Re: Software to Block Ads -- Is this an illegal device?

[kragen@pobox.com (Kragen)]

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Dean Anderson wrote:
> At 12:02 PM -0500 2/17/98, Kragen wrote:
> >On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, James Love wrote:
> >> Janet Kornblum recently had a story in News.com which mentions PGP's
> >> recent decision to drop adverstising blocking software.  Reportedly, PGP
> >> was threatened with lawsuits from Internet companies, which claimed the
> >> software was illegal, under US copyright laws.  Her story is at:
> 
> I would suspect it is the transmission or inclusion of trademarked
> domain names in the email filtering software that causes the problem.

This is obviously ridiculous.  Trademark owners do not have the right
or the legal power to prohibit people from talking about them simply
because talking about them requires people to say their trademarks.

> >At home, I route packets to ad.linkexchange.com and www.doubleclick.net
> >to a black hole so I'm not bothered by their ads.  Is this a copyright
> >violation?
> 
> You are in violation of the Georgia statute against using trademarks
> without permission.  

What is this statute?  Please give me citations.  It sounds facially
invalid on free-speech grounds.

> (Note: I always maintained the allowing domainnames to
> be trademarked was a bad idea. Although, I am kind of upset that someone
> else has av8.net.)

Trademarks simply allow you to prevent people from impersonating you.
Nothing wrong with that, I don't think -- and if people identify you by
your domain name, why, there's nothing wrong with trademarking it.

> I am certain however that you can block them since you are a party to the
> communication. But perhaps you can't sell a product that tells other people
> to block them if the product includes their trademarks.

This might have reasons under the boycott laws, but certainly not under
trademark law.

> >Am I a fast-forwarding criminal?
> 
> That I can't say. ;-)

The answer, I'm sure, is `no'.

Kragen