MegaUpload's Promised Ad Service will Hijack Your Browser

[Marik]

Kim Dotcom has hit on a wizard wheeze to profit from his new cyberlocker service. Press release claims that Kim wants to use software which hijacks all the advertisements your browser sees and replaces them with its own. In fact, if Dotcom gets away with it, his new file-hosting service would cannibalize the revenues of other businesses.

The good thing is that service called Megabox will be launched to let musicians and other content creators cut out traditional intermediaries like record studios and instead get paid to provide their wares through the site. However, Kim also has a plan where users of the website could get all those files for free in case they download a refined version of Megakey. The latter was initially launched on MegaUpload two years ago and works by replacing at least some adverts on any sites users visited with ads served up by Mega.

Right now, it isnt against the law. Ad-blocking software is known for many, but the very idea of software replacing adverts with others and thus diverting profits from sites might be regarded as a foul. According to copyright legislation, site owners have exclusive rights to their online property and are able to decide how it looks, which includes the choice of which adverts display on their pages. As such, Megakey might violate site owners IP rights.

Kim Dotcom hasnt provided any comments on the ethics and implications of Megakey, but the experts believe that if he really plays this card he will fast find himself out of friends. Thus far, Kim was successful in attracting a fair bit of sympathy for the way that the US and New Zealand governments illegally colluded to arrest him. However, Megakey, if enforced, might blow that for him and get him in trouble.

Ad-blocking program is one thing, but pinching others hard work for your own profits will definitely make you the bad guy. The only point is that Internet users would be required to give permission before being installed on their PCs. Online users looking for free music may not be very concerned in case Kim annoys site owners, but they might find themselves in trouble if the idea spreads. Others could employ the same scheme and steal each others adverts, so the world would end up with a few ad-serving programs at war with each other on your computer.

Source: Extratorrent

[DKT27]

A bit anti-Gabe way written? ;)

This is known thing. Nothing new. It's mentioned in the past many times that they will replace ads with their own (for cheap / free music). But "hijack" browser? What's with the sensationalisation? :huh:

[Marik]

how should I know, blame the guy who wrote the original title :tehe:

[Ambrocious]

It's considered browser hijacking if you own any of the ads that Kim Dotcom will be replacing (lol). I doub't he will lose friends from doing this, more likely that he will wind up gaining a lot of true friends...rather than a few coniving friends such as some of the mega corporations who don't know what friendship is. Being friends with musicians is a nice thing indeed.

[nIGHT]

This approach was already been used in the 1990's.
Here I tried to remember the past as I have witnessed it.
Coolwebsearch, gator, search-daily.com, mystart.incredibar, babylon toolbar and many more were some pioneers in this field. :spam:
I remember way back, in the end of the 19th century and early year of 2000,

there were only some advert companies dominated the internet world like yahoo

and some I can't remember their names anymore.
To counter these "giants," small advertising companies made an alliance;

it’s the first time I heard about "Business alliance". :lol:
It's different from being an "affiliates" that earns through referral,

for you have to pay to be a part of their "Web" of links.
They use these "Web" of links that locks a surfer into their own chain of web pages and cloned/replica of famous sites.
These "affiliates" are the doorway through these "Web" of linked sites,

and once a surfer enters into these "Web" of links a lot of hijacking happens.
My home page just changed to some pron sites. :wtf: Whatever! That's Fun! :lol:

In the end, I tend to avoid them as it leads me to the same page again after some time surfing. <_<

Some of this modern technique in hijacking changes your browser's search engine.

Then Firefox came! Wow! I love this browser and it's in version 2 at the time I discovered it. :D

It made way to "addons" which I find addicting! Some of these addons are malicious. They replace ads on the pages we viewed! :(
Its hijacking! A lot of websites I've seen lost their revenue due to this technique.
Even on this time this technique is being deployed using addons on Google chrome,

so hijacking technique is way too old, in any form, but still being used today.

I could see that Kim wants to re-do what gator, or or some hijackers, had done before and might share the same fate as well.
It will be antispyware/antivirus’s public enemy no.1 on its list as what happened to gator.

Our nsane's site/forum generate revenue through ads and this is not good news to our community. I love nsane! :P
I am not against mega or kim but I do not like that hijacking idea of his. ;)

Off Topic:

As I remember the pioneers of firefox browser add-ons, one of my favorite addons was Cooliris.

I think it's were Micro$het copied its start screen idea. hehe! :P

[flitox]

kenmelagi, you sir are for sure a member of the alien race. No internet for us, human race during the 19th century! :oops:

[nIGHT]

You got me. oops! :P

[nIGHT]

kenmelagi, you sir are for sure a member of the alien race. No internet for us, human race during the 19th century! :oops:

haha! sorry I mean the end of 20th century! :P

Thanks for the correction.