A dark and sinister turn...
Mr Whittingdale also launched a new drive to tackle ad-blocking, saying it poses a similar threat to websites that illegal file-sharing did to music and film a decade ago.
"This practice is depriving many websites and platforms of legitimate revenue," he said. "It is having an impact across the value chain, and it presents a challenge that has to be overcome. Because, quite simply, if people don't pay in some way for content, then that content will eventually no longer exist.
"And that's as true for the latest piece of journalism as it is for the new album from Muse."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35708623
I'm really surprised at the blinkered viewpoint by many here on El Reg. A few of you get it, I know, but to be arguing over this 'someone's got to pay for the content' malarkey, is totally missing the point.
This is about control. This is about taking away your right to sovereignty. It has nothing at all to do with people being all concerned that some people aren't making money. They are making money. Business is thriving.
The reason people are getting uppity is because they have realised that the advertising does not work, so therefore do more of it to make it work more! And for those whom it does work for, it's just about greed.
I will not take your adverts on prinicple. If you don't allow me to use your site because I use an add blocker, you can fuck right off. Like with the BBC, if you make me pay for iPlayer, I simply will not watch it. No big deal. There's fuck all on worth watching anyway. The propaganda in the entertainment field is disgraceful. The actors and the writers, reduced now, to nothing better than cheap whores.
I can't stress this enough. This is a non-issue. You will not server me adds. I will not accept them. It was never part of the deal. I don't even have to give a reason for it. I'm breaking no laws. There is no contract, implied or verbal or written or anything else. A few sites have pulled that 'yo dude, we heard you like adblockers, so we decided to block you from using the site until you turn it off'. I then fuck them off sharpish.
This is universal for me. I will not pay for a TV license, for the very same reason I don't pay for a fishing license. No explanation needed. It's all you mugs that do pay for a TV license that are part of the problem. But it's all good, because you are paying to have me be tracked. Yes, that's right. I'm actually being tracked by the BBC and their clandestine services, and you paid for it. Suckers.
This is a war. There can be no middle ground.
Let me be very clear, I am under no legal obligation to put myself in a position, where I would be required by law, to have adverts served to me, or forced to watch content that I chose not to (iPlayer). By all means make iPlayer a service that requires a fee. I will then no longer require the service. No explanation needed.
Quite simply, Whittingdale the witless can fuck right off. For him to conflate music piracy with people using an adblocker is not just ingenuous - it is wrong on every conceivable level. I can only conclude then that the man has ulterior motives. This is not about adblockers and people getting paid for content. It is about what you have a right over and do not have a right over.
Then again, we really have entered into the dark ages now, the dream is over, big brother is here, and he is starting to push his weight around already. Didn't take long did it? Don't you see how this is all pre-planned and being rolled out to a timeline? Don't you see the game they are playing?
I am done with arguing the points on this. My main reasons for ad-blocking are technical - security wise. 'Nuff said. I do NOT have a reason for blocking ads 'for getting free stuff' and 'getting something for nothing'. It's called a business model. Those that have a working one will survive, those that do not, will not. I visit many sites where the blocking is turned off effectively, because the ads are built into the content - I'm talking audio websites like KVR and Gearslutz. I eradicate a lot of the ads, but those sites are just one big advertisement anyway, so they survive.
If I wanted fucking dick pills flashing across my screen in bright red letters, when I am researching my suspected prostate cancer, I would have asked for them. Time and a place gentlemen. Time and a place.
The fact the government are getting involved in this is really worrying. They are not to be trusted. They just crossed the totalitarian line. Those that do their bidding are not to be trusted either.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. The good old days are over. I'm actually looking to go totally offline in the coming months. There is not one thing in this world that I need the internet for. I don't have a mobile phone or any other mobile devices that would connect outside anyway. I'm not going to get one now.
Of course, the sleeping masses are walking right into this one (including even you techies here at El Reg who think this is about advertising). And not only do they love their servitude - they are happy to pay for it out of their own pocket.
These are very dark and dangerous times, gentlemen (and ladies).
People are already getting knocks on the door because of a comment on twitter. How long before the knock comes and they say 'our records show that you have been using an adblocker'? Hard to believe eh? Well this whole world is hard for me to believe, compared to how I thought things were going to turn out a few years ago. 1984 is here, now, today. A few decades late, but in fine form.
Government ministers calling me a fucking thief for using an adblocker when it is my connection, my electricity, my time, can go to hell. There is no contract that says I have to view your site. If you disallow the use of adblockers, I will not even circumvent it, I will break the law in NO way, but I will NOT view your site.
Peaceful resistance to a Totalitarian regime who are provably criminally insane - and they won't even allow that!
This is about nothing other than power and control. And everyone knows it. People are not deprived because they did not see an ad. They don't go without. The companies don't suffer because no one had the money to buy it anyway. If everyone bought everything they wanted after watching an ad there would be nothing left in the shops. Our economy is working fine! For the moment.
Ad-Raping, malware-serving, time-stealing, leccy-lifting bastards.
And they want me to think I'm the one in the wrong and they have the moral high ground?