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Linus Tech Tips uploaded a video showing how to block ads on Youtube. Which was removed by Youtube for community guidelines violations.
(sh.itjust.works)
https://files.catbox.moe/a6111d.png / https://nitter.poast.org/LinusTech/status/1825956050685800834
If you go the video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsjHMzGl-VY. You will see it's gone. So Youtube being Youtube.
Here's a Odysee mirror of the video, https://odysee.com/@jopec:7/linus-tech-tips-degoogle-your-life-part-2-adfree-youtube:0.
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.
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.
Its not piracy though... its the same as if you recorded television and then... skip over the ads. TiVo was doing that 25 years ago. You have no obligation to watch ads.
If content relies purely on ad revenue and viewer ship disappears, perhaps its time to rethink the revenue stream.
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.
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.
Did Linus blame anyone though?
No. He simply stated a fact.
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%.
I think it very clearly is.
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.
Actually I have a track record of 100% getting up to do stuff when ads happen
Like what are you even doing in your life bro?
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?
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.
He did address this in the video
Do you have a source? I've watched his videos for awhile but I don't remember hearing this take from him.
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
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.
He talks about it in this video (the video this thread is about)
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
No, it was most definitely Linus's take. Louis Rossman covered this a couple of years ago. Direct Linus quote from that Twitter thread:
Linus himself covers those Twitter comments, and defends them further, in this video.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
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.
And yet he never said not to adblock, so the only thing he claims are the categorization of adblocking.
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.
No, he's calling a spade a backhoe. Piracy is one of two things, depending on your definition:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
It's a little bit more nuanced than that. Yes you're denying ad revenue but it's not a bad thing.
"These are my Principles and if you don't like them, I have others"