Yesterday I mentioned that we will no longer be quoting the Las Vegas Review-Journal, because of their abusive copyright enforcement. Indeed, we won't even link to them.

But it got me to thinking of Wendy's new problem. She spends hours each day reviewing news items for ifeminists.com. Sure, it's easy to remember not to quote one source, but what happens when the copyright trolls start suing for 70 different online newspapers? Post a list by her computer? The engineer in me says there has to be a better way.

And there is, because our browsers already have a way to block objectionable content: ad-blockers. Here's how to configure them to block the Review-Journal:

Opera 9.x:
Click Tools > Advanced > Blocked Content.
Click Add.
Type "http://*.lvrj.com/*" in the box, press Enter, and click Close.
Presto! The Review-Journal will not appear in your browser.

Firefox with AdBlock Plus:
Click Tools > Adblock Plus Preferences.
Click Add filter.
Type "http://*.lvrj.com/*" in the box, press Enter, and click OK.
Unfortunately this only filters the images and formatting from lvrj.com; the text remains in a plain HTML rendering. I'm still trying to find how to fix that (see update below), but at least it serves as a strong visual reminder.

Using the Hosts File:
With a text editor, open the file /etc/hosts (Linux, Unix, OS X) or C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (Windows). Add the following lines at the end:
127.0.0.1 lvrj.com
127.0.0.1 www.lvrj.com
This will redirect requests for the LVRJ back to your own computer, with varying results, depending on how your computer is set up. But the important thing is that you won't see the LVRJ. The problem with this approach is that you can't quickly override it if you need to.

I don't know how to set up ad blocking for Internet Explorer or Safari, but the hosts file should work on any system. As the copyright trolls start litigating additional newspapers, simply add them to your block list.

Now if only someone would write a TrollBlock plugin for Firefox... Update: someone has: the BlockSite add-on.