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During an outbreak of common sense in a Hamburg, Germany, court it was ruled that.. no, advertisers don't get their own way every time.
Zeit Online GmbH and Handelsblatt GmbH as representatives of the advertising world filed suit against Eyeo GmbH (the owners of AdBlock Plus) claiming that the latter should not be allowed to distribute software (a browser plugin that blocks ads) that disrupts their income stream.
The court did not look favourably on the advertisers' case.
From an article in The Register :
Ben Williams, a director of Eyeo, wrote in a blog: "The Hamburg court decision is an important one, because it sets a precedent that may help us avoid additional lawsuits and expenses defending what we feel is an obvious consumer right: giving people the ability to control their own screens by letting them block annoying ads and protect their privacy."
This has ramifications for another simmering case in neighboring France.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday April 22 2015, @10:39PM
If ABP were a honorable company, there wouldn't be such a huge exemption list, or you could sign up to allow their exemptions in exchange for part of the proceeds. (The largest part I might add, since users pay the bandwidth, electrical, and inconvenience costs of ads, while ABP pockets their "protection money". Till this is an option I don't allow their exemption list.
Not that I'm defending them per se, but if they didn't have a whitelist I would imagine there would be a lot more people (companies) angry at them. And you know the saying, Don't get angry, get even^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hsue somebody.
Also can't you opt out of it with just a couple clicks? It's like a checkbox in the menu you get when you click the icon. It's practically impossible to make it any easier to opt out.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"