A very important distinction between theft and adblocking is that you show yourself the ads. You (i.e. your browser on your behalf) requests that the server sen

A very important distinction between theft and adblocking is that you show yourself the ads. You (i.e. your browser on your behalf) requests that the server send you an html document, then you go and look up all of the ad links and make requests to those servers. Then you download all of the images and texts from those servers and render them on your own screen. Every step in this process is voluntary: - What if I decide I don't want to make requests to the advertiser's servers just because an html document suggested it? - What if I decide I don't want to render an ad, just because I downloaded it from somewhere? Contracts, like the one you're proposing here, are agreed upon by both parties. I agree to download your ads, if you agree to provide me access to the site. Paywalls work like this, ads don't. Ads are a polite suggestion that I'm free to ignore.