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For magazines you could have a friend or a robot cut out the ads, for radio you could switch to a CD while the ads run. Basically, I'm trying to get at the more fundamental question: do users have an obligation to consume the ads that are served to them, in the manner that the content provider dictates? And if so, how should this be enforced?



>Do users have an obligation to consume the ads that are served to them

Yes, if it's part of the content and they want more of that content. But they have no obligation to want that content.

> in the manner that the content provider dictates

They don’t dictate how you consume ads, they try to predict it and adjust for it, but they don't dictate your actions

>And if so, how should this be enforced?

Legally it shouldn’t be. The advertiser can do whatever they want to their content to get you to consume ads, but they shouldn’t be able to do anything past the boundary of their content.


There's a very simple way to enforce payment for content. It's called a paywall. If it turns out readers are not willing to work over actual money, then maybe the content is not as valuable as the publishers thought.




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