Do you think Ad-Blocking should be illegal?

[deathbydanish]

As in using a program like Ad-Muncher to stop ads or banners from loading. Or for those of you with Firefox, using Adblock to block the addresses of certain non-advertising sites.

http://www.news.com/Web+ad+blocking+may+not+be+entirely+legal/2100-1030_3-6207936.html?tag=st.prev

I think that it should not be considered stealing. I would not read unsolicited spam email and I even have my filters set up to keep them out. I don't want to login and scroll through crap like "enlarge your penis!" or "watch a donkey show now!" Why should I sit around and waste my time and bandwidth to load ads? On the same token, is it stealing if I get up to take a piss during the commercials?  I don't go on the Internet to be sold things, if I want to buy something I'll try to research it first, see both the good and the bad.

[Vince]

no

[Nil8r]

No. Ad blocking makes the internet tolerable.

[Raith]

Should it be illegal?  No

Can websites prohibit your viewing/use of them if you have adblocking in place?  Absolutely.

[Doc Hollywood]

I've seen some law review articles that get into these issues.

The better argument is that its NOT a derivative work when you open a web page.  There is no "copy" involved since you simply display the portions of the web page you wish, and leave out those you do not want to see.

Sort of like reading a book, but skipping the intro, and flap cover.

They can't sue you for not reading something.

The attack against the software that blocks the add is the best shot but any suit against an end user would flop.

The only way it would work is if the ad blocker was installed and working without the knowledge and consent of the end user.  A well written TOU policy will pretty much mean a great big fuckyou to the internet advertisement industry.  About time...