Avert your eyes and you are a thief

Remove all ads!

"SKIPPING COMMERCIALS IS STEALING ACCORDING TO TURNER CEO
Posted 1 May 2002 11:05:57 UTC

It was inevitable. The broadcast industry is now describing people who skip over commercials as thieves! And with new technology like HDTV and insane laws such as the DMCA, they may very well make it stick in the future."

More links on this:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/5/2/22720/40202
http://action.eff.org/action/moreinfo.asp?item=1517
http://www.2600.com/news/view/article/1113

I also found this article to be very insightful:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/3200101.htm
Here's a small quote from the last link:

 

Well if they put a big spot on "20min forced ads before movie" sticker on the dvd box, I don't mind. Though if they don't I'd find it theft of my money since I wanted to buy a movie and not an ad-show.

my 2 cents.

 

The whole thing is just ridicoulus(sp?). You can't force a human being into watching an AD-show. It's just not right. And who will be able to control it?

 

People don't much care what they watch on the flickery box in the corner of the room, so long as it is flickering and burbling away.

No ads is better than some ads, so if given the choice, they will pick no ads. If they are not given the choice then some ads is fine also.

I can't feel annoyed about not getting something I didn't even ask for. Somebody has to pay for my free TV viewing. I already tape stuff I want to watch without ads.

If ad removers are banned, they will just be distributed through the underground network, and they will be free too.

The longer that new technology is witheld from the mainstream, the longer that people who are not part of the mainstream will have to exploit it. Take MP3s for example. The record industry stuck its head in the sand like an ostrich, and it is now going the way of the Dodo.

Show them no mercy. Remember Mariah Carey. Enough said.

 

The record industry going the way of the Dodo? What planet are you living on?

We have to suffer through TV commercials. We watch commercials in the cinema. I've rented DVDs with commercials at the beginning, but they could be skipped. I will not, however, under any circumstances, pay money for a DVD that contains several minutes (or as much as 5 seconds) of un-skippable commercials before the movie begins. I'll be downloading pirated copies like mad if that ever happens. The industry should just try it, so they can see piracy explode into proportions hitherto undreamed of.

Greedy, money-grubbing sons of bi***es.

(Rant fading away into the background.)

 

I agree, any compunction that I may have had against file sharing is gone now.

 

I second that.

Here in Germany, the ad breaks are with 5 to 7 minutes a lot longer than 30 seconds. Consider about 3 an hour in a tv series and 1 every 45 minutes in a movie shown. And we cannot defend ourselves except by switching the station. (Well, most stations are sending ad breaks simultaniously by now).

And now this. This is too much.

 

Why not just fix a bowl of Doritos or popcorn while the commercials are running? Or just watch the goshdarn commercials because they might lead to something else interesting/fun to watch? Is this really getting worked up over? Who's going to enforce you to watch the freaking commercials? Are people going to begin quoting me in subsequent posts to answer my rhetorical questions?

Besides, no one's forcing you to watch television. You can always sell it, and begin remarking to everyone that you don't own a TV in the hope of being viewed as an intellectual.

 

Yes, some people in the industry are greedy and whatnot, but there is really no way they can FORCE you to watch the commercials. If you want to skip them on a DVD get off your butt and do something else if you don't want to watch it. Or if your watching tv change the channel. Or if ... well you get the point. I'm done.

 

Disney DVD's being a case in point. We flat-out refuse to buy any more of those things.

 

Yet another stupid thing. Hope they won't do something like this in Estonia. But I'll be downloading pirate stuff as well, if they do stick commercials in the front of the movie.

 

This is one of the best things....maybe the best thing, that I have read on here for a very, very long time. Still chuckling.

 

It's not the TV commercials that bug me; whenever they're on, I switch to another channel, or go do something else (like pop by SP). What does bug me, however, is being labelled a thief by some fat suit with sticky fingers because I choose not to watch them. Or paying the equivalent of 30-35 U.S. dollars for a DVD where you HAVE to suffer through some "messages from our sponsors" before you can get to the movie. Nothing like sitting down for 3+ hours of Lord of the Rings goodness, only to have to spend 5 minutes beforehand in the company of diapers, cereals and disgusting, hateful Coca-Cola jingles.

 

Hehe this is what they call freedom of choice aren't they? Well i will not be forced to watch ads i prefer to go and watch the sky or something than be in front of a screen that plays ads and does not give me an option to skip them. They can't win this

 

I'm really glad they allow us to go to the bathroom during commercial breaks, at least. But I suppose that privilege will be revoked as soon as they invent an "affordable" device that eliminates the need for such unproductive behaviour.

How about product placement in movies, by the way? If a movie is partially financed by product placement, would it also be theft if you get up to get a snack during the actual movie?

 

Such a fuss over nothing! So the FF button is disabled. I'll go for a pee, or make a phone call, or read the box the DVD came in, or switch off the connection between the DVD player and the television and watch TV for the first 5 minutes. This is a pathetic attempt by them to piss us off, and I refuse to rise to the bait.

 

I tend to agree with this.

We're paying money to see the movie on a DVD, so how is it theft if we choose how to use our item? The DVD itself doesn't belong to them. If I chose to use mine as a coaster, would I be a some criminal? No. Stupid, yes.

 

Hmm... no dissenting voices? Well, in the interests of turning this into a debate instead of a shared outrage, I'll bite and take the unpopular perspective.

If I watch, say, The Simpsons on television and don't pay anything (unlike in the UK where you pay for a TV license, here in Canada you only have to pay for television if you want "cable" or, basically, more than 1 or 2 channels - I think it's the same in the USA), then it is the advertiser who picks up the tab for my viewing pleasure. It's a tacit quid pro quo arrangement: he pays to air the Simpsons, I pay him back by watching his commercial. If I fail to do so, I'm failing to keep my part of the bargain. I should decide in advance whether I am willing to pay the price - watching the commercial - in exchange for the good, and if not, then I should refrain from watching the Simpsons.

What would you think if the deal was more explicit? For example, at the Salon website, you can either buy a subscription to view an article, or, you can get a day pass paid for by an advertiser if you watch a 30-second commercial. Does anyone think it matters from a moral perspective whether or not I actually look at the commercial I've agreed to view in exchange for my pass?