should not expect that from the other side of the exchange. Fuck them.

        • (Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @05:47PM (19 children)

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday August 28 2017, @05:47PM (#560353) Homepage
          The problem is that you disagree with legal precedent. And that puts you on very shaky ground when it comes to an argument about legality.

          Did you know, for example, that removing the 'whatever.html' from the end of a URL, and particularly removing a '/directoryname/', in order to browse around a website is illegal according to some US courts (it's hacking, or "illegal access to a computer resource" in their terms or some bullshit like that)?
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 3, Informative) by driven on Monday August 28 2017, @06:21PM

            by driven (6295) on Monday August 28 2017, @06:21PM (#560374)

            Then consider this civil disobedience.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:34PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:34PM (#560385)

            Can you provide a link?
            I want to know which places to avoid (besides the obvious answer of "the entire US").

            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:02AM (1 child)

              by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:02AM (#560600) Homepage
              The UK's been just as stupid: https://www.scl.org/articles/821-computer-misuse-prosecutions
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @05:25AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @05:25AM (#560675)

                The Tsunami Case: 'a system penetration and software tester' uses his credit card etc on a site and then goes 'oh noes, this might be dodgy, let's see if I can do a 'directory traversal' on it to see what's going on'..and then the fun begins.

                The main act of stupidity in this case was that the 'system penetration and software tester' lied to the 'PC plod' he must have though they sent to interview him, pity that, the 'plod' actually knew his subject and caught him out, so the CPS went ahead with a prosecution based on his 'sketchy' behaviour.

                The Domestic and General Case: Disgruntled ex-employee mailbombs his old company and gets away with it.

                The main act of stupidity in that case being that the CPS chose the wrong bit of legislation to prosecute the bugger with, so the court had no option but let him walk free on points of law.

                Oh sure, stupidity abounds here in Britain, and there's legal trickery out there written in such a manner as to make almost anything a prosecutable offence, I know that there's a good chance that some of my antics manipulating URLs to bypass limitations of borkedly 'coded' websites could be regarded as offences under the old Computer Misuse Act here in the UK, and the CPS and Procurators Fiscal would write up the charges in such a manner as to try and guarantee a conviction.

                I run Linux on most of my desktop machines, for some reason this seems to lead to...weirdness when browsing a number of web sites (e.g. a local bus company's timetables are downloadable as pdfs from their site, but this only works on windows boxes, both Macs and Linux boxes fail to download them).

                Even at work where I use a windows box we have Firefox installed as well as Chrome for those sites which seem to fail to load properly on one or t'other, and for the seriously stupid sites which still insist on it, there's always IE... (there's at least one site that our admin staff need to use on a daily basis which borks horribly on anything other than IE, I shit thee not)

          • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 28 2017, @06:35PM (5 children)

            by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @06:35PM (#560388) Journal

            I seem to remember Linked In recently losing a court case where Linked In is making information public, but trying to manufacture some kind of legal means to say it is NOT public information. The court flatly rejected that. The court's analysis that the line between public and non public was a password or some kind of authentication, IIRC.

            If removing /whatever.html from the end of a URL reveals something, then it is indeed public. Just like if changing &id=587372 reveals a different customer's personal information, and then enumerating all the possible "ids" reveals a lot of customers' personal info, it is still public information. The problem is that the web site operator is making the information quite public. So public that some school children could access this public information. The real burden is on the web site operator not to make the info public in the first place.

            It's like if someone frequently stands nude in front of a large plate glass window visible to lots of people. If others take photos or simply look, the person can hardly complain about privacy. They made the exposure of themselves quite public whether intentionally or not. And it would be hard to argue unintentionally, just as with the example of changing the &id=587372.

            --
            To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @11:57PM

              by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday August 28 2017, @11:57PM (#560596) Homepage
              Note thar weev's conviction was not reversed, the case was vacated. The legality of him doing exactly what you say 2as not finally decided upon. Of course, the EFF has stated that the case against weev was fundamentally flawed, but didn't stop them from convicting him. Courts do stupid things when the stupid people have the more expensive lawyers.
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:44AM (3 children)

              by dry (223) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:44AM (#560611) Journal

              If leave my car unlocked and the keys in the ashtray, it does not make it legal to take my car. If I don't have a lock on my front door, it does not make it legal to enter my house, even if a 6 year old could easily walk in. If my luggage has 1-2-3-4 as the combination and even if I forget to randomize it, it is still illegal to go through my luggage.
              The argument that if something is unlocked, it is free for the taking/using is pretty simple and often wrong.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @01:32AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @01:32AM (#560620)

                Idiotic analogies are idiotic.

              • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 29 2017, @01:27PM

                by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 29 2017, @01:27PM (#560803) Journal

                That is why I used an analogy of you making something public and then trying to claim it is not public.

                --
                To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
              • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:12PM

                by urza9814 (3954) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:12PM (#560838) Journal

                If I don't have a lock on my front door, it does not make it legal to enter my house, even if a 6 year old could easily walk in.

                So if you have an website only accessible on your LAN, and it has a password prompt but the password is just the return key, then that's still not public. Yup, I've got no problem with that.

                But if you invite the general public into your front yard (ie, have a public website) and your home has no doors (ie, no attempt at authentication when loading the pages that aren't supposed to be public) and someone walks inside...I kinda doubt a court would call that trespassing.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:36PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:36PM (#560389)

            Please cite the case(s) you're referring to.

            • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @07:19PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @07:19PM (#560419)

              Literally just editing an url "hack", 41 months [arstechnica.com]. Even if were unrelatedly deserved for being a despicable troll and a jerk.

          • (Score: 1) by crafoo on Monday August 28 2017, @11:59PM (3 children)

            by crafoo (6639) on Monday August 28 2017, @11:59PM (#560597)

            But you're wrong. It's not. It's not illegal with respect to any written law. It has been ruled illegal in cases where global corporations have demanded it.

            In those particular cases it was a citizen "circumventing" a corporation's website. I think the URL case in particular was someone pulling a customer list from AT&T or Verizon just by changing the address. Clearly this was all public information accessible without any security measures what so ever.

            This action was ruled illegal because a citizen took an action a corporation deemed not in the corporation's interest. And so the courts ruled according to the actual power structure of the USA. It doesn't make the action illegal. It just means their is no rule of law.

            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:37AM (1 child)

              by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:37AM (#560610) Homepage
              what the courts decide, until overturned, no matter how stupid, not only define the law as it is at a point in time, but also set a precedent for the future. That's why you have supreme courts, to bring lower courts in line. Has a supreme court presided over the issues raided in weev's case yet?
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:08PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:08PM (#560835)

                A US court decision is only binding upon lower courts. Weev was convicted in federal court and the conviction was subsequently vacated on appeal in the third circuit (due to improper venue). The only binding precedent here is in the third circuit, as set by the third circuit court of appeal, applying to the issue of venue. This is normal -- the appeals court generally won't make any ruling on the merits of the case when the decision can be established on something more basic, such as improper venue.

                However, a federal court looking at a similar case would also find that the third circuit court of appeal did not have a high opinion of the merits of the prosecution's case, either.

                Nevertheless, the CFAA has to go.

            • (Score: 2) by KGIII on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:50AM

              by KGIII (5261) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:50AM (#560694) Journal

              That's not actually how laws work. You know that, right?

              --
              "So long and thanks for all the fish."
          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:11AM (1 child)

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:11AM (#560605) Journal

            I seldom argue even the most obvious legalities. But, that's so stupid, it sounds right. Bottom line, if you run a publicly facing server, and you put stuff on that server, you KNOW people are going to use it however they want. Drop the directory off the end of a URL? I started doing stuff like that twenty freaking years ago, and don't plan to quit.

            • (Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:48AM

              by edIII (791) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:48AM (#560612)

              That's no longer true with some of the newer platforms. It's not about delivering pages through a hierarchy of files and directories, but more of an API used in some sort of MVC.

              One of the projects I worked on the url was literally turned into functions. /ping /grep /ls or /ping?ip=127.0.0.1 (I don't mean those commands literally, but just an example)

              In those cases your not traversing directory structure anymore, but API structure instead. With posted API requests and nothing on the URL line. Work on the site for three hours and the URL never changes. Not even an additional page load.

              --
              Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:54AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:54AM (#560737)

            Funny thing about that...

            Want to show ads on my computer? Pay me for access to show ads. Anyone ads that I don't get paid for are unauthorized access to a computer system.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:05PM (#560326)

        I'm not a lawyer and I'm not going to speculate about the legality of this extension.

        But I will say that, as a non-lawyer, the reasoning being given for this decision is very imprecise.

        The justification given for the blocking is

        Because this extension causes direct and indirect economic damage to website owners, it is classified as malware, and as such blocked.

        This is a very vague set of criteria that could apply to many different extensions and browser configurations.

        Are all ad-blocking extensions considered unacceptable now, because blocking ads could cause "direct and indirect economic damage to website owners" by not allowing ads to be viewed or clicked?

        Is using the browser with HTTP compression disabled considered unacceptable now, because transferring more data could cause "direct and indirect economic damage to website owners" since there could be a cost associated with data transfer?

        Is disabling JavaScript considered unacceptable now, because it could prevent some ads from being shown, which could cause "direct and indirect economic damage to website owners" since such ads couldn't be viewed or clicked?

        Is using a User-Agent value that contains the Pale Moon name and version info considered unacceptable now, because it results in a few more bytes of data transfer, which could cause "direct and indirect economic damage to website owners" since there could be a cost associated with data transfer?

        It sounds to me like the leadership of the Pale Moon project is saying that any sort of browser behavior that might cause web server owners to incur any sort of an economic cost should now be considered unacceptable!

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Monday August 28 2017, @05:05PM (6 children)

        by frojack (1554) on Monday August 28 2017, @05:05PM (#560328) Journal

        arguably illegal.

        Seriously?
        What law criminalizes clicking on an advertising link but refusing to look as the advertising?

        The problem with the plug in is that it DOSes the users own machine, chewing up bandwidth and exposing the user's to ip address allows unwanted tracking.
        It would be objectionable simply because it works counter to the user's own interests,

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @05:56PM (4 children)

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday August 28 2017, @05:56PM (#560359) Homepage
          This extension does not click on an advertising link, therefore your questioning comment is irrelevant.

          The reason it's considered bad is in the original post to the forum, and they are resonable arguments. There seem to be no actual valid responses to those arguments in the top couple of pages. Most who oppose the block seem to be pretty damn stupid. Some can be summarised as "it's disgusting that I have to do something to get this extension installed" not realising that they had to do something (namely install it) in order to get it installed anyway. Idiots such as that can be safely ignored. They add nothing of value.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Monday August 28 2017, @09:24PM

            by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Monday August 28 2017, @09:24PM (#560516)

            Idiots such as that can be safely ignored. They add nothing of value.

            While they may add nothing of value, they do seem capable of causing a great deal of damage.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Monday August 28 2017, @11:07PM (2 children)

            by frojack (1554) on Monday August 28 2017, @11:07PM (#560568) Journal

            This extension does not click on an advertising link, therefore your questioning comment is irrelevant.

            Check your facts:

            Clicking Ads so you don't have to.

            As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating Ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile.

            See https://adnauseam.io/ [adnauseam.io]

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
            • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @11:20PM (1 child)

              by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday August 28 2017, @11:20PM (#560577) Homepage
              So if someone says his dog's tail is a leg, then it has 5 legs?

              It doesn't click anything, it can't. It submits http requests, as if the user has clicked, that's all, that doesn't mean there was anything to click on, or anything clicking on these nonexistent things. We can see inside the chinese room, stop pretending we can't.
              --
              Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @11:35AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @11:35AM (#560760)

                Phil, give it up. You were wrong. Just admit it.

        • (Score: 2) by KGIII on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:53AM

          by KGIII (5261) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:53AM (#560695) Journal

          Possibly covered by Intent to Defraud. Possibly...

          --
          "So long and thanks for all the fish."
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 28 2017, @09:55PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @09:55PM (#560544) Journal
        A lot of things are arguable [soylentnews.org]. That doesn't mean they are worth arguing.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @05:02PM (8 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @05:02PM (#560323) Journal

      People have opinions. People support different things, because they have different ideas of "right" and "wrong". In this case, I think that Moonchild's opinion is a valid opinion - but he is over reacting. And, those who are upset with him are also over reacting. Is there hard code in the browser which will set your machine afire if you insist on installing the extension? No. It's just a default configuration. Don't like the default? Change it.

      People can still get along, if they try.

      Besides - what are you going to move to? Chrome? Safari? IE/Edge? There aren't a lot of other browsers to choose from. Iron was good, the last time I looked at it. The philosophy was very much the same as Pale Moon: strip out the superflous bullshit. But, if the community is this upset over a silly little soft block, then something is going to happen over at Iron to get everyone pissed off too.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_a_mountain_out_of_a_molehill [wikipedia.org]
      The idiom is found in Nicholas Udall's translation of The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente (1548) in the statement that "The Sophistes of Grece coulde through their copiousness make an Elephant of a flye, and a mountaine of a mollehill."

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:24PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:24PM (#560338)

        The problem isn't that Moonchild has an opinion.

        The problem isn't that Moonchild's opinion differs from the opinions held by many Pale Moon users.

        The problem is that Moonchild is using Moonchild's position of authority to impose Moonchild's opinion on Pale Moon users who don't share Moonchild's opinion.

        If Moonchild doesn't want to use this extension with Moonchild's own installation of Pale Moon, then that's fine.

        But Pale Moon users feel that Moonchild shouldn't be using Moonchild's authority within the project to control (to whatever degree) what extensions Pale Moon's users can use.

        And I don't think that the Pale Moon users are "over reacting". After seeing how similar unilateral decrees caused so many problems with Firefox, these users should rightfully be very worried.

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:11PM

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:11PM (#561030) Homepage
          How is this insightful? His opinion specifies the default, you are not obliged to use the default settings. In no way is he imposing his will on pale moon's users.
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 28 2017, @10:01PM (5 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @10:01PM (#560548) Journal
        What happens if Moonchild or other controller of Pale Moon decides to escalate? We have a "soft block" right now based on really poor justifications. What's to keep it from escalating to some hard block in the future?
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @11:10PM (2 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @11:10PM (#560570) Journal

          In that case, then the users current response will be justified. Drop the browser, and move on to something else.

          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:59AM (1 child)

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:59AM (#560615) Journal

            That's a lot easier if you get disgusted enough to start looking for something else ahead of time.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:05AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:05AM (#560696)

              Right, so get back to me on which browsers currently respect the user's freedom more than Pale Moon:

              Chrome? Firefox? Safari? Vivaldi? Brave? Hah!

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:14PM (1 child)

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:14PM (#561034) Homepage
          OK, now you're using the slippery slope falacy, but what are we supposed to do when you use ad hominem?
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 29 2017, @10:59PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 29 2017, @10:59PM (#561209) Journal

            OK, now you're using the slippery slope falacy

            Here's how it's not a fallacy:

            1) The people in control of Pale Moon can do a lot more than they have to this point. There's no clear limitations on what they can do to restrict use of particular extensions, but they clearly have the capability to block use of extensions.

            2) It's not an extreme position to suppose that the extension may eventually be blocked using the same reasoning that led to this obstruction of its use.

            3) My slippery slope is not presented as inevitable.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @08:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @08:39PM (#560486)

      I read the discussion too, and what people are crying about is that they have to actually enable the feature if they want to install it.

      People are stating they dont want to have to change anything.

      It's like whining that 1-click ordering stopped working. The extension still works, you just have to make another few changes to the settings to allow it to function!

      I am guessing the people complaining are the same types that that would use geforce experience or raptr or something when their brand new high end gpus are not working right because they have so much money they don't know how anything works unless it's click next to continue complexity.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:04PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:04PM (#560325)

    "added to the Pale Moon blocklist with a severity level of 2 (meaning you won't be able to enable it unless you increase the blocking level in about:config to 3)"

    And farther down the thread, the significance of those levels was clarified:

    PS: AdNauseam is the only extension with the stated severity level at this time. Increasing the block level to allow this level won't change anything as regards your actual safety (all directly-harming extensions to browser users (security/privacy/trojans/etc.) have a severity of 3).
    Level "2" is reserved for exactly this intermediate class of undesirable extensions that don't directly impact the browser user.

    I can kinda see both sides of the argument over this extension, but this response seems very reasonable to me.

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:28PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @05:28PM (#560339)

      If there's doubt about whether or not an extension should be blocked, then the sensible thing to do is to not block it.

      This lets the users make the choice about using the extension for themselves. If they want to use it, then they can use it. If they don't want to use it, then they don't have to use it.

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @06:05PM (6 children)

        by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday August 28 2017, @06:05PM (#560365) Homepage
        And if they want to use this one, they can use it - what bit about that do you not understand?
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @06:30PM (#560379)

          No, they can't just use it, like they can with so many other extensions.

          A Pale Moon user who wants to use this particular extension would need to jump over some artificial barriers and take very specific actions (such as fucking around with about:config values) in order to use this extension.

          That's why this whole debacle is even happening. Actions are being taken to interfere with which extensions Pale Moon's users can use.

        • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Monday August 28 2017, @07:12PM (4 children)

          by edIII (791) on Monday August 28 2017, @07:12PM (#560415)

          The part that you don't seem to be getting is the bigger argument about ideology. It's not that you CAN get it to work, it's that the Pale Moon developers DON'T WANT YOU TO AND BELIEVE ITS BAD. Categorizing Ad Nasuem as malware is very, very, very, fucking much a political statement in support of Big Data and against the Pale Moon user base taking the fight to them.

          All of the logic involved is utter bullshit. Economic damages? You mean like the ones the MAFIAA claim all the time from all the revenue they aren't receiving? Those kinds of illusory damages? Talk about a slippery slope! Just about every single adblocking, flashblocking, pop-up blocking, etc. technology could be argued to be economically damaging. If that's the line, it's vague as fuck and allows Pale Moon to arbitrarily support, and indeed make strong claims, about the morality of the software we would use with it. Just about any corporation can make some bullshit argument about economic damages, especially indirectly. That kind of specious logic doesn't serve the REAL customer; The person web surfing with Pale Moon.

          If we take apart what this plugin does in particular, it LIES. Every single link is clicked which leaves the site operators, and the true aggrieved parties, the big data players holding data that isn't valuable at all to the final intended customer; Other businesses.

          So what Pale Moon has told me is that they support big business on the web, are against Bayesian poisoning (which is arguably more effective than blocking), and are against all indirect and direct economic damages incurred by site operators from Pale Moon users. In particular, the loss of ad revenue and big data products and services derived from tracking data. Considering that the line is vague as fuck, and any corporate sycophant like Khallow could engineer some bullshit showing indirect damages from users, Pale Moon leaves it wide fucking open which plugins will be undesirable next.

          Interesting. So does the mean that Pale Moon is against its use with TOR? That could arguably cause indirect and direct damages since we are hiding our IP address by using somebody else's, which blends all the tracking data together.

          Well.... good to know. I haven't installed Pale Moon on my new system, and now never will. R.I.P. Pale Moon. It was good while it lasted.

          Maybe if some Pale Moon developers are upset too they can fork, merge with Ad Nauseum, and then make a browser specifically designed to give false data to Big Data, up to and including its headers to fake other browsers. It's sounding like fork time to me, and that would be a good project. In any case, I predict a dwindling user base for Pale Moon. At least by ONE ;)

          --
          Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
          • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Monday August 28 2017, @07:25PM

            by TheGratefulNet (659) on Monday August 28 2017, @07:25PM (#560427)

            look for 'brightsun.org' browser to come into existence in the next few weeks.

            (lol)

            --
            "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @08:22PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @08:22PM (#560469)

            You are missing a possible motivation on the side of the Palemoon devs though. Palemoon is a young project with a small userbase. It's mostly compatible to Firefox with regard to rendering HTML, yet it transmits its own User Agent string. This causes problems with some websites, causing site operators additional work if they want to support Palemoon.

            If the impression arises that a significant portion of Palemoon users are not just adblocking, but actively sabotaging ad networks, motivation to support Palemoon amongst site operators in bed with the ad networks will... shall we say "drop off"? A cliff?

            This in turn would worsen the user experience of newly won over Palemoon users who don't know about the technicalities of browser switches on the server side or how to spoof the UA string. So I'd say from their perspective, this is about self preservation to at least have a chance to grow their user base.

            • (Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 28 2017, @08:42PM (1 child)

              by edIII (791) on Monday August 28 2017, @08:42PM (#560488)

              So.... this plugin doesn't work in Chrome, Firefox, Edge/IE, Opera, or Safari? I'm not sure why Pale Moon would be singled out over the others, unless this plugin is targeting Pale Moon specifically, which would be weird.

              That's a good reason you've brought up. If it was the true motivations, why not elucidate on the website for all us to understand? It's still allowed, but the default Pale Moon policy is to block it in order to still receive support from major site operators. THAT is something the user base can understand, debate, and process. I get it, and I'm fully committed to absolute fucking war against Big Data & Big Advertising.

              We were given the bullshit of indirect or direct damages to site operators from fighting tracking and advertising, which happens on ALL PLATFORMS. Yes, it's a possible motivation, and one that Pale Moon has not felt it needs to confirm or deny. Since we are not hearing that from Pale Moon, I need to fall back to what I can understand from their statements. Those simply point to Pale Moon cuddling the balls of Big Data & Big Advertising, while deriding their collective enemies.

              --
              Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:26PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:26PM (#560580)

                I would wager that a large portion of Palemoon users right now have actually switched from Firefox because they don't like the direction Mozilla is taking, cuddling up to Big Data and Big Content.

                It's reasonable to assume that many of these early adopters are authorities on tech matters within their social networks of less tech-savvy friends. If they recommend to their friends "try Palemoon with such and such extensions" and all those extensions but AdNauseam install without a hitch, said friends will probably forget all about it and still be happy.

                With that in mind, there's bound to be a huge wave of Firefox users asking their tech friends about a possible replacement once Mozilla breaks compatibility with most existing extensions.

                On the upside, this is the first time I've heard about AdNauseam. Been a Palemoon user for some time and will try out AdNauseam thanks to the Palemoon devs giving it some publicity :)

      • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @06:20PM

        by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @06:20PM (#560372) Journal

        That's a silly argument. You could argue exactly the same for the stance of Palemoon. Let me spell that out for you:

        If there's doubt, the sensible thing to do is to make a "soft" block, that is, blocked by default but user configurable.
        This lets the users make the choice about using the extension for themselves. If they want to use it, then they can use it. If they don't want to use it, then they don't have to use it.

        I highly doubt anyone on SN exists that has never entered about:config.
        Hell, most of us would be able to take an open source project, change the code to remove a block, recompile, and run that browser.
        And if there's enough people who care, fork that stuff!
        If not, just shut up and enjoy your unpaid software.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 28 2017, @10:06PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 28 2017, @10:06PM (#560552) Journal

      I can kinda see both sides of the argument over this extension, but this response seems very reasonable to me.

      Why should there be a response in the first place? And what happens, if the controllers of Pale Moon decide to escalate to a more serious response that prevents the extension from working at all?

  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:08AM (2 children)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:08AM (#560602)

    Yes, let's restrict the freedom to be rebels against corporate ad media to only those intelligent enough to figure out how to properly configure their browser.

    That is fucking stupid. First they came for the disabled, then they came for the idiots, then they came for the intelligent but uninformed.