On 26/02/07, vijay chopra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 26/02/07, Peter Bowyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I completely disagree. The ToU of my website could preclude its use in > the way you're proposing. I can take proportionate steps to enforce my > ToU - which in this case could include preventing your proposed use. So you think the ToU of a website could legitimately say "if you want to view this site you must view it all"? Because that's what it sounds like (after all my "proposed use" is just not using some of it at all), and without taking control of my eyeballs I don't see how that's possible.Even when on the web away from my home PC, and thus expose to adverts, I take no notice of them and just scroll past them, what would any ToU have to say about that, or would you say "to view this site you must view the advertisements"? In which case how would you enforce it?
Of course it's not 100% enforceable, and the cost of enforcing the edge cases would be too great. But my point is that you don't have the right you seem to be claiming to use my (theoretcial) website's content in any way you choose - I have the right to restrict your use by ToU, and to take technical steps to enforce that ToU if I choose. Ad blocking by a small minority isn't a problem, but as has already been pointed out here, as it increases, it starts to affect the commercials of the site owner. A large site, as you've correctly pointed out, has other forms of revenue, monitors the effectiveness of all such forms constantly, and is able to shift its focus as and when it needs to. But it's the smaller site which relies on its ad revenue to stay cost-neutral that would be badly hurt if a large proportion of its users blocked its ads. Those sites at least have the right to say 'if you want to take my content, take my ads', and to take technical steps to enforce that. The user of course has the right to say 'no thanks' and go elsewhere. Peter -- Peter Bowyer Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
