Re:Show HN: YouTube banned adblockers so I built an extensio...
by PH95VuimJjqBqy on Sunday November 19, 2023 @05:18PM
(#38338947)
As I said in another post, this idea that it's unethical to avoid watching ads is one of the great scams in history, on par with convincing the american public that purchasing diamond rings is a major part of marriage.
but shush, we don't talk about the pirated ... err blood diamonds involved, ethics only becomes important when it's the public doing something they don't like.
In reality, however, this is just a dumb justification for unethical behavior, because people with adblockers will just look for ways to circumvent their anti-adblock measures, in order to keep consuming content for free.
And this behavior is akin to piracy. Software piracy which ensured monopolies thrived.
Just as in the 90s, when software piracy helped companies like Microsoft or Adobe to own the market, YouTube is now a monopoly thanks to people like you. Because alternatives, like Vimeo, couldn't differentiate by being ads-free.
And now that monopoly, which adblockers helped create, is used as further justification for the existence of adblockers. Funny how that works out.
I wouldn't care, except the writing is on the wall for where this is going. In truth, adblocking still works simply because publishers like Google still allow it to work, by not investing in anti-adblock tech or lobbying for legislation (e.g., DRM). It's either that or paywalls everywhere. And this will hurt the open web, much like how software piracy hurt general purpose computing.
Enjoy the free experience while it lasts.