Adblocking under attack

A domain is using DMCA takedown requests to beat ad filters.

While we always want to support our favourite websites, it’s often essential to run an ad-blocker in your browser for a safer and more enjoyable online experience. Many websites don’t want to appear on any filter lists, but one domain is sneakily removing itself from those lists – something that could pose serious problems for adblocking in the future.

It emerged that a commit had been added by a Github account to the popular EasyList filter list, that removed the functionalclam.com domain – which belongs to an ad server – with the comment that it was “Removed due to DMCA takedown request”. The original DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice can be read at

http://bit.ly/2vPtdq5. It threatens a DMCA takedown unless functionalclam.com is removed from the list and “not replace[d] with alternative circumvention attempts”.

The domain is connected to Admiral ( https://getadmiral.com), an anti-adblocking company. Admiral defended its move ( http://bit.

ly/2wAt0Eb), arguing that functionalclam.com is not an adserver, and that it followed GitHub’s Guide to Submitting DMCA Takedown Notice for “Code [that]… is used to circumvent access controls.”

Despite this, many people feel that a company has misused the threat of a DMCA takedown to remove a domain from an adblocking list. Comments by the filter maintainers on GitHub note that, “We had no option but to remove the filter without putting the Easylist repo in jeopardy.”

If it worked for one company, what’s to stop other adservers getting removed? As a comment on GitHub points out, could malware sites issue DMCA letters to anti-virus and security companies? That may be a little hysterical at this point, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on how this unfolds…