Kirk McElhearn addresses the ethical issue of ad blocking. Good, solid read.

Ads are a necessary part of the modern publishing equation. But as Kirk, and John Gruber before him, point out, ads don’t have to be evil. There is a threshold, a threshold of proper behavior. Hidden ads/video? Ads that mysteriously gobble your data plan? Ads that force you to interact with them before you can get to the content? All of these are on the wrong side of that threshold.

The key is to find a way to allow proper behavior, to block the evil ads, but allow the basic ads that keep sites like Daring Fireball, MacStories.net, Kirkville, SixColors, The Loop, and many others who don’t cross that threshold in business.