• A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9226·
    2 months ago

    Funny, considering in the past he’s gone on big rants about how adblocking is no different from piracy, and is theft.

    But then again, its Linus we’re talking about, its not like he has a particularly big issue with theft anymore.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
      3814·
      2 months ago

      I don’t understand why people are all pro-piracy but then get offended when someone accuses them of piracy…

      He never went on any “big rants”. He’s mentioned it a few times, and he’s right. You’re bypassing payment (in the form of watching ads) to watch the video. LTT doesn’t really care because AdSense only makes up a small portion of their income, which is why he’s shown many different times, many different ways to block/bypass advertising. I could make an argument about how he’s “pulling up the ladder behind him” but I digress.

      Regardless “piracy” is a fairly convoluted term with no concrete definition and it’s a dumb argument for anyone to have.

        • redisdead@lemmy.worldEnglish
          36·
          2 months ago

          We all fucking know what ‘piracy’ means in terms of software piracy and copyright infringement.

          People like you are just being pedantic for the sake of derailing the argument.

          Just admit you are a fucking leech and move on.

            • redisdead@lemmy.worldEnglish
              23·
              2 months ago

              Me: stop being a pedantic twat, we all know what everyone means by piracy in this case

              You: let me be even more pedantic

              It’s ok bro just admit you’re a leech and move on.

              You literally do not have to use YouTube.

      • GaMEChld@lemmy.worldEnglish
        261·
        2 months ago

        This is correct, he both explained how ad blocking hurts creators, and how ultimately he doesn’t mind because purchasing merch is way more beneficial to them then the adsense money.

        All he was saying is do what you want to do but don’t pretend your actions don’t impact other people. Do it with open eyes if you’re going to do it.

        • AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.eeEnglish
          912·
          2 months ago

          To be clear, blocking ads isn’t directly denying anyone money. YouTube decides how video creators are paid and they choose to not pay if ads are blocked. You can agree or disagree with that decision, but the user has no role in it.

          Personally I think it’s shitty that YouTube can just refuse to pay for the content people create for them.

            • Unchanged3656@infosec.pubEnglish
              115·
              2 months ago

              I did not agree to anything. When I open the site they just start serving videos to me (even autoplay is activated by default). If they don’t want me to watch their videos without ads they should stop serving them to me (ie, put them behind a paywall)

            • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
              43·
              2 months ago

              Ownership implies a device should be controlled by the user. I don’t just mean not playing adverts but how about not recording my voice (or other data) to send it to Google servers for them to keep and exploit? You’re free to believe in this implied agreement but I doubt that’s in your best interests.

          • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
            106·
            2 months ago

            YouTube decides how video creators are paid and they choose to not pay if ads are blocked.

            So…this is YouTube’s fault because they chose not to be a charity? LOL that’s some gold-winning mental gymnastics right there.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        227·
        2 months ago

        You’re bypassing payment (in the form of watching ads)

        By this argument going to the bathroom during a commercial break is piracy.

        This isnt “someone being offended when accused of piracy”

        This is " People getting upset when an idiot tries to blame end users, instead of holding the people who created the problem accountable"

        Cause adblock isnt a user problem.

        Its an ad service problem. They created a hostile environment where people had to run adblockers to protect themselves against unmoderated and unpoliced content and malicious/infected advertising.

        If you have issues, blame the people who caused it, not the end users trying to protect themselves.

        • tb_@lemmy.worldEnglish
          103·
          2 months ago

          This is " People getting upset when an idiot tries to blame end users, instead of holding the people who created the problem accountable"

          Did Linus blame anyone though?
          No. He simply stated a fact.

        • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
          1410·
          2 months ago

          By this argument going to the bathroom during a commercial break is piracy.

          Only you didn’t go to the bathroom. The ad just never appeared.

          Chances of you getting up and leaving the room every time an ad comes on: 10%.

          Chances of you blocking an ad with an ad-blocker: 100%.

          This isnt “someone being offended when accused of piracy”

          I think it very clearly is.

          This is " People getting upset when an idiot tries to blame end users, instead of holding the people who created the problem accountable"

          Whether it is piracy or not has nothing to do with blame or responsibility. You’re still just taking personal offense to being called a pirate and conjuring up nonsense arguments to combat it.

      • berengal@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 months ago

        Yeah, him calling it piracy or not doesn’t matter, it’s just a stupid semantic argument that doesn’t matter at all to his overall point. And while I think it’s a stupid take of him, it’s also the reason people are still bringing up his opinion on the matter, so good job of him spreading his message I guess?

      • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
        33·
        2 months ago

        If they want payment, they can require registration, agreement to payment and authentication. Nothing’s stopping them. If they put something on the open web and try to monetize it, nobody owes them a living. If I put a display in a shop window, and include wording that says that looking at the display means you’re obligated to also hear a sales pitch, everyone will rightly tell me to fuck off.

        Choosing not to load potential spyware, malware and bloatware while looking at free content is no more piracy than is crossing the street while shopping to avoid a tout.

        • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
          32·
          2 months ago

          Choosing not to load potential spyware, malware and bloatware while looking at free content is no more piracy

          It is not free content. You’re just spreading disinformation. Just like the movies you download when pirating are not free content. The payment is watching ads. You’re utilizing software to forego that payment (just like piracy).

    • baseless_discourse@mander.xyzEnglish
      14·
      2 months ago

      I think he mentioned that ad-blocking is priacy, but I don’t recall he said piracy is theft or piracy is inheritly unethical.

      He mentioned many time that he pirates stuff, except he would pay for them first.

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.worldEnglish
      101·
      2 months ago

      Do you have a source? I’ve watched his videos for awhile but I don’t remember hearing this take from him.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        122·
        2 months ago

        It was in the streams with Luke. I dont remember the exact ones, I’m sorry. I can say that the last time I saw it was years ago, though, but thats because I stopped watching his content years ago.

        edit

        actually found a clip embedded in another site, i’m shocked.

        https://youtu.be/a-PH2GUy_zM

      • majestictechie@lemmy.fosshost.comEnglish
        102·
        2 months ago

        It was on an episode of the WAN show a while back (I don’t know which, I stopped watching a while ago). He said if you’re not paying for the service or watching the Ads, it’s the same as Piracy because your not paying what’s owed.

        • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Which is incorrect, because Google itself went like 15 years without showing any ads at all to like 5% of their users.

        • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
          11·
          2 months ago

          If some hawker comes up to me and pushes a bunch of flowers in my face while I’m out walking, I’m not obligated to pay for smelling them. And if they’re sufficiently aggressive, they’re committing assault.

      • TexMexBazooka@lemm.eeEnglish
        2015·
        2 months ago

        No, because that isn’t Linus’s take.

        I think he’s referencing a stream once upon a time where Linus discussed the arguments around streaming and it’s impact on creators, from a creator’s perspective .

        But because he uttered something in favor of ads on his videos-which is how they got paid-he’s now considered ultra pro invasive ads by the user above, who professes to not actually watching Linus

          • tb_@lemmy.worldEnglish
            185·
            2 months ago

            I really don’t get the hate he got for that take.

            Circumventing the method of payment could be argued as being a form of piracy. From that point of view, adblock is piracy.

            Like them or not, YouTube is not a charity and requires the serving of ads to continue funding the service. You could argue about how they go about it, but it’s a fact they need some sort of income to continue to exist.
            Same goes for YouTubers. They get a percentage of that ad revenue. And they also need some form of income.

            But just because he said so doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand why adblock is used. He didn’t say “don’t use adblock.” He’s shown how to use adblock before and since. He’s also mentioned that buying something from their webshop gives them a lot more money than turning off adblock.

            Saying “watching movies for free is pirating” isn’t the same as saying “you shouldn’t pirate movies”.
            Using adblock isn’t engaging with YouTube on YouTube’s terms.

            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
              97·
              2 months ago

              Adblocking isnt piracy, from any point of view.

              Its protection. Protection from sudden loud noises and visual diarrhea. Protection from malware and viruses from random website ads, and protection from Right Wing Extremist Propaganda like PragerU videos detailing how the black man should be grateful for the history of slavery and oppression (which has had a documented, factual effect on driving people into right wing extremist behavior, and the violent rhetoric and actions that inevitably follow)

              As long as all of that exists, Adblocking will never be piracy. Adblocking is, and will be, mandatory protection.

              And if Linus, or anyone else, wants to clutch pearls and cry about adblocking… They can take their complaints to Google/Facebook/Other Ad services, because their lack of moderation and inability to policing content on their services are directly responsible for creating the necessity for adblocking.

              • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
                8·
                2 months ago

                Adblocking isnt piracy…Its protection…from sudden loud noises and visual diarrhea.

                I don’t understand how these are mutually exclusive? It’s both.

              • papertowels@lemmy.oneEnglish
                82·
                2 months ago

                To tack onto your list, ad blocking also deprives a source from an intended revenue stream associated with the content, which is probably why it’s being compared to piracy.

                I’m all on board with ad blockers, let’s just at least acknowledge the economic reality surrounding their use.

                • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  52·
                  2 months ago

                  The economic reality is that I have to use adblocking because ad services refuse to police and moderate their system. Thats the economic reality that they created.

                  Having a problem with the end user protecting themselves from what the advertisers and their ad services created is just trying to shift blame.

                  • tb_@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    41·
                    2 months ago

                    But that doesn’t mean it isn’t piracy?

                    Downloading old Nintendo ROMs because the company refuses to redistribute them is also piracy, even though I would say it’s morally justified.

                  • 60fpsrefugee@lemm.eeEnglish
                    3·
                    2 months ago

                    That’s where Youtube premium comes in. To protect you from ads with a cost per month.

                  • papertowels@lemmy.oneEnglish
                    31·
                    2 months ago

                    You…really don’t have to.

                    Again, I’m all for ad blockers, I use Firefox, I’ve ran my own pihole instance, etc.

                    I’m just going to be frank, you’re being a little melodramatic. Do you just get vaporized when you use someone else’s computer and an ad blocker isn’t installed? Likely not.

                    Ironically, by framing what is just a quality of life thing as a mandatory reaction to content providers actions, it sounds like you’re the one trying to shift blame onto them. Your entire argument has very strong “LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO” energy.

                    All I’m saying is call a spade a spade. I acknowledge that by using an ad blocker, I’m economically negatively affecting the content provider. I’m okay with that. On some websites I’ll disable the ad blocker, if it’s one I use a lot with reasonable constraints.

              • tb_@lemmy.worldEnglish
                62·
                2 months ago

                Its protection.

                From your point of view, yeah. Not from the point of view of the creator and the platform.

                Linus isn’t clutching his pearls nor is he crying, he’s just pointing out you are circumventing the method of payment to the platform. It is detrimental to both the platform and the creator. That is a fact. Your choice has an impact and you should be aware of that.
                But at no point did he say “you’re a bad person if you use adblock”.

                What has got you so worried?

          • stephen01king@lemmy.zipEnglish
            157·
            2 months ago

            And yet he never said not to adblock, so the only thing he claims are the categorization of adblocking.

            • AstralPath@lemmy.caEnglish
              123·
              2 months ago

              I’d argue this as well. I see it in a similar way. Linus is obviously not trying to sit on some high horse and condemn piracy, he’s just calling a spade a spade.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                84·
                2 months ago

                No, he’s calling a spade a backhoe. Piracy is one of two things, depending on your definition:

                • sharing/accessing copyrighted material you don’t have the rights for (i.e. seeding or downloading a torrent)
                • circumventing technical restrictions on copyrighted content (e.g. DRM)

                Blocking ads does neither of those things, it merely blocks loading of content that you don’t want to see. It’s basically the modern version of a DVR, where you can choose to cut out portions of a video that you don’t want (e.g. the ads).

                These things are technically piracy:

                • using a YouTube downloader
                • sharing downloaded YouTube videos
                • posting a YouTube video that you don’t own
                • using substantial portions of a YouTube video you don’t own w/o authorization in your own video (i.e. beyond Fair Use)

                Blocking ads isn’t one of those things, neither is skipping over parts of a video you don’t want to see (i.e. the sponsor segment).

                Blocking ads reduces revenue to Google and the video creator. That doesn’t make it piracy, it’s just being a jerk to the platform and the creator.

            • Ilandar@aussie.zoneEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              And yet he never said not to adblock

              In those tweets? Sure. But that’s not an argument I was making, so this is a strawman from you that doesn’t actually counter any of the evidence I have provided. Did Linus say ad-blocking was piracy? Yes. Did Linus say ad-blocking was theft? Yes.

              Whether you think this is moral hypocrisy is irrelevant to me. I was only calling out the previous commenter who straight up lied about Linus’s history and then attempted to frame the people who were right as uninformed and wrong.

              • stephen01king@lemmy.zipEnglish
                1·
                2 months ago

                The comment was replying to one about it being funny that Linus made a video about adblocking when he considers adblocking piracy. That would imply he is against adblocking in general, which your links does not show.

                Yes, he considers it piracy, but he is not against adblocking, which is why the original point of the parent comment doesn’t make sense.

                • Ilandar@aussie.zoneEnglish
                  1·
                  2 months ago

                  Read that second paragraph from me again:

                  Whether you think this is moral hypocrisy is irrelevant to me. I was only calling out the previous commenter who straight up lied about Linus’s history and then attempted to frame the people who were right as uninformed and wrong.

                  If you want to have a debate about the parent comment, debate the person who made the parent comment. That’s not me and I do not care about the point you are trying to make here.

                  • stephen01king@lemmy.zipEnglish
                    1·
                    2 months ago

                    I did read it the first time, which is why I brought up the context of the first comment, which implied that Linus is against adblocking.

                    The comment you claimed to be lying is talking about the actual context of why Linus compared adblocking with piracy, which is about content creators and payment of their content.

                    I’m only calling you out for making a point that is not in the context of the actual thread, not against the proof of what you posted in the first place, so I’m not sure we’re even in disagreement here.

      • SendMeHappyThings@reddthat.comEnglish
        63·
        2 months ago

        I watched this video before it was taken down. At the start of the YouTube section he says something along the lines of “I think ad block is theft, but you’re going to do it, so I have a responsibility to make sure you do it safely.”

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
          117·
          2 months ago

          My ass he cares if you do it safely.

          He’s just trying to pull views from the current controversy. Which I have no problem with, thats what youtubers do. They try to ride every wave and pull viewers from it.

          I just take issue with the smug hypocrisy he exhibits while doing it.

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      72·
      2 months ago

      It’s a little bit more nuanced than that. Yes you’re denying ad revenue but it’s not a bad thing.

      • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
        22·
        2 months ago

        They are being paid by third parties to shove something in your face that you didn’t come to see in the first place. They’re not entitled to earn a cent from that, regardless of what bait they choose to place in the trap.

        Who elected them and who consented to this manipulative, intrusive arrangement?