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posted by mrpg on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the thanks-but-I-began-in-2008 dept.

Google Chrome will soon begin blocking all ads (including those served by Google) on websites that repeatedly include certain "non-compliant" (annoying) ads:

In June, Google revealed that Chrome will stop showing all ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that display non-compliant ads "starting in early 2018." Now the company has committed to a date: Chrome's built-in ad-blocker will start working on February 15, 2018.

[...] Google this year joined the Coalition for Better Ads, a group that offers specific standards for how the industry should improve ads for consumers — full-page ad interstitials, ads that unexpectedly play sound, and flashing ads are all banned. Yesterday, the coalition announced the Better Ads Experience Program, which provides guidelines for companies using the Better Ads Standards to improve users' experience with online ads.

[...] The hope is that Chrome's built-in ad blocker will stymie the usage of other third-party ad blockers that block all ads outright. Google has noted in the past that ad blockers that do not discriminate hurt publishers that create free content (like VentureBeat) and threaten "the sustainability of the web ecosystem." Despite the fact that Google makes the vast majority of its revenue from ads, the company sees its selective ad blocker as the natural evolution of pop-up blockers.

Also at Engadget, Variety, and 9to5Google.

Previously: Google Preparing to Filter "Unacceptable Ads" in 2018


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:58AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:58AM (#612179)

    That will qualify as a derivative work. Adblock gets away with it for a couple of reasons, that doesn't mean that if 90% of the internet does it that the powers that be wont decide to file a lawsuit just because they didn't sue adblock.

    First, adblock is something YOU have to install on your computer. Chrome is installed automatically. Suddenly adding adblock without consent sounds like a third party modification to the page content, that's a problem, since it's a third party modification, rather than a first party modification, google might be on the hook for copyright infringement? Just my thoughts, IANAL.

  • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:04AM

    by jimshatt (978) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:04AM (#612206) Journal
    The "work" you describe is just a list of instructions for a browser to interpret. There is no law regarding *how* to interpret those instructions, only a set of suggestions from W3C and the like. If my browser of choice decides not to download any 3rd party resources (containing instructions for rendering an annoying ad) then that is in no way a modification of the original work.

    HTML is like a paint-by-numbers painting and you're free to use any color or any kind of paint you like.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:35AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:35AM (#612238)

    First, adblock is something YOU have to install on your computer. Chrome is installed automatically.

    You must be an Android user.

    On all other platforms (Windows, Linux, OSX, IOS), Chrome is something YOU install.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:23PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:23PM (#612382)

      Even then, they can just make it an opt-out option that appears with a bunch of others on the first time you run/install it on a platform.

    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:13AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:13AM (#612710) Homepage

      Not exactly. I had never updated Chrome from some very early version. One day a fresh bright orange Chrome icon appears on my desktop -- how'd this happen? Turns out the updater for some other Google service did it, behind my back and without my permission, AND it hid the damn thing clear down in

      F:\Documents and Settings\Rez\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

      Fucking asswipes.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 1) by toddestan on Friday December 22 2017, @12:39AM

      by toddestan (4982) on Friday December 22 2017, @12:39AM (#613053)

      On Windows, Chrome is shovelware that often comes in with some other application you install if you aren't careful to deselect it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:54PM (#612304)

    Suddenly adding adblock without consent sounds like a third party modification to the page content, that's a problem

    Yes, the browsers should display the raw HTML source, as anything else is a modification of page contents.