They could aggregate logs and figure out who is not downloading ad video. But yes, it is a cat and mouse game, because the pirates will attempt do what it takes to fool the detections.
The same one where you could watch ads or pay, but choose to circumvent instead. I hate ads as much as the next person, which is why I pay for the youtube subscription. If I didn't, I wouldn't use youtube at all.
I don't think we would have as much people creating content if ads always opt in. The system can support a percentage of ad block / ad free consumption and other models for content production beyond ads, subs and patreon.
And of course ads are a numbers game to begin with X people exposed mapping to Y people that convert.
But content on YouTube is subscription and ad free or with ads. To subvert that is generally labeled piracy.
YouTube does have drop a prop function to a creator which be another way to more directly direct money to creators of content you consume. If you do $5 one out of 1k videos you watch I thik it's fair to skip ads :)
And if that's piracy then I should be arrested for piracy when I put my computer on mute and when I look away from ads, because that's what I'll do if there's no other technical way not to watch ads.
Yes, and if they escalate to banning Google accounts entirely due to ad-blocking then people would be forced to choose between the data they have there and their adblockers.
