You cannot state "by reading this notice you have accepted our terms and conditions". Maybe - _maybe_ - you could force people to register and explicitly agree to your terms which specify that you may not view the page without also loading the ads, though I think such a clause would be immoral.

The ability to control what code executes on one's computer is a fundamental freedom of general purpose computing. I don't feel that it's any more appropriate to demand I load ads than to demand I load your images or your css, or indeed to demand I install your bitcoin miner.

Ads from even the major networks are damaging to run far too often to be considered safe. They're resource intensive and a common malware vector. Whether or not it is _legal_ to block ads (it is), it is certainly not immoral to choose not to execute code which has a high likelihood of compromising your device's security - this being the tool many people use for everything from personal communications to financial transactions. The idea that one should compromise that security for the sake of your blog is ridiculous and a strong sign that the ad-driven business model of the web is neither sustainable nor ethical.

You have my signature on no documents, you have no agreement from me to abide by any terms at all.

If you want me to be held to a TOS... force me to make an account to read your content.

>So, you think you have a right to their work product, but they don't have a right to your attention? Why the asymmetry?

I think you've made your work product available freely online without stipulation. If you don't like that, DON'T FUCKING DO IT!

It's entirely reasonable and within your control to not serve me content. A lot of sites block me with an adblocker enabled, I value my attention more than I value their content. But that's a completely fair exchange - I wanted to read their content, they wanted to serve me ads, I concluded that I'd prefer to walk away.

In other words: your "work product" has no inherent value. If you value it, charge for it. Don't make it freely available online.

Nobody has a right to your work product. Nobody's putting a gun to your head, and demanding that you distribute it.

But if you choose to publically broadcast it, then yeah, people have a right to listen to it. And only the parts of it that they care for.

Putting something up on the open internet is the digital equivalent of a broadcast. Gating it behind a login, or an adblock-blocker is another thing.

How many sites are willing to accept legal liability for malware served up by their ads?