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Comment by laichzeit0 | Hacker News Reader

> I never understood ad blockers or the people promoting ad blockers.

I block ads because they annoy me. Maybe I'm completely selfish but I don't give a shit that whoever I'm "freeloading" from isn't receiving any compensation.

I also download books, music and software because if I can get something for free, I'm not going to pay for it (don't care about the content creator, this is purely selfish). I also download movies because it's free, and series because it's free and devoid of ads (which waste my time and I don't care for). Even if you made paying easier, if there's a reasonably easy alternative to getting it for free, I'm going to use it.

Why? Because it leaves me with more money to spend on shit I can't get for free.

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M'kay, thanks for proving my point. I can't help but feel annoyed because it is exactly this attitude that brought us DRM, Trusted Computing and that helped build the monopolies that we are seeing.

It's also not selflessness, because one can be both selfish and recognize that it would be in his best interest to not use ad blockers and to not pirate. This is shortsightedness and it is a pity that it's so prevalent.

Unfortunately people are only rational, not super rational.

DRM is mostly ineffective at curbing piracy, but it's very effective at preventing legitimate paying customers from exercising all their rights, like watching the videos they bought on all their devices without buying multiple copies. What makes you think DRM wouldn't be brought anyway?

the people who introduced DRM certainly didn't share the attitude of tbe GP.

I'm not going to click ads and, most importantly, actually buy stuff to feel better about leeching content, anyhow? How would that not be shortsighted nor shelfish?

I used to think like you... when I was a teenager. I remember one of the things that was attractive about cable TV was that it was ad-free. Now, can you name one cable channel without ads?

I am also firmly in the ad-block camp. You have to realize that there is no contract that forces us to follow the expectations of companies' business models. If my lack of cooperation is enough for them to fail at providing the service, they are the ones that need to change. Not me.

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