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Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

What is the morality of thinking anyone is allowed to fully control my machine? I guess I'm showing my age, but browsers were _user_ agents, once.

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Yeah. The audacity of these corporations. It's offensive that they even think they can dictate what our computers do or don't do.

No one is forcing you to use youtube. I think the situation is more like the opposite, adblockers are trying to gain control of youtube servers in order to obtain the product without paying.

YouTube isn't forced to serve me anything. If they don't want to, sure, they can go ahead. What _is_ served, I will parse however I see fit.

I mean that's exactly what they're doing here... Refusing to serve the video until the ad is watched.

If I can parse whatever they serve such that I can skip it, they are evidently not refusing to serve.

Adblockers run within the browser's space, they don't intrude into any servers by any means whatsoever. Your statement is completely wrong and misguided.

The current implementation sends YouTube false information about whether the ad was run. That absolutely intrudes on the server. Really it's no different from telling a cashier you already paid online or something like that.

I guess we're even then, since they do not respect DNT.

[Edit] can't reply to below, but since I am not violating any law, I don't see how I need to admit to anything. I'll admit to using my user agent as intended.

Hey I've got no qualms about stealing from youtube. I'm just willing to admit that that's what I'm doing.

What current implementation and what false information? What are you talking about? The article literally says the opposite?

Everything is on youtube and alternative sites either die out or don't get anything uploaded onto them. It's effectively a monopoly.

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