Is Ad Blocking Unethical?

There has been a raging debate in the open source community surrounding adware, spyware, Web page framing, and the user’s ability to control his or her computing environment. At the heart of this conflict is the advertisement blocking add-on for the Firefox web browser called AdBlock Plus. This utility makes it possible for users to block annoying ads, banners and pop-ups when they visit a website. This tool has been around for a while and no one seemed to be bothered by it. That was then. Perhaps with the the recession and dwindling revenues, website publishers who are looking for ways to make up for lost revenue have started pushing back. Some have even gone as far as arguing that those using ad-blocking software are being unethical because they are consuming content while denying the presenter of that content with a chance to earn revenue. Others have called it piracy or stealing.
The question of ethics is important. I for one have had cause to disable JavaScript before loading some web pages because of the annoying ads that pop up. In that same scenario, the essence of choice is displayed because some of these ads give you the option to skip them. Now whether the revenue is generated for the publisher when you click on the “skip” button is another question. The intent of bypassing ads is not to deny website owners control over their sites or to “steal” their resources, it is to give the consumer an option. Just like we have the option to switch to a different channel, skip commercials (if watching a recorded program) or turn our Television off when the commercials come on.