> At least this is a loosing game for Google, since this is client side behaviour.

This is where their most brilliant engineers have bested you, because they control the client too.

The best engineer I've ever known ended up working for years on optimizing ad space auction time by micro seconds.

While I'm not pro YouTube, I think it's fine for companies to decide how to monetise their product, including things which were originally free. If you don't like free services, stop using them

Aren't they going to win in the long run with remote attestation?

Maybe ads-as-business-model is like political ideology - it is not a human universal but must adapt to the place: for instance collectivism over individualism in East Asia, theocratic conservatism over democracy in Afghanistan -- maybe ads as business model is despicable to some regions, but accepted in others? Albania it's apparently illegal for YouTube to serve ads?

> Imagine employing some of the most brilliant engineers on the planet

I am not sure those who work at Google are all brilliant - but it should also not matter, because they support Evil here. They should be ashamed for working for Evil. Guess if the money is right ...

> Imagine employing some of the most brilliant engineers on the planet

Maybe we should stop with that tired fallacious rhetoric? Just because you work at a massive company doesn’t make you “brilliant”.

Agreed. I was leaving the mall with lots of great goods I had found, but then the guard stopped me and told me I was stealing! Imagine paying that guy a salary just to blackmail me into paying them! This is an outrage.

Apple has entered the chat

*Allocating man-hours towards making sure that users actually pay for the service they're using, either via youtube subscription or ads

No worse than what a lot of their other "brilliant" minds are working on - ads.

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