And yet he never said not to adblock, so the only thing he claims are the categorization of adblocking.
No, it was most definitely Linus’s take. Louis Rossman covered this a couple of years ago. Direct Linus quote from that Twitter thread:
Ad blocking is the exact same thing as piracy. Literally the exact same thing.
Linus himself covers those Twitter comments, and defends them further, in this video.
stephen01king@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
AstralPath@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
I’d argue this as well. I see it in a similar way. Linus is obviously not trying to sit on some high horse and condemn piracy, he’s just calling a spade a spade.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
No, he’s calling a spade a backhoe. Piracy is one of two things, depending on your definition:
- sharing/accessing copyrighted material you don’t have the rights for (i.e. seeding or downloading a torrent)
- circumventing technical restrictions on copyrighted content (e.g. DRM)
Blocking ads does neither of those things, it merely blocks loading of content that you don’t want to see. It’s basically the modern version of a DVR, where you can choose to cut out portions of a video that you don’t want (e.g. the ads).
These things are technically piracy:
- using a YouTube downloader
- sharing downloaded YouTube videos
- posting a YouTube video that you don’t own
- using substantial portions of a YouTube video you don’t own w/o authorization in your own video (i.e. beyond Fair Use)
Blocking ads isn’t one of those things, neither is skipping over parts of a video you don’t want to see (i.e. the sponsor segment).
Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 week ago
And yet he never said not to adblock
In those tweets? Sure. But that’s not an argument I was making, so this is a strawman from you that doesn’t actually counter any of the evidence I have provided. Did Linus say ad-blocking was piracy? Yes. Did Linus say ad-blocking was theft? Yes.
Whether you think this is moral hypocrisy is irrelevant to me. I was only calling out the previous commenter who straight up lied about Linus’s history and then attempted to frame the people who were right as uninformed and wrong.
stephen01king@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
The comment was replying to one about it being funny that Linus made a video about adblocking when he considers adblocking piracy. That would imply he is against adblocking in general, which your links does not show.
Yes, he considers it piracy, but he is not against adblocking, which is why the original point of the parent comment doesn’t make sense.
Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Read that second paragraph from me again:
Whether you think this is moral hypocrisy is irrelevant to me. I was only calling out the previous commenter who straight up lied about Linus’s history and then attempted to frame the people who were right as uninformed and wrong.
If you want to have a debate about the parent comment, debate the person who made the parent comment. That’s not me and I do not care about the point you are trying to make here.
tb_@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I really don’t get the hate he got for that take.
Circumventing the method of payment could be argued as being a form of piracy. From that point of view, adblock is piracy.
Like them or not, YouTube is not a charity and requires the serving of ads to continue funding the service. You could argue about how they go about it, but it’s a fact they need some sort of income to continue to exist.
Same goes for YouTubers. They get a percentage of that ad revenue. And they also need some form of income.
But just because he said so doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand why adblock is used. He didn’t say “don’t use adblock.” He’s shown how to use adblock before and since. He’s also mentioned that buying something from their webshop gives them a lot more money than turning off adblock.
Saying “watching movies for free is pirating” isn’t the same as saying “you shouldn’t pirate movies”.
Using adblock isn’t engaging with YouTube on YouTube’s terms.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Adblocking isnt piracy, from any point of view.
Its protection. Protection from sudden loud noises and visual diarrhea. Protection from malware and viruses from random website ads, and protection from Right Wing Extremist Propaganda like PragerU videos detailing how the black man should be grateful for the history of slavery and oppression (which has had a documented, factual effect on driving people into right wing extremist behavior, and the violent rhetoric and actions that inevitably follow)
As long as all of that exists, Adblocking will never be piracy. Adblocking is, and will be, mandatory protection.
And if Linus, or anyone else, wants to clutch pearls and cry about adblocking… They can take their complaints to Google/Facebook/Other Ad services, because their lack of moderation and policing content on their services are directly responsible for creating the necessity for adblocking.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 week ago
I don’t understand how these are mutually exclusive? It’s both.
papertowels@lemmy.one 1 week ago
To tack onto your list, ad blocking also deprives a source from an intended revenue stream associated with the content, which is probably why it’s being compared to piracy.
I’m all on board with ad blockers, let’s just at least acknowledge the economic reality surrounding their use.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The economic reality is that I have to use adblocking because ad services refuse to police and moderate their system. Its the economic reality that they created.
Having a problem with the end user protecting themselves from what they themselves created is just trying to shift blame.
Its literally nothing but rich assholes crying about how unfair it is that the poor are protecting themselves.
tb_@lemmy.world 1 week ago
From your point of view, yeah. Not from the point of view of the creator and the platform.
Linus isn’t clutching his pearls nor is he crying, he’s just pointing out you are circumventing the method of payment to the platform. It is detrimental to both the platform and the creator. That is a fact. Your choice has an impact and you should be aware of that.
But at no point did he say “you’re a bad person if you use adblock”.
What has got you so worried?
steel_nomad@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Found the Liberal