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I don't understand... isn't that something that the company decides? How are users stealing something?

For the longest time companies have been able to market something as 'free' when they have been the ones who have been trying to hide the fact that users' data was being sold, etc. So I would argue that if someone is 'stealing', it is actually the companies themselves.

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No, GDPR effectively says that you have to get the users to opt in to your targeted ads (aka the business model) but you also cannot deny them the content if you opt out. In effect, the EU wants to get all the content for free while not paying the costs that give them such great content which is targeted advertising.

The "stealing" is because they are trying to get companies to give their content out for free without paying the cost which requires targeted advertising (and no, generic ads pay shit which is why tons of companies are blocking all the EU because they now aren't worth the server costs).

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