https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/95614/do-ad-impressions-count-if-the-user-is-using-an-adblocker summarizes Google Ads’s documentation at https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/141811?hl=en (TL;DR: pay depends on whether a script/request attached to the ad element is performed).

It’s true that different adblockers do different things, but the most popular ones do block the requests too. One of the most popular arguments for adblocking is performance and bandwidth. If we only hid the ad from view without doing that, we would not get the performance and bandwidth savings that adblock brings. So, µBO blocks the requests.

You can confirm yourself whether the request is blocked by searching “ad” (or “doubleclick” specifically for DoubleClick Ads, which are the majority of Google Ads) in your browser DevTools’s “Network” tab. Compare when the adblocker is off vs. on; for me with µBO the majority of requests aren’t even attempted and disappear when their entire element is ad-blocked, and in these cases the pay script doesn’t load either. The screenshot above only shows some requests that were attempted and blocked.

Going down the rabbit hole, doesn’t that then also imply that people using assistive technologies like a screen reader for the visually impaired are actually stealing content?

No, screen readers would still read ads. Just having the screenreader move to the next element is the same as scrolling past the ad. The difference is that if the advertiser doesn’t give alt-text, the content can become nonsensical. But the advertiser still pays.

You can approximately check an ad’s text for a screenreader with Firefox DevTools’s “Inspect accessibility properties” feature.

as much as sneaking into a seat in a cinema without paying means you’re no longer involved in the deal. so yeah, you might have a point that you’re no longer involved in any deal, but i’d still call that piracy.

thing is with ads you can block, the advertiser is not paying if the ad is blocked.

i agree that taking a restroom break while an ad is showing is not piracy. that’s not blocking the ad, though.

you are involved in the deal, because advertisers pay by how many times the ad is displayed (or clicked). just like how you are involved in the deal between the distributor and cinema, because the pay depends on how many tickets you buy.

by “the act” I meant things that are more popularly understood as piracy. even if torrenting cracked Assassin’s Creed was legalized, I’d still call torrenting cracked video games piracy.

If one of the pirate parties succeeded in implementing their platform, I’d still call the act piracy there.

That makes the piracy a lot more ethical and probably something I support.

i mean if not targeted, how is it any more brainwashing than arguments online?

or maybe i’m just biased against being affected by it because i’ve got a really frugal family culture

but to the website’s wallet

i agree; you’re making copies: not displacing any original inventory

probably not the git history, because if it was then that woould still be present across forks

could you elaborate on the verge?

the analogue there would be clicking on the ad. google ads, probably the most popular single platform, has two kinds of ad payment: per-click and per-impression. by just receiving it and throwing it away you get rid of the former, but by blocking ads you get rid of both. (there’s also the fact that most people do not block ads, while most people do throw away junk mail)

and if everyone throws away junk mail, there’s still money, because the post office got paid to deliver it. same goes for not blocking ads but not looking at them.

curiously, the only time i’ve ever gotten infected (besides wannacry) was through a torrent

these are as rare as non-tracking ads, and my approaches of<1. i don’t use my web browser much on mobile (that distance probably fries my eyes anyways) 2. i use µBO and whitelist sites on my normal computer>probably help me avoid that anyways

most people don’t block ads not because they think that it harms someone but because they don’t know that it’s possible.

I agree.

not paying attention to ads is very different from blocking the ads

to watch BBC, not mute ads, no?

i also like to smell armpits

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.