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Mozilla warns Germany could soon declare ad blockers illegal (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34873574

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[+] -20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this because everyone here despises ads, but I can see an argument for it. I don't know if it is legaly sound, but morally, it boils down to the fact that you are literally using a service without paying for it. The website is offering you a product and the payment is ads. If you don't want to pay for it, don't use it, otherwise you really are just stealing it (even if that "stealing" costs very little to the site). I personally use an adblocker and agree that ads on most sites are obnoxious, but I also feel like people make adblockers out to be completely black and white, which they are not.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    Ads that hide the content, ads that hijack your navigation, unwanted ads that consume your bandwidth which may or may not be on a paid plan, ads that will slow down your device, increase battery usage, or plain crash the site you're trying to see, all of these are just malware. There's no excuse for malware.

    For a time, adblockers had a provision to allow non intrusive ads. The mere idea is so dead that the option doesn't even make sense anymore.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    'using a service without paying for it' alright. do you want us to sign contractual agreements before visiting websites? Most companies want people to use mobile apps these days because of the legal implications of editing those apps. The ads are baked in.

    it comes down to the philosophy of internet systems you ascribe to.

    I'd like to see your reaction to that television patent that forces people to stand up and clap after the advertisement.

    I'd like to see your reaction to me placing sticky notes on my physical screen over the advertisement's location such that I never perceive the content.

    I'd like to see you kneel, subordinate human worker. Do my bidding. Watch my ads. It's the moral thing to do.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm not advocating for you being forced physically to watch ads, I'm saying that as it stands, ads are the payment method and you actively blocking them means you're not paying for what you're using. I'm not criticising people for that, I'm simply stating a fact. If everyone on the internet was to use adblockers, most of the web would die out, and first to die would be actually useful sites that provide helpful information that they invested time and money into making, such as news, review sites, etc. Perhaps the threat of adblockers itself is benefitial for the internet as it might force websites to find alternate, better payment methods, but I don't see what you could replace ads with since people won't be willing to pay a monthly subscription for every site they visit, and most people won't pay for donations if you try a donations based model.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    If everyone on the internet was to use adblockers, most of the web would die out

    Websites existed before internet ads came about, and while it may be true that most would die without ads I'd be happy to see them go because the vast majority of websites have no value and only exist to try and make a few bucks off ads.

    Hosting for most websites these days is virtually free. For about 80% of mine I only have to pay for the domain names, and I have no desire to serve ads to my visitors under the guise of covering costs.

    The alternatives are directly charging for access to a service, or providing it for free and relying on donations or payment just for extra/bonus features/content. These methods are very successful when something is actually worth paying for.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Hosting costs heavily depend on the type of service, YouTube's costs are very much not negligible, but it is true that for most sites it is very cheap. But hosting costs aren't the only cost, many sites provide useful reviews, news, or testing that costs them money to produce, which they pay for with ads. Yes, some sites survive using alternative payment methods, but I'm skeptical that this can scale to the rest of the internet. My fear is that we'll end up in a situation where 90% of the internet is just YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and other giants and people get all of their news, reviews and other information from those sites, which I think is worse than having ads.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    My fear is that we'll end up in a situation where 90% of the internet is just YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and other giants and people get all of their news, reviews and other information from those sites, which I think is worse than having ads.

    This is pretty much already the case though. And they all have plenty of ads despite being incredibly profitable through their paid offerings.

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