[liberationtech] French ISP blocks all web based advertisement, by default.

[Julien Rabier]

Of course, for my first post on this awesome mailing list, I had to do such a
silly mistake to invert opt-in and opt-out.

To sum up :
Acceptable with opt-out : No.
Acceptable with passive opt-in : No.
Acceptable with active opt-in : Yes.

By the way, I take a moment to introduce myself :
I'm participating in a non-profit and local DIY ISP [1] and we are several
organizations in France doing the same thing, some of them grouped in a
federation called FFDN [2]. Promoting Net neutrality, citizen's control over
the Internet infrastructure and so on.

Julien

[1] http://www.ilico.org/ (only in french)
[2] http://www.ffdn.org/en

Le 03 janv. à 19:30, Julien Rabier a écrit :
> Hello everybody,
> 
> Just want to add some precisions :
> 
> - Not all web based advertisements are blocked. Blocking is done with a
>   blacklist of IP addresses.
> - It is done on the CPE level, not in the core network of Free.
> 
> This story is quite shaking the french interwebs and i was like Bernard at
> first and the more I think about it, the more my position is confused.
> 
> My current state of mind is :
> - Is it an acceptable net neutrality violation if it's done on an opt-out
>   basis ? Yes.
> - Is it acceptable in the current, opt-in, case ? No.
> 
> One funny thing is that the ad-company of lemonde.fr (biggest online
> journal in France) owned by X. Niel who also owns Free, is still accessible.
> It's not in Free's blacklist.
> 
> There is a fight between Free and Google about Youtube for some months now.
> So, is it a google trolling move ? 
> 
> At least, it's a good way to show how ad-dependent the commercial web is
> currently is.
> 
> Julien
> 
> Le 03 janv. à 17:41, Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb a écrit :
> > Free ISP a French ISP with approx. 5M subs has blocked, by default, all web
> > based advertisements being served to their fixed-line Internet subscribers.
> > [1, 2]
> > 
> > As a consumer, I would be very happy about it. As a "Internet neutrality"
> > (whatever you want to call it) supporter I disagree with what they are
> > doing.
> > 
> > If they want to offer this as a service, then it should be opt-in, as
> > opposed to opt-out (subscribers can turn it off via their Internet router).
> > 
> > While it's not life-threatening Internet censorship, in my opinion it is
> > still censorship. From a network infrastructure POV, it would be a
> > reasonably large job to carry this out successfully, without issues, but
> > nothing a modern ISP with a budget could not build.
> > 
> > On the Twitters there are various reasons being discussed (the ISP is
> > blocking companies, who are not paying them anything, from making money).
> > 
> > Will we see some websites blocking access for Free ISP subs? Will they
> > offer a second-class service?
> > 
> > An interesting, but slightly disturbing development.
> > 
> > 
> > [1]
> > http://www.rudebaguette.com/2013/01/03/new-update-to-freebox-censors-internet-ads-by-default-for-5-5m-users/
> > 
> > [2] (Google translated)
> > http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.numerama.com%2Fmagazine%2F24665-blocage-des-pubs-free-pete-un-cable.html&act=url
> > 
> > regards, Bernard


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