this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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Most people don't have the understanding to fully appreciate the consequences of the current system of "free" services. That's why it's the job of governments to put robust consumer protections in place. The Europeans have been making some moves in the right direction, lately. Unfortunately, they also increasingly have been veering towards totalitarianism in their moves to enforce mandatory trusted certificates, weakening of encryption and other hare-brained schemes.
If by "free" services you mean ad-driven internet services, I don't think this is as much a consequence of those, rather than the growing power of media companies and their influence over the law and technological development. They were fiercely against piracy since ever, their attempt to vilify VHS and cassete tapes comes to mind, but now copyright law is stricter than ever, digital ownership has been eroded into nearly non-existence through absurd one-sided License Agreements and devices increasingly act as if storefronts of the manufacturers rather than as a tools purchased by the customer.
This is not because there aren't enough people paying, but because the media companies are never satisfied. Loads of people subscribed to streaming but it isn't ever enough, it doesn't guarantee that their quality and collections will remain as good.