With all the hubhub about SOPA being passed in the US, I had a thought:

The big corps don't like you pirating their stuff because it means less potential revenue for them.  But what about the big corps who earn big from online advertising not liking people blocking ads, lowering their revenue stream?
There already exists some websites which seem to go to lengths to try to detect AdBlock and similar, whilst some others ask their users to disable ad-blocking when visiting their website.

The general consensus is that ad-removal is legal, but I wonder how far that actually extends.  Would, say, a hardware device which records and automatically strips out advertising from TV channels be considered legal?  Removal of branding?  What about adware applications (with payware versions with no ads) and blocking ads in those?

On the other hand, it's probably harder to see something offensive about ad-blocking vs the "stealing" image associated with piracy that large corps have tried to drill into us.  Also, Google is probably one of the largest online advertisers (online is somewhat the most important as that's where most ads are blocked) and they seem to have a decent interest in maintaining their PR, at least for now.

Do you think there will ever be laws to control ad-blocking?

(This post was last modified: 08/01/2012 05:12 AM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)