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

Thu Jan 3 12:08:24 PST 2013

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Salut Julien,

Thanks for correcting me: the one English article I read (mentioned in my mail) was light on details, and my French is, well non-existent, so I was reliant on Google translate, which I never trust!

For the point of core infrastructure, the fact that the user can turn it off (as opposed to on!) from the CPE makes sense then. But also quite a "sloppy" solution.

Regarding the ad IP blacklist: is there any information on it? Who creates it/manages it? Is there any way to get on/off this list? Presumably Google ad IPs are on there.

I did not know about the connection with the Free owners and the ad-business.

I wonder what the purpose is, indeed. Just trolling like you say...it being a sloppy solution would lead me to believe its something like you suggest.

thanks,
Bernard

On 3 Jan 2013, at 18:42, Julien Rabier wrote:

> 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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> 
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- --------------------------------------
Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb

IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

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