this can't be real. is it?

GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 1412 points –
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Slow down there, Satan. I kid you not, I had someone approach me to help develop technology like this a long time ago. The idea was to break into video streams at the ISP and insert advertising on the fly w/o prior approval.

My reaction, after realizing this person wanted to turn the internet into an ad-encrusted wasteland*, was: "What happens when that video stream is something live with a LOT of money behind it, like the Superbowl?" The legal and professional ramifications didn't even clock with this guy. It was squarely in the "not my problem" category.

(* More-so than it is now. I'm not saying we're getting off light, but this guy was a-okay with making everything look like the hallway bulletin board in a college dorm.)

That's the kind of guy who invents the idea of selling a subscription to seat heating in your own car.

Exactly. I tell this story to remind people that cynics aren't just old cranks on internet forums. They're also salespeople that decided to make some cash on our way to (consumer) hell, and they're entitled to a turn at holding the pitchfork.

We should've killed him when we had the chance. Now he's too powerful...