YouTube Shows Adblock Plus Users an Error Message Instead of Ads

An anonymous reader writes: Do you use YouTube with Adblock Plus? Some users have been getting the following message instead of ads: "An error occurred. Please try again later." The error message is only shown for the duration of the ad, meaning Adblock Plus is still technically getting the job done. But adblocking extensions typically block ads as well as remove them: For banner ads that means gaining back screen real estate on the webpage while for videos that means the content starts playing right away.

Comments

Only a matter of time

[110010001000]

It is only a matter of time before Google tried to stop adblocking on Youtube. They were just waiting for Youtube to get all the marketshare. Next they will try to crack down on copyright violations. They didn't try too hard while they were trying to get all the marketshare.

Re:Only a matter of time

[shawn2772]

They hardly even scratch the surface of copyright violations. Go look for any album on Youtube, they are all there and have been there for years. They just don't care.

Google doesn't care, the copyright owners do. They care a lot, and they make Google handle it. If the copyright owners were unhappy with those albums being there, they would be taken down. But they're okay with it because they have agreements in place, so Google sends the copyright owner a piece of the ad revenue. All of this is automated so you can upload any random music video and odds are very good that it will stay up... but various restrictions will be applied to comply with the agreements.

For example, I made a tribute video for my mother in law's funeral recently, and used three songs that she loved as the soundtrack. I uploaded it to YouTube to make it easy to share with the extended family, and if I go look at it in my video manager, I note that it is flagged as "not eligible for monetization" and "blocked in some countries". If I click on it to get details, I find that Google has automatically identified the songs in it, and their owners, and applied rules based on agreements with those owners. Specifically, one of the songs in monetized by the copyright owner, which is why I can't make money off of it (not that I care, or that there would be any money to be made) and two others are blocked in Germany because Google doesn't have agreements with the copyright owners in that jurisdiction. Oh, and my video also apparently can't be played on set top boxes, again because Google's licensing agreements don't cover that usage.

So, your perception that all of that music on YouTube is somehow sliding under the radar and that Google will "crack down" in the future is completely wrong. It isn't "under the radar" at all, and Google not only does "crack down" on copyrighted content that may be infringing, but has the cracking thoroughly automated. But, Google has arranged such comprehensive licenses that you don't notice because it seems like everything is there.

Not just adblock

[PopeRatzo]

It doesn't matter which adblocker you use or which browser you use. I've been following this story closely, and this is what I've learned:

Whether or not you get this error (which lasts as long as an advertisement, by the way) depends on how many ads your YouTube account has blocked recently. For example, if you log out of your YouTube account you won't get the error. If you switch to a Google (or YouTube) account that you haven't used in a while, you won't get the error. And if a couple of days later you log back in with the original account, you won't get the error. But if you watch a bunch of videos with ads that get blocked, the error will start again.

And yes, it doesn't matter which adblocking software you use. uBlock users are reporting the error as well. YouTube support has basically said, "This is happening because of something we did, but it wasn't intentional. And since it wasn't intentional, we're not going to do anything about it, so you'll have to contact your adblocker's support."