> Adblockers like uBlock Origin hurt these sites by deriving them of revenue.
And these sites hurt us with their surveillance capitalism and deceitful marketing nobody asked for. They have only themselves to blame for abusing our trust and good will.
If they don't like the fact we haven't paid for their content, all they need to do is return HTTP 402 Payment Required. If they try to make us pay through ads, we'll just delete them. Nobody is obligated to look at or click on this stuff for the sake of some site's revenue. When we buy a magazine, we can rip out the advertising pages and throw them in the trash.
> I don't see how these sites will survive
Maybe they shouldn't survive if they can't come up with a business model that doesn't involve shipping 10 megabytes of ads and tracking people's every move.
> Will the government move to rule adblocking illegal?
Governments barely manage to keep copyright infringement under control despite the lobbying of multi-billion dollar industries. Surely they have better things to do than police what browser extensions people use.
> Will websites engage in sophisticated technical anti-adblock measures?
And these sites hurt us with their surveillance capitalism and deceitful marketing nobody asked for. They have only themselves to blame for abusing our trust and good will.
If they don't like the fact we haven't paid for their content, all they need to do is return HTTP 402 Payment Required. If they try to make us pay through ads, we'll just delete them. Nobody is obligated to look at or click on this stuff for the sake of some site's revenue. When we buy a magazine, we can rip out the advertising pages and throw them in the trash.
> I don't see how these sites will survive
Maybe they shouldn't survive if they can't come up with a business model that doesn't involve shipping 10 megabytes of ads and tracking people's every move.
> Will the government move to rule adblocking illegal?
Governments barely manage to keep copyright infringement under control despite the lobbying of multi-billion dollar industries. Surely they have better things to do than police what browser extensions people use.
> Will websites engage in sophisticated technical anti-adblock measures?
Most likely. It is an arms race.