The deal is between the person paying for the ad and the person displaying the ad.
I wasn't ever involved in the deal, I owe them nothing.
this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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Unpopular Opinion
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Yep. I don't recall signing any contract...
Is throwing away unopened junk mail stealing from the post office? Its the exact same thing
post office gets paid either way, website doesn't. you're describing looking away from the website's ads while your ad-blocker's off.
Downvoted cause I agree. Adblock is based and so is piracy.
I reject your premise that ads are the payment for content. I would equate ads on websites to tipping; a completely optional form of income for the website.
I don't tip.
Ads are an unwanted local infection that brings malware and brainwash people. Blocking ads is the sane behavior, not piracy at all.
Unless you're giving food and shelter to every Jehovah's Witness that comes to your home, then you're the insane one.
Ads are an unwanted local infection that brings malware and brainwash people. Blocking ads is the sane behavior
? I agree but that doesn't make it not piracy. Are you implying piracy is not sane behavior?
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Content blocking is not piracy, at least when accessing government resources.
I’m the sole decision maker as to what content I download to my personal devices, and that goes for web content as well as other things. If I don’t allow content from domains like doubleclick.net then that’s my right and nobody can overrule that decision.
Precisely. I was just making a very stroong point that cannot really be countered.
We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem
Ads flooding a page with garbage making it more difficult to read is absolutely a service problem. As is having to pay a subscription fee to a news outlet you may only check once a month.
Offer me a service where I pay per article read, a similar price to the ad revenue per article, and we can talk.
When I ride my ad-subventioned subway and I look away from the ads, am I free riding the sub?
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Working to avoid the excesses of surveillance capitalism isn't piracy, it's self-defense.
isn’t piracy, it’s self-defense
It can be both. What's wrong with a little piracy in self-defense?
Time is our most precious resource and advertisers are here to waste it. I have no qualms telling them to fuck off.
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The fact you have more comments than up votes means this is a legit unpopular opinion, Good job 👍
It does not have anything to do with sea so it's not piracy, nor is it copying without license. You aren't in a contract with people that show you ads, there is no legal requirement to do it. I don't care about their commercial interests but care a whole lot about my time and interests, I feel no obligation to do it, nor care if some ad-supported thing will stop existing. Like fuck them lol.
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It isn't in any way piracy. I am under no obligation to pay attention to ads.
not paying attention to ads is very different from blocking the ads
Or give them access to my network or my compute.
Is it any different from when we used to record our shows and fast-forward through the ads?
My family always used to mute ads on the TV when I was growing up.
I guess that's piracy too, eh?
If you are in the UK I think you need a license to do that.
to watch BBC, not mute ads, no?
OP ran out of cheeks to bury their nose in.
i also like to smell armpits
If the content needs ads to pay for it did it really have any value at all to begin with? If I can’t access content ad-free (with an ad blocker) I’ll just give up and find something better.
Even as a web developer I’ll pay to host my content. Should it become too costly then I’ll need to monetize it as a business or ask for donations but I’d never stoop so low as to start spying on my users and selling their browsing habits; fuck that. And I’ll never start trying to brainwash them into buying some shit that’s probably unnecessary and bad for the environment anyway.
I’m so tired of being expected to give up my privacy even for paid services. I can’t use my VPN? Then get fucked, I’ll find someone better to business with.
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