• COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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    1 hour ago

    My ISP has started throttling YouTube to ~2mbps when viewed from desktop. Using a VPN gets around this and lets me watch in HD. Luckily I’ve not encountered this error yet, but if I do I guess it’s no more YouTube for me, 480p is just way too blurry to put up with.

    • usagi@lemmy.world
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      48 minutes ago

      I wonder if there’s any workaround besides VPNs like changing DNS or something?

      • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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        1 hour ago

        They’re 5g based, so I suspect it’s within the terms of service somewhere that they can limit the streaming quality? Historically I’d only ever noticed deprioritization, never a hard bandwidth limit.

  • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 hours ago

    When I see content blocks like that anymore, I just leave the content behind and go elsewhere. Malicious companies will not get my clicks. They can fuck right off.

    Good sign though, means they are getting desperate. It is our duty to starve them of traffic.

    • definitemaybe@lemmy.ca
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      12 minutes ago

      Sure, but there are also lots of other ways around it. Non-chrome browsers (or Chromium-based browsers) still allow for good extensions that can block YouTube ads.

      Firefox + uBlock Origin still works great, even when all the front-ends are broken.

  • Xylight@lemdro.id
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    4 hours ago

    I encounter VPN blocks everywhere frequently. I usually just reroll my selected server until the block goes away

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    VPN ads seriously need to stop promising that you can get around content restrictions.

    • brax@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      People should educate others on how to get content not available in their area for fee without the hassle.

      If media isn’t available in your area, then the company is telling you they don’t want your money. There is a $0.00 loss to them if you pirate it.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 hours ago

    I’ve been getting a “You must sign on to see this content” from YouTube (refusing to play the video if I don’t) for ages when I’m behind a VPN, but if I disconnect the VPN and try again I don’t get it.

    Curiously, sometimes it doesn’t happen.

    I guess YouTube has a list of IP addresses of VPN exit points and will do that if it detects a connection coming from one of those, but at least for my VPN provider some exit points are not in the list.

  • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    People don’t realize how much shit youtube/google ignores over time, for whatever reasons (but mostly because it’s cheaper to ignoer I’d guess). With most major consumer VPN providers, this is very easy to detect. Adblockers are easy to detect. Tampering with the website structure? Believe it or not, quite easy to detect when someone hide a component or change a title or a button.

    If they decided to seriously get after people that circumvent geofencing, people that block ads, people that change the interface to their liking, or people that plainly use alternative websites, they could easily. And it would require far less effort on their end to keep things complicated than it would require on our end to keep things working at an acceptable level.

    • survirtual@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Only kind of true.

      If they did implement all those measures, all you do is launch a puppet browser rendered off screen and scrape the content you want. This could work for any site and it is impossible for anyone to detect.

      For ads, as a nuclear option, you can detect when they occur and black the stream out.

      I would personally do this if left with no other option.

      • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        Cue detection of “realistic” human activity on the UI and preventing streaming if the server determine this activity does not match a human enough pattern.

        I’m exaggerating on that one, but… that’s not even that implausible these days.

        My point was, dancing this dance with “big website”, whoever it is, will always be an endless uphill battle.

        • survirtual@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          They can’t do that because of accessibility reasons. If they did that, a disabled person has grounds to sue them for proper aria hints & controls.

          It doesn’t matter what kind of content it is, either. It must be made accessible.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      3 hours ago

      Sometimes I do get YouTube telling me that I need to disable my adblocker to access a video, so they do try to block that stuff (though I suspect that the infrequency with which this happens combined with the fact that not everyone does experience it when some people do report this happening suggests that they’re just testing methods of detection and blocking)

      Usually when it happens, I just go into my Ublock settings and update stuff. I can’t remember that ever not working. It feels like a low-key arms race, in a cold-war kind of way

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    7 hours ago

    See, there is the problem, if you use a VPN you dont allow Google to locate the best content! Nothing to see here, YouTube is only trying to be helpful here, Google is absolutely not trying to use you as a data nugget to get rich from

        • Fenrisulfir@lemmy.ca
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          2 hours ago

          What’s your real name and address?

          Seems like you’re using 1985MustangCobra to mask your identity. We should ban all online usernames and tie everything to a digital Id

          • 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca
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            1 hour ago

            that’s not the same, if i was commit a hate crime for example, on this profile, and the police investigated it, they can get my ip address from my client connection. however, someone doing the same and masking their ip address with a VPN to like, i dunno, sweeden but they live in the UK, is a big problem when VPN providers make bold claims of “protecting your identity”

        • incompetent@programming.dev
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          1 hour ago

          That’s one small use case. There are many other legitimate uses for them. Seems a bit odd to be so against them because they might possibly be used for nefarious purposes. Have you personally been victimized by a VPN user?

        • HarneyToker@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          You sound scared. You don’t have to be online if there is too much risk of you getting your feelings hurt, you can just go touch grass. Even the people you don’t like have a right to privacy.

  • lechekaflan@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    “This will allow YouTube to locate the best content”

    They mean slop? Another reason why I still use Newpipe on mobile.