It didn’t help that I read this shortly after discovering that LG (the manufacturer of my TV) are planning to roll out adverts in their in built screensavers.

As it happens, I never, never use the ‘smart’ stuff in my TV, preferring an Apple TV instead. But still, it’s shitty.

And what’s the end result? How far does it go? The current crop of CEOs are demanding infinite growth that can’t be sustained. But by the time it’s a problem, they’ll have retired and it’ll be Somebody Else’s Problem.

@DJDarren

Pirating can’t cost the studio money if you can buy a movie used. Resellers shouldn’t get money (middle-man is a dying job, as it should be).

@DJDarren we only got things for free whilst they were speculating they'd make money from us in the future. Now their use bases aren't exponentially growing and their venture capitalist share holders are demanding more, they are going to start charging for their services.

I think the age of the free internet is drawing to a close. So pay for what you use. But pick ethical and sustainable services that respect your privacy when you do decide to put down that coin.

@DJDarren And, related, it's about sharing the knowledge of the free alternatives that work.

(Speaking of, I have got to get around to figuring out the easiest way to Chromecast without a Chromecast. It's just a computer that can decode video from the web and pipe it to an HDMI cable in response to secured requests from a CRUD API for God's sake! That's just a Raspberry Pi with the right configuration.)

@DJDarren

Should note that there's BetterDiscord with the YABDP4Nitro plugin that unlocks.. pretty much everything Nitro. Streaming, emoji, even stickers...