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Reuters has reported that, in a defeat for the publisher Springer, the German Supreme Court has ruled that ad blockers are legal.
Germany's Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a case brought by Axel Springer seeking to ban a popular application that blocks online advertising, in a landmark ruling that deals a blow to the publishing industry.
The court found in favor of Adblock Plus adblockplus.org, an app marketed by a firm called Eyeo that has been downloaded more than 100 million times by users around the world seeking protection from unwanted or intrusive online advertising.
That is followed by some analysis by Rick Falkvinge on the court's decision over at the Private Internet Access blog.
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and many more ...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:41PM (1 child)
What you say is true. On the other hand...
"Nice website you got there. It'd be a shame if anything were to happen to it..."
Likewise having to pay the phone company to not list your number in the phone book.
I honestly can't see a huge difference between what AdBlockPlus is doing, and an extortion racket. Now I don't like how current ads work so my moral outrage isn't really irked, but intellectually I can't really say AdBlockPlus is fully correct here, either.
Maybe somebody more knowledgeable can explain the difference?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 26 2018, @12:11AM
Unlike the extortion racket, AdBlocker is providing an actual service that actual people want (and that is legal to provide) that might also negatively impact a website.
The wise guys arranging for shops to have 'accidents' benefits nobody but themselves.