this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

No, it was most definitely Linus's take. Louis Rossman covered this a couple of years ago. Direct Linus quote from that Twitter thread:

Ad blocking is the exact same thing as piracy. Literally the exact same thing.

Linus himself covers those Twitter comments, and defends them further, in this video.

@[email protected] @[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 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.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 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?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Found the Liberal

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I brought up the context of the first comment, which implied that Linus is against adblocking.

It didn't. Read it again:

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 Linux we’re talking about, its not like he has a particularly big issue with theft.

He literally said both of those things. I have proven this. Someone asked for a source. Another person replied with:

No, because that isn’t Linus’s take.

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

As I have proven, Linus literally said both of those things. That was his take in 2022. At this point in the comment chain, no one has implied Linus is "against ad-bliocking". They have only stated that he believed it was no different to piracy and theft, which is true. This third person in the chain was the one who actually brought up the "he's against ad-blocking" argument as a strawman - that was never never implied in the original parent comment.

The comment you claimed to be lying is talking about the actual context of why Linus compared adblocking with piracy

No it's not. That is quite clearly not what it was in response to. Again, read the the comment chain carefully here. You are taking things that were said or implied in other comment chains (or just completely fabricated) and pretending that they were what the comment chain I was involved in was related to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why would the first comment said it is funny for Linus to make a how to adblock video if he is not implying that a Linus against adblock? Please explain how that logic works.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It is funny that YouTube took down his video detailing how to circumvent its revenue stream after he claimed doing so was piracy and theft.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, because you YouTube is against adblocking. It would be more surprising if they don't.

Now answer my question why it's funny for Linus to make such a video when he isn't against adblocking, and how that would mean the parent comment wasn't implying that he is against adblocking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I just answered your question. Read it again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

You might be right, I've misread the point of the parent comment in the first place. I guess I just wasted both of our time, sorry about that.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

He talks about it in this video (the video this thread is about)