If I understand it correctly, they're arguing that any unauthorized "modification of the computer program" (i.e. the web page) is a copyright violation.

This wouldn't only affect adblockers... this would affect any browser feature, extension, or user script that modifies the page in any way, shape, or form... translators, easy reading modes, CSS modifiers (e.g., dark mode for pages that don't have it, or anything that improves readability for people with vision problems), probably screen readers...

This would essentially turn web browsers into the HTML equivalent of PDF readers, without any of the customisability that's been standard for decades...

Jeez, will it never end?

The original ad blocker! Arrr

Seriously people, we don't need to live out Idiocracy. It was just a movie, not a prediction.

WTF?

Welp... Better start practicing...

\o/ McDonald's!

Let's take a deep breath and consider what's happened. The Federal Court of Justice has sent the case back to the lower court. They have not ruled on anything. They have not said ad blocking is piracy. They have essentially said: lower court, you had 25 boxes to tick but you only ticked 24 in your ruling. Go back and do one that ticks all of them.

It's entirely possible that the lower court will change its ruling based on the intricacies of German copyright law, which is shit. But it's not very likely if you ask me. Regardless, whoever loses will appeal it again. This rodeo is far from over. And when it's eventually over the technology will have moved on, with any luck the law along with it, and the only beneficiaries will have been the lawyers.

So the headline should read more like "German court does not rule out that ad blocking could be a copyright infringement."

The argument that Axel Springer is just doing it for their love of democracy is also comical. Media pluralism is important, I agree with them that far, but they are stuck in an outdated mindset. They launched a silly tabloid Fox News wannabe TV channel and failed. They are trying to force eyeballs on their content like you are at a news agent. Meanwhile, news is happening on TikTok and so-called AI is going to reduce their page views to dust. By the time we get a final ruling they will have pivoted strategy 10 times to keep the c-suite in caviar while the established media business that made them successful is rotting away under their assess.

i'm gonna block ads even more just to spite the germans

If I understand it correctly, they're arguing that any unauthorized "modification of the computer program" (i.e. the web page) is a copyright violation.

This wouldn't only affect adblockers... this would affect any browser feature, extension, or user script that modifies the page in any way, shape, or form... translators, easy reading modes, CSS modifiers (e.g., dark mode for pages that don't have it, or anything that improves readability for people with vision problems), probably screen readers...

This would essentially turn web browsers into the HTML equivalent of PDF readers, without any of the customisability that's been standard for decades...

This device is now mandated to watch TV or browse the internet in Germany:

time to send TCP packets containing advertisements to German IPs, then sue them for blocking my packets.

That’s foul. I wouldn’t touch YouTube without Ublock. You ever try watching that garbage without it?

The one app game I like(d) was Scrabble. It was sold and is now an endless stream of ads. Turn, ad, turn, ad, turn, ad, nonstop. It’s unplayable. I had to delete it.

Ad blockers make media consumable. Granted, less screen time would likely benefit everyone.

It can't be said often enough: fuck Axel Springer.

What's next? Forcing people to buy articles in the supermarket? Forcing people to go to the cinema? Why is copyright law even applicable here??

I've never been blocking ads of Axel Springer, because I've been blocking all of their rotten publications. Get bent, you assholes.

So they're gonna reign in the data brokers and surveillance capitalists? Right?

In a very general sense it is, the ads should pay for the content. But fuck them because even paid services add ads. And paying for Internet access, you can't tell me what I can and can't block. Good luck proving people are blocking ads at the DNS level.

Data that arrives in the browser is downloaded and processed there.

In a newspaper, I could ask someone to cut out the advertisements before I read them. Or not?

Anyone else looking forward to the advancements in ad blocking in the future?

Wow, that's pretty crazy.

Example 624994931# for who bourgeois "democracies" are really protecting

No the didnt... but its still bad.

And so is closing your eyes or getting up to go to the toilet.

And the rest of the world ruled that piracy is officially cool again.

In other news: sunglasses are now prohibited in public transport, they were found to modify the perception of ads, modifying the intellectual property of ad maker in public places, the impact was a reduced market values of ad space in public transit which would have forced the city to increase the ticket price.

Stay tuned for news on those disgusting blinker pirate: those people blink twice more often than normal people which makes them see only half as many ads, police forces has invested millions in brand new blinking frequency detector, in order to more easily catch those dangerous criminals.

I would VERY much appreciate a court ruling that makes spreading misinformation and propaganda illegal

Probably some kind of translation error. They must mean "privacy".

Hah! Aaahahah, fuck you, German Court!

Yes officer, this blind man right here is commiting the heinous crime of not to watching my ad.

Read in German

Jarrrr

Here's a thing about LLMs, they will effectively make laws like this meaningless. Law comes in to enforce against a company building a program to block ads, extension goes off market. Someone asks their LLM "create an extension function referencing the same data set for my browser that performs the same function" boom new extension with no central point of distribution. Share the prompt on a forum, now everyone has a custom ad blocker. Or not so far down the road, LLM is directly built into the browser, no extension needed just prompt "do not display known advertisements on pages I request before loading, but perform background activity which gives feedback to the site that ads have loaded" boom done.

In a way, local LLMs are like distributed applications, they make enforcement against specific program functions pretty much impossible.

I'm OK with letting websites not allowing me to block ads, as long as I can hold them personally liable for content of any ads they serve up.

No? Then kindly fuck right off with this shit.

In a new lawsuit, the publisher alleged that AdBlock Plus removes ads by interfering with the “programming code of websites” which violates its exclusive rights under copyright law.

I would respond that putting ads on my computer interferes with the programming code of my computer under my exclusive rights under copyright law. The unique combination of hardware, software, and data which comprise my computing environment belong exclusively to me.

However I will grant non-exclusive access to my taint for the sole purpose of licking.

Insane, ads are a malware threat.

To clarify the title: The court overturned past decision that said ad blocking is not piracy and retured the question back to the same lower court to re-consider it on the new grounds from this ruling.

'It interferes with our business model!' Good, fail. Kill the entire industry.

In their opening statements, the lawyers defending ad blocking should begin by spend endless minutes doing nothing but reading verbals ads into the record on the courts time. If the judge asks them to stop reading the ads, the lawyer should then ask if the case is now concluded in the favor of ad blocking as ad blocking should be allowed to consume the relevant content instead of being forced to listen to ads or if the judge is saying that all parties must be forced to consume an unlimited amount of ads lest they face the force of law by blocking/skipping the ads.

It's my computer.

Fuck you.

World is fucked.

Seriously -_-