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YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

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Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gmail, Chrome, Docs, Android, Safe Browsing, Translate... (Yes, some of these involved acquisitions, but there is a difference between acquiring YouTube and acquiring Android Inc.) Google is in a bad place, but I think it's silly to pretend like they didn't have anything else interesting or successful.

Google has plenty of interesting and successful things in their stable, and there’s plenty of innovation in their 25 year history. The argument being put forth is that little of it is the result of recent innovative activity.

It sounds like you agree with me and not with the person I was replying to?

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#112
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how it is done for certain, but with absolute control of the client you could send any information back to Youtube that you wanted. So if all Youtube was requesting was that the minimal amount of time of ads be watched before playing the video you just tell them that you have. I'm sure it is getting far more complicated than this, but I suspect this is the basic idea of this back and forth arms race of a…

If YouTube wants full control over the ads experience, they will have to splice the ad into the video stream itself, and block seeking requests until: 1. The entirety of the ad portion of the video stream has been successfully sent to the client 2. A length of time equivalent to the ad duration has passed A sufficiently advanced ad blocker would be able to block the ad, but you would still be forced to sit through se…

That is my point, it's rather easy for youtube to only stream the data at 1x speed minus the ads duration. So it must be that YouTube allows/allowed ad blockers (and also tools like youtubedl) explicitly. At some point they must have thought: let's not allow things to go too far.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#113
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does your mindset go to being "bullied", though? Aren't you the bully for circumventing their revenue model with the expectation that you should get it for free?

I did not say bullied. I would never have said bullied. I think my original post serves as a sufficient answer and I don’t feel the need to say anything more to disprove your framing.

Whoops, blurring different replies together and did not context thread properly.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#114
post #110
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: but the ads ARE THERE. They're actually in front of you. Not so with an ad blocker.

What if I censor the ads with a Sharpie, is that illegal or unethical too?

A lot of ad people would say that's unethical. Of course, a lot also say it's unethical to go to the bathroom during TV ads instead of sitting there and watching them like a good little consumer.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#115
post #110
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: but the ads ARE THERE. They're actually in front of you. Not so with an ad blocker.

What if I censor the ads with a Sharpie, is that illegal or unethical too?

It's not ever illegal, as long as it's your physical copy. Is it unethical? Well if you're censoring your copy, clearly not: you still saw the ads.

But are you asking in good faith? Or are you asking because you want to get to a point where you use a service that costs money to maintain and yet you don't spend money or view ads but you still feel ethical?

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