Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

801–810 of 963 posts

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#801

Post by munk-a »

gpderetta wrote: post #672
fastball wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and Starbucks should feel perfectly at ease kicking you out for that, just as Spotify plans to do. (actually Starbucks does not feel at ease doing that after the whole two men / racism fiasco, but they should feel justified in doing that).

Oh, I agree they can kick you out. But getting a coffee and walking away is very different from using the WiFi and walking away.

Not really, you're using a service, the cost of that service may be incidental but the classic superman/office space bank hack of diverting all the partial cents on interest to a separate account isn't legal just because each action is so small... It is different because it'd probably be silly to enforce that everyone using their wifi has paid for a drink, but there isn't a distinction there ethically or legally... Unless you think that wifi should be a free social benefit for everyone everywhere - but that particular wifi is being provided by starbucks for a cost to them.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#802

Post by gpderetta »

munk-a wrote: post #801
gpderetta wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I agree they can kick you out. But getting a coffee and walking away is very different from using the WiFi and walking away.

Not really, you're using a service, the cost of that service may be incidental but the classic superman/office space bank hack of diverting all the partial cents on interest to a separate account isn't legal just because each action is so small... It is different because it'd probably be silly to enforce that everyone using their wifi has paid for a drink, but there isn't a distinction there ethically or legally... U…

I just think it would be very hard to legally argue that there is any implied contract that you must buy a coffee to use the WiFi. But then again, IANAL.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#803

Post by snuxoll »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #203
snuxoll wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is an avid Pandora user, recently there's been ads from Adam & Eve on the service. It's been fantastic to sit down and eat dinner as a family, then hear an ad for a sex shop play after a couple of songs. It's not like I'm offended at there being an ad for an adult store or anything, but it's just really offputting? I guess? to hear about some buy one get one on adult toys or whatever while I'm eating.

https://www.pandora.com/upgrade

I pay for an Apple Music Family subscription, my wife still uses Pandora on occasion however. She trialed Pandora Premium and a couple months ago noticed her stations suddenly started playing very different music selections, so she decided to not upgrade.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#804

Post by saalweachter »

s_tec wrote: post #701
rstupek wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and it's also within your rights not to use the service, or pay for it. Why should you be allowed to use a service in a way they don't intend you to use it?

> Why should you be allowed to use a service in a way they don't intend you to use it? The Free Software movement has been fighting against this exact mentality for decades. Digital autonomy should be a basic human right. Anyone should be able to download and execute whatever code they want on their own computer. Spotify also has this right, of course, and is free to block users if they choose. I am not morally oblig…

That's the free software movement, not the free music movement Although the latter may actually be the more venerable body.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#805

Post by clubm8 »

cletus wrote: post #255

Good. Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that. To those who justify wanting the paid service for nothing by saying Spotify won't "take responsibility" or "assume liability" for their ads or those ads "might deliver malware" or are "intrusive" as a weak rationalization, you present a false dichotomy. There are at least three options: 1. Pay for the service 2. Suffer through the ads 3. Don't use…

>Good.

>Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that.

Five dollars a month for the rest of my life is not "cheap".

Frugal people look at the total cost of a loan, not just the monthly payment.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#806

Post by CamperBob2 »

s_tec wrote: post #701
rstupek wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and it's also within your rights not to use the service, or pay for it. Why should you be allowed to use a service in a way they don't intend you to use it?

> Why should you be allowed to use a service in a way they don't intend you to use it? The Free Software movement has been fighting against this exact mentality for decades. Digital autonomy should be a basic human right. Anyone should be able to download and execute whatever code they want on their own computer. Spotify also has this right, of course, and is free to block users if they choose. I am not morally oblig…

If you're running the Spotify client, you're using their computer, too, not just your own. You have the right to kick them off of your PC or phone, and they have the right to kick you off of their server. What's the problem with that?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#807

Post by Operyl »

belorn wrote: post #800
cletus wrote: post #255

Good. Spotify has a pretty cheap paid option that removes all of that. To those who justify wanting the paid service for nothing by saying Spotify won't "take responsibility" or "assume liability" for their ads or those ads "might deliver malware" or are "intrusive" as a weak rationalization, you present a false dichotomy. There are at least three options: 1. Pay for the service 2. Suffer through the ads 3. Don't use…

If Spotify won't respect the users rights and take responsibility and assume liability when Spotify distribute malware, why should should the user respect Spotify rights? Society is built on shared respect and the current online advertisement operates on the opposite model. The reason why every large service on the Internet is ad-supported is that it does not need to follow advertisement laws. They don't even need to…

Why should the user then not respect Spotify’s right to terminate their account based on the TOS? Goes both ways if you ask me.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#808

Post by notyourwork »

heheocoenev wrote: post #793
angus-prune wrote: post #777

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) absolutely - they are not stopping you from doing whatever you want on your machine, they are just not allowing to use their service. I don't think anyone would advocate making "ad blocker" a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, sexuality etc b) absolutely - most people either don't use ad blockers, and of those that do, most people are not militantly committed to them. There will be a set of people wh…

I would advocate for legal rights to use an adblocker! If we don’t, it’s going to be banned under CFAA in the future. Ads suck! Nobody has the right to force these on me!

You don’t have to listen to Spotify right?

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#809

Post by coenhyde »

I recently cancelled my Spotify subscription because of their low quality audio. But i was reverting to it for music i couldn't find on Tidal. I guess I'm going to have to nuke it entirely now.

I'm assuming they are going to consider my use of outbound traffic restrictions on the Spotify app "ad blocking". Spotify makes all kind of ridiculous outbound requests for ad services, and many of those requests are over plain text http. Given that Spotify is a webkit app, that's a nice little attack vector Spotify is providing. Not to mention malicious ads often make their way into the ad networks. So i just block anything other than 443 to *.spotify.com domains.

Just deleted the app. I'll use Youtube instead.

Re: Spotify will now suspend or terminate accounts it finds are using ad blockers

#810

Post by rrix2 »

heheocoenev wrote: post #793
angus-prune wrote: post #777

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a) absolutely - they are not stopping you from doing whatever you want on your machine, they are just not allowing to use their service. I don't think anyone would advocate making "ad blocker" a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, sexuality etc b) absolutely - most people either don't use ad blockers, and of those that do, most people are not militantly committed to them. There will be a set of people wh…

I would advocate for legal rights to use an adblocker! If we don’t, it’s going to be banned under CFAA in the future. Ads suck! Nobody has the right to force these on me!

nobody has the "right" to use a service, conversely.
Post reply on HN