Internet users and online advertising have always had a complex relationship. The ads pay for the content and services that many users find essential, but on many sites, advertisements have become increasingly intrusive and processor-intensive. That's led to the development of software, like ClickToFlash, that limits the intrusiveness. One of the latest incidents in the ongoing battle over advertising involves file-hosting sites, which support the service by showing ads to users as they download files. One of these sites, MediaFire, is bothered by a Firefox plugin called SkipScreen which automates the user straight past the ads. Instead of going after the software's developers, however, they've apparently targeted Mozilla, which hosts a link to the plugin.

File hosting sites provide a useful service for anyone who doesn't have the wherewithal, either technological or financial, to host large files. Files can be uploaded simply via a browser to free accounts, and then links to the download shared with anyone—it's a bit like a media-agnostic YouTube.

These sites obviously don't make money from the free accounts. Instead, they try to convince users to upgrade to premium services (more storage space, no file size limits, etc.), and by showing ads to anyone who does any downloading. Depending on the service, those ads can require several click-throughs before the bits actually start to flow. Another gimmick is forcing users to wait as long as two minutes to begin the download. So, it's no real surprise that enterprising coders decided to smooth over the process. SkipScreen is programmed to recognize data within the HTML of many popular services, and use that to get straight through to the underlying file.

To some extent, this is just an extension of Firefox's existing capabilities. We tested a MediaFire download, and found it tried to open a full-screen popup ad during the process, which the browser happily blocked for us. SkipScreen, however, went quite a bit beyond the call of duty. Not only did it start the download without any user intervention, but as soon as the file started downloading, it replaced the MediaFire page with one of its own making that's largely an ad for SkipScreen itself, with a Google-supplied text ad thrown in as well.

It's no surprise that the people behind MediaFire are a bit annoyed by this, but they've gone after an unexpected target: Mozilla, which hosts a download link for SkipScreen as part of its collection of Firefox plugins. In a letter sent to Mozilla, the company accuses the SkipScreen developers of "hiding their contact information behind their hosting company," although it's not clear whether MediaFire attempted to use the available e-mail address for the developers. In any case, the letter demands that Mozilla cease "promotion, indexing, and distribution" of the plugin, claiming that it violates MediaFire's acceptable use policy and "steals costly bandwidth."

The SkipScreen developers, however, have gotten the Electronic Frontier Foundation to take up their case. In a letter that has also been sent to Mozilla, the EFF calls MediaFire's claim's "baseless," arguing, "SkipScreen, like many other add-ons, simply automates certain browser tasks in order to improve the user experience." The letter points out that only users who set up accounts agree to the company's acceptable use policy; downloaders just go straight through to the file. Furthermore, it notes, there's no real difference in total bandwidth use for downloads initiated with or without the plugin.

Mozilla has a pretty clear set of rules for its Firefox add-ons, but the only one that might apply in these circumstances is prohibition of the following: "Add-ons that clearly violate terms of service for websites, e.g., spam generators, flooding messages, denial of service attacks, extreme server load generators, etc." It would appear that MediaFire wrote its complaint with this in mind, given its emphasis on acceptable use violations.

In any case, the whole idea of attempting to get SkipScreen off of Mozilla's plugin site may end up backfiring. SkipScreen can be installed regardless of where it's downloaded from, and an extended exchange of lawyer-generated, threatening letters will do little more than raise the software's profile.