Comment on Any idea what Google are doing? Is this because I dont use Chrome (use Firefox)? I've no adblockers.
db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Lol that’s like too funny now. Hitting legitimate users with the nagware, so that the only ones having a good experience are the pirates :D
coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Let’s be real. Blocking ads isn’t pirating.
Phanatik@kbin.social 11 months ago
The equivalence the person is drawing is something like what Denuvo does on PC. Games that ship with Denuvo suffer significant performance issues but when Denuvo is cracked and put on the high seas, they don't come with Denuvo so the pirates end up having a better experience.
Petter1@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Pirating seems to be always the more convenient way… Especially if you have a docker server…
db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
I know but there’s no other noun that rolls off the tongue quite the same way.
nottheengineer@feddit.de 11 months ago
Ads are the form of payment for the service and using a paid service without paying is piracy. How do you think this is any different?
honey_im_meat_grinding@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Considering that YouTube is as dominant as it is today because of the well-documented network effect[1], you can consider your use of YouTube instead of a competitor in and of itself a payment because it lets them keep their monopoly on video distribution. YouTube knows this, which is why they were so lenient in their early years - if they started off being strict, people would’ve left earlier and made YouTube’s future as a monopoly more uncertain because of a demand for competitors.
Maybe instead of justifying their profit-seeking, we should demand more oversight and democratic say over how YouTube as a monopoly operates? Kind of like how in Germany and Slovenia, workers get 50% of the seats on the board of corporation and get to have a say in how a business operates? Alike many other European countries with varying %es of the board seats, like Norway and Sweden where it’s 33%, or Finland where it’s 20%. [2]
Otherwise, don’t be surprised when YouTube starts going after creator profits next. Something they’re using to justify going after adblock users now.
[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect [2] en.wikipedia.org/…/Worker_representation_on_corpo…
Kbin_space_program@kbin.social 11 months ago
Unfortunately, all it takes is one right wing nut job to liquidate the positions and sell them to corporate interests.
See the decimation of Canada's National Energy Board under Modi and Poilievre's showrunner, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The board, by law, has to be half oil industry and half environmentalists. He fired all of the sane people and sold the empty spots to the oil industry.
TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 11 months ago
The payment for the service is coming from the ad owners. Me choosing not to download parts of a webpage isn't piracy, it's me choosing not to download certain parts of a web page.
BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social 11 months ago
Subsequently, the owner of the website also has the right to not serve you parts of a web page. It's a two-way street mate. This argument that a service provider is obligated to give you everything you want without any conditions simply does not stand up to any real scrutiny.
nottheengineer@feddit.de 11 months ago
So if I understand correctly, you define the border of piracy as the technicality of websites where the HTML and JS are accessible as opposed to a binary that comes with built-in DRM.
How do you think about DRM-free games?
Johanno@feddit.de 11 months ago
Ok the whole idea of ads is a mess. It used to be that showing ads was additional income next to doing your normal stuff. You hosted a website for a blog or sth. and if people liked your blog you could reduce server costs by a few ads. This whole thing got out of hand a century ago when you plan to host a blog(for example) with so many ads on the site so you make a profit from ads. The quality of the blog went so low since it isn’t important that people like rather than click it once. So mass trash production is the result.
Back to Youtube. They provided a service for free to host videos. They did this at a loss for almost ever. They also added a few ads in order to reduce costs, but those ads didn’t turn in profits. They added Youtube Premium in order to make profit. But people didn’t really buy it since it was too expensive (I assume). So now probably there was a big pressure from Google to get YouTube profitable. They increased the ads and the unskippable ones. Slowly they made money, but now the greed has probably taken in. “Force people into Premium by so many ads that the site is unusable without” is probably the current goal to make more money.
Now of course people don’t like to pay for a previously free service, and people don’t like ads: An adblocker it is. Now youtube wants more money! So adblockers must go! This ideology is in line with chrome DRM the web so you don’t can’t block ads anymore (like on Android)
Youtube is totally in the right here. It’s their service and they can do what they want, but I am Also allowed to decide what happens in my Browser on my computer! I can decide to disable ads all I want! There is no law forcing me to watch them. I mean what’s the difference between me bocking ads at a technical level or just go out of the room until it is over? None from a advertisors view, but for Youtube they get money even if you don’t look as long it is displayed.
Adblockers save advertisors money!
Sandbag@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Damn, didn’t think I’d see a corporate shill over here for YouTube/ Google.
nottheengineer@feddit.de 11 months ago
When did I say piracy was wrong?
In this case it’s apparently the only option.
RedIce25@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Nono, fuck google but it’s still a form of piracy
Kbin_space_program@kbin.social 11 months ago
According to that logic, muting a tab while the ad plays, then coming back and rewinding the video is piracy.
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Advertisers tried to say that back in the 90s/2000s. It’s an angle already sadly.
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 11 months ago
Ads aren’t payment because it’s not you the user that’s paying, it’s a 3rd party that pays the provider to shove ads at you. Which you can take or leave.
If I go to a store and don’t want to look at the ads they won’t hold me down and shove them in my face. They’re ultimately interested in me buying actual products. But Google’s real product (YouTube Premium) is not a compelling product and the vast majority of people visiting YouTube come for the freebies not the Premium.
So they’ve resorted to feeding you ads by force but you do NOT have to take it. Google can choose to lock everything behind Premium and if you bypass that then that would be piracy. But simply refusing to look at ads ain’t.
coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers.
It isn’t a form of payment from the consumer. It never was, it never should be.
Melpomene@kbin.social 11 months ago
Simply put, no. You can make the claim but it doesn't make it true.
Even if it were true, fuck the biggest pirate of them all, Google itself.
GeekyNerdyNerd@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
That logic is what will make verification cans a reality.
Professorozone@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Well, for one, if you don’t want something stolen then you shouldn’t put it on your front lawn for everyone to take. There are plenty of services that require payment before you get access.
Two, they are essentially stealing our private data and selling it without our permission, so ads aren’t the only source of payment.
At no point was I informed by youtube that watching ads was a requirement for service. In fact until just now YouTube necessary even told be that using an ad- blocker was not allowed. Technically this is not the same thing. Otherwise I would be stealing every time I left the room when an ad was playing.
AeroLemming@lemm.ee 11 months ago
If blocking ads is piracy, then billboards and junk mail are larceny. It goes both ways.