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by sumedh 1164 days ago
> websites just get this for granted? it’s like stealing.

Isnt the user getting free content in return?

2 comments

Absolutely not. If I see a cookie popup or subscribe modal, or even get interrupted reading with a pop-up prompt I immediately leave the site and add it to my blacklist.

Archive for life.

Free content was around before advertising on the web, this whole 'but they get free content' spiel was cooked up by advertisers.

Static we pages are cheap to host. Very rare is the article on [news site] getting mllions of simultaneous hits. But they all want videos embedded everywhere, gifs galore when all I want is to read their 20 min video in 2 minutes. They want their website hosted on the cloud with every new/hot architecture out.

How mant nyt articles are reprints of a reuters article the nyt then turns into 10 pages with aforementioned videos etc.

They did this to themselves.

If the website decides to offer content for free, then it may do so. If not, the website is entirely allowed to put up a paywall, or to display *non-targeted* advertisements. What the website is not allowed to do is mandate payment in the form of private information.