According to the CEO of Turner Broadcasting, Jamie Kellner, those who skip ads while watching the idiot box are thieves. Thankfully cable subscribers in Thailand have the ads covered up by insipid static screens and muzak that does not change for 4 months, due to a government restriction as part of the agreement with Thai cable TV companies. But for the rest of the world, going to the dunny during the ads is considered a crime by some.

So you web browsing thieves who turn off js, use pop-up blocking software, surf without images, change web sites when you get tired of waiting for ads, click away pop ups without looking at them, go to the dunny during tv commercials, or just simply dont spend a certain proportion of your time studying the ads on web pages - you are theives... and breaking the "social contract" with site owners...

According to Kellner,

[Ad skips are] theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."

More here from the Law Meme on Top Ten New Copyright Crimes

Is there something about being an Ad exec that makes you arrogant enough to lose touch with reality? I mean these are the guys that responded to the fact that people were not clicking on banner ads in Web sites by making the bloody things bigger and changing their names to things like skyscraper ads. Basically, they assume you didnt click because you were so thick that you still didnt notice their wonderful ad spins. Far be it for them to realise that you didnt click because the ads on Web pages were built on the traditional models of mass market advertising rather than the niche and target marketing which is the strength of the Web?

cheeky disclaimer / Actually the ads here and on the APMF are worth a peek! /cheeky disclaimer

Have a read while I retire to the dunny for 120 seconds...