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The convincing justification is only one part of the argument.

The other part is about freedom to challenge contemporary adtech and digital business models.. ie. Compute on my terms.

Content creators and YouTubers are welcome to not serve me their content if I don't accept their trackers.

It's not only about affording a modern smartphone: all these digital behemoths rely on us keeping up to date to their tech standards, chasing the latest phone, the latest firmware.

Software like newpipe lets us engage on our own terms.




Sometimes I think of the freedom to challenge contemporary restaurant business models too.. you know, food on my terms. Restaurants are welcome not to serve me their food if I don't accept their bill, but I won't tell them upfront just like you.

Let's not pretend this is about high-minded freedom; like everyone else in a free market, you're free to not consume the fruits of labor from content creators and YouTube.

At least in your previous comment, I thought it was honest and interesting to raise the issue of self-interested piracy for low-income users. For all your talk of entitlement, how disappointing it is for you to end with "but I'm entitled to their work because I don't like their terms".


> Restaurants are welcome not to serve me their food if I don't accept their bill, but I won't tell them upfront just like you.

What's the restaurant equivalent to me having to turn on JavaScript or disable my ad blocker?

> thought it was honest and interesting to raise the issue of self-interested piracy for low-income users.

Well, I touched you on that point (inequality). But it seems that I failed to touch you on the fact that digital users are entitled to run whatever they want on their computer.


Creators have the right to set terms on the fruits of their labor. Your rights end where their rights begin. A restaurant's terms is their fee, YouTube and creators' terms are ads or Premium.

I don't know why some people think they can just make up the right to do whatever they want with other people's work. You can do what you want on your computer, but not with their stuff. Easy solution: don't use YouTube, but apparently you think you're entitled to it.


I am entitled not due to a sense of self entitlement, but because that's how the protocol for engagement on the web defines it: that's how tcp/ip works. I type in a url and my computer takes whatever bits the server sends my way.

Platforms and creators have pletora of other protocols to use that suit the model you're suggesting.


We're not entitled to do everything we're capable of doing. I'm capable of cheating and stealing, the protocol of physics allows me to do so. I'm also capable of trespassing, a fence or door lock doesn't really stop me. My fellow citizens have a plethora of other protections like electric barbed wire fence and reinforced titanium locks or armed guards to suit the model of entry that they want.

But the model of entry is not my right to decide. I do not freely infringe on others' rights because my tools allow me to do so. I do not infringe of others' rights because other people have a plethora of alternative rights to choose from.

Content creators and YouTube have agreed to a set of (legal) terms of entry, as is their right: watch ads or pay for Premium. It is not your right to deny them simply because you are capable of it.


Bad analogy. Google doesn't charge so there is no bill to accept.


The bill is the ads which they enforce to the best of their ability, the analogy doesn't have to be literal. Google also offers a literal charge, in the form of YouTube Premium.


You can pretend that's the case, I won't. The only rights a company has towards its customers are to provide its services, charge money, and shut up otherwise. Demanding its customers to harm themselves is none of these things.


> Content creators and YouTubers are welcome to not serve me their content

Except they are not. If you turn on an ad blocker and use YouTube, the creator of the content has no way to stop you.


That's odd. There's plenty of content creators that won't serve me anything unless I have: paid and/or have JavaScript turned on.




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