For a while I’ve always thought ad blockers were illegal, since they keep a certain part of a web page from displaying (thus modifying a copyrighted work). But I started thinking about this even more since I saw this little charm on Digg, and I have come to the conclusion that they are perfectly legal.

When you copyright a website you are copyrighting the code, not what it looks like. When you copyright a program, you copyright the code, not what it looks like. When you copyright a book you are copyrighting the text, not what it looks like.

“Look and feel” cases have been fought in court over and over (Apple vs Microsoft, for example), and for the most part the “look and feel” of something isn’t really copyrightable. The individual items are copyrightable, but you can’t really copyright having a menu bar up top, or having an icon bar here or a link list there. You can patent it, however, but how many people get a $10,000 patent on a website’s design?

Adblockers don’t really modify the code, all they do is prevent a certain section from being displayed. How is it any different from that part of the site being incompatible. How is it any different from not having flash installed, thus not being able to view a flash object. How is it different from viewing the site in a text-based browser?

The logic of “ad blockers are illegal” also means “not having flash installed when visiting a flash-enabled site is illegal”. That part of the site isn’t being displayed, so yeah it must be illegal.

Another common argument is “oh, well they are stealing from me by reading my free content without viewing ads” Now think about that for a second. They are giving away free content and bitching about people stealing it by not showing advertisements. How the heck is that stealing? Stealing would be taking paid-membership-only content and posting it for free somewhere or taking free content and claiming it as your own.

So, what do you think: legal or illegal? Ethical or not ethical?

Here are five of the best copyright resources on the web:

Plagiarism Today

Plagiarism Today is an awesome blog that has a ton of great copyright information, and it even has some sample takedown letters and cease and desist orders amung other things.

Visit Site (Feed)
Jonathan (the owner) is also a co-host of the Copyright 2.0 podcast.

EFF

Whenever you hear about copyright/trademark issues you should think about the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If you ever have a major issue with a corporation and can’t afford a lawyer or need to get information, let them know. They may help you out. They even have a section of their site targeted toward bloggers.

Visit Site

Chilling Effects

Chilling Effects is where a lot of DMCA notices are posted. Even Google posts most notices they receive on the site. If you don’t know how to write a DMCA notice, then why not take a look at notices written by lawyers?

Visit Site

U.S. Copyright Office

Of course the copyright office has a ton of great information. Although some sections of it are very vague, it gives you the general idea of issues.

Visit Site

Performancing Legal Issues Forum

Although I am not a member of it, I have been creeping around the Performancing legal issues forum for a while now. Most of the information posted can be found on the other sites I listed above, the legal issues forum has some little gems of information and more importantlly - people’s experiences with legal issues.

Visit Site

Some blogs are obviously splogs, but others are a bit harder to spot. Here are a few quick thoughts that should run through your head before linking or subscribing to a blog:

Is the layout lame?

More often than not sploggers will choose to use default layouts for their sites. I’d be wary if a blog you are visiting uses the default Kubrick theme for WordPress or an unmodified Blogger theme.

Wait, that’s my footer!

You can add some really neat things into your post’s footers for your RSS feed via FeedBurner. I think Nusuni.com is set to show a Digg-This link, add to del.icio.us, and a comment count link. Splogs will almost always pick up those extra things as well as the content, so the second I see them on some posts and not on others I know I’m dealing with a splog.

Nude chicks and SEO tips? This is my kinda site!

I recently had to deal with some splog that had stolen a article that had the word “Nude” in it once, and it added it to a page called nude.html with a bunch of porn as well. Needless to say seeing SEO articles on a page called nude.html is a bit iffy, wouldn’t you agree?

A bit too much Adsense…

The second I see more than 2 adsense blocks when I first open a page is the second I leave the site. Adsense should be spread out for best results, but sploggers toss them in one big pile.

Free-Mosothelioma-Information-Viagra-Vioxx-Porn-Warez-Info.biz

Although many keyword domains are owned by legit affiliate marketers, most (especially .info and .biz) are owned by sploggers. Some people don’t seem to understand domains like “free-viagra.biz” or “buy-mesothelioma-now.info” are something a spammer would use.

RSS Feed

A true blog will have an easy-to-find RSS feed. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but splogs almost never have them. Why? Current RSS advertising solutions suck - so they want people to always visit their splog.

Check The Comments… Not!

Oh wait, you can’t. Most non-Blogger splogs don’t allow them. And despite the fact something like 70% of blogger blogs are splogs, most splogs are not blogger blogs (try saying that 5 times fast).

I believe 2007 will end up being the end of the RIAA’s reign of terror. I am all for protecting copyrights, but using illegal tactics is just as bad as stealing other people’s work. They have already started losing many of their cases overseas, and even in the U.S. is looks as if the music labels will end up losing.

Universities who previously gave in to the RIAA’s pressure are finally standing firm, and the mothers who are being sued for $100,000 because their son illegally downloaded a single song are finally starting to win.

To top it all off Veoh is now suing Universal Music to bar UMG from filing a lawsuit because they threatened to sue Veoh far too many times, without filing any sort of DMCA or legal documents against Veoh.

Filing frivolous lawsuits against people for $100,000 because they steal a single 99 cent song does nothing but prove that the animosity towards lawyers, judges, and Congress is fairly well-founded.

As I have said in the past - go after the uploaders. It is the only way to win. It’s a bit like spam. Stop going after the spammers - go after the advertisers that fund them. Get rid of the thing that makes them want to break the law and they won’t want to break it any more.

• Get rid of patents. Period. Why the hell do we have them? If no patents existed patent trolls would not exist, and there would be no reason for big corps (or patent trolls) to stifle innovation. Let alone, all it takes is 2 years for an invention to become so generic the patent doesn’t apply any more. Plus it focuses too much on who gets awarded a patent first vs who actually made the invention first. The only way to fix the patent system would be to completely gut it and start over, or get rid of it all together. Notice how the only corporations that support it are big companies like Microsoft and Apple. I think instead of having to actually register a patent, you should be able to go after a company if you can prove you came up with the design/idea first.
• Anyone who files a blatantly fake DMCA notice should be held personally liable for any legal fees (so the lawyer or whoever can’t hide behind a corporate veil). Although I’d imagine it would be possible to remove the corporate veil by naming 500 different laws, I think a specific clause should be made for this. For example, Viacom’s lawyers should be held liable for illegally filing DMCA takedowns to get home movies removed from YouTube.
• People should be allowed to sue in court if they hold an unregistered copyright. The US is very unique in that it doesn’t allow that, you must register to sue.
• Make harsher penalties for violating the DMCA laws. Anyone who files a fake notice maliciously should be thrown in jail. DMCA takedowns are legal documents, but for some bizarre reason the govt. doesn’t punish people very harshly for faking them, even if the intent was malicious.
• Make it so anyone who provides advertising (and other forms of monetization) on a site which steals content (like splogs) also subject to the DMCA laws. Technically speaking right now advertising and such isn’t covered (so Google Adsense doesn’t have to accept DMCA notices, even though they do).
• Make common law trademarks more powerful.

There are a few other things that should be done, but those are the main items.