It’s surprising how many people in the comments don’t want adverts, don’t want sponsorship AND don’t want to pay anything for content.
Why would I want to pay for anything? Consumers generally seek the lowest possible price. That's how economics works. YouTube wouldn't be what it is if it wasn't "free". I do pay for my internet connection and bandwidth. But obviously I found the best possible deal. There is the busking model and I do choose to contribute a small amount to a small number of creators that I can tell put a lot of cash and effort into t…
Hiding behind theories of consumer behavior is not an excuse for immoral actions. Open source was never meant to be the place where open theft and piracy should thrive. And, the Robinhood sentiment isn't really applicable here because you're stealing from creators. YouTube may be owned by a multi billion dollar corporation, but it does support and bootstrapped a vibrant creator community. The more time we spend stealing content that should be supported by ads or a paid subscription the less effective we make that economy. If we want to do good here, pay some of your favorite creators with a tip, or merch, or specifically sub to their channel. Or, even better, come up with ways creators get paid more. Subverting ads is a downward spiral for things to work better for consumers and creators.