There is an article on CNET today about how pop-up blockers might be illegal, because they...are blocking ads, and apparently you can't do that in society today. I don't know how that is the case, because I'm not infringing on anybody's rights here, but the law was used to challenge the Betamax VCR and may very well be used to challenge TiVo.
My question is twofold. One, how is that illegal? Two, even if it is illegal, how is that law not mental? You might as well tell people that they can't close their blinds at home lest they don't see billboards or that you can't come late to a movie theater because you might miss that Bod advertisement they play beforehand (speaking of which, who ever thought that packaging cologne or body spray like Windex was a good idea?). I don't think I'd go so far as to say it's an infringement of privacy or anything like that, but to say that you have to look at an ad is ridiculous. A company has the opportunity to advertise in a variety of different ways. If they choose to use a way that is completely ineffective, that's their prerogative. They shouldn't have laws demanding that you look at what they're trying to sell you. If indeed those laws exist, they should not be obeyed. After all, if I spent the time looking at all the spam, billboards, ads in newspapers, on TV, popups, etc to comply with the law, I'd never get anything done.
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