5 ms·

AdBlock Plus Now Illegal in Germany

14 points by vincent_s 10y ago

vincent_s 10y ago
see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945836
ramtatatam 10y ago
Yeah, let them try to detect I'm using adblocker :-) And what will prevent community from developing same thing under different name? -- Edit -- funny to find out this bothered somebody enough to down vote. Probably some German bureaucrat unhappy somebody's flagging dead laws before they are pushed through people's throats :-)
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  > Yeah, let them try to detect I'm using adblocker Nothing in that translation says that the use of an adblocker is illegal. > And what will prevent community from developing same thing under different name? Nothing. This isn't about whether the adblocker itself is illegal or not; it's 100% about whether creating such a piece of software with a goal to make profit is legitimate or not. From the article: > However, the court does not consider the blockade of advertising in itself anticompetitive, but probably the whitelisting, which operates Eyeo to finance it. As an aside, complaining about downvotes 30 minutes after something is posted is silly. For all we know, the downvotes are automated. Throwing out vague ad hominem attacks against perceived enemies makes you sound goofy. And likely, it's not that your comment bothered anyone, it's just that it's inaccurate and adds nothing to the discussion. </meta>
- bgun 10y ago
  You obviously didn't read the article, but the terrible headline is at least partly to blame for this.
  - ramtatatam 10y ago
    Well, I did not - shame on me :-) Though didn't think the title could be that far from actual content.
embik 10y ago
Please note the court explicitly considers ad blocking legal. This is about ABP's "acceptable apps" program.
Kristine1975 10y ago
HN headline is click-bait. The article's headline is: "Axel Springer vs. Eyeo: OLG Köln stated business model of AdBlock Plus unlawful". So this only concerns Eyeo and its "pay us, or nobody will see your ads" business model. Adblocking is legal. Even using ABP is legal. Much ado about nothing, unless you're Eyeo. Edit: This isn't even about adblocking, but about anti-competitive behavior: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gesetze-im-internet.de%2Fuwg_2004%2F__4a.html&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3... The lawsuit has been going on since at least 2014. Here are some comments by a German lawyer on it: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.internet-law.de%2F2014%2F12%2Fsind-adblocker-wettbewerbswidrig.html&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A...
- vincent_s 10y ago
  Article says "the OLG forbade the distribution of Adblock Plus", headline says Adblock Plus is illegal.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    Weird and silly mismatch. Might as well write a headline saying "Sex is illegal in Texas" because the article says that it's illegal to offer up services as a prostitute.
bediger4000 10y ago
What if I run my own DNS aggregator (dnsmasq, say), and send the most egregious advertisers to 127.0.0.1 via DNS lookup? Does that count as an "ad blocker"? See: https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Someone told me it was pretty effective to do this.
- Kristine1975 10y ago
  Adblockers are not repeat not illegal in Germany. Using Adblock Plus is not illegal in Germany. Only Eyeo's business model is. If the ruling is upheld by the Federal Court of Justice, that is.
  - _nalply 10y ago
    Exactly. «Das Gericht hält die Blockade von Werbung an und für sich jedoch nicht für wettbewerbswidrig, wohl aber das Whitelisting, das Eyeo zu seiner Finanzierung betreibt.» Translated into English by myself: However the jury doesn't regard the blocking of ads as basically anti-competitive, but arguably the whitelisting done by Eyeo to finance itself.»
- pfg 10y ago
  Blocking ads wasn't made illegal, just the opposite. Eyeo's business model of getting paid to whitelist ads in their ad blocking software was deemed illegal.
- dmfdmf 10y ago
  > and send the most egregious advertisers to 127.0.0.1 via DNS lookup? I've done this with my local HOST file and its only moderately effective. The problem is that 127.0.0.1 never replies and the timeout period causes the page load to stall. If I knew how I'd redirect requests to a local IP running a webserver that replies 410-Gone, 202-Accepted, 200-OK (or whatever code necessary) to any and all requests so the requesting page moves on and doesn't stall. If I was even more talented I could set up a public webserver and share it with the world so we could all point to it and block these ad servers that are ruining the internet. NB: I'm not opposed to ads but the marketers need to realize the WWW is not TV and stop forcing unwanted, irritating and obnoxious ads and auto-play videos.
anilgulecha 10y ago
Can the title be changed to "Whitelisting by adblock plus declared illegal in Germany" to stop the confusion.

14 points by vincent_s 10y ago

see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11945836

Yeah, let them try to detect I'm using adblocker :-) And what will prevent community from developing same thing under different name? -- Edit -- funny to find out this bothered somebody enough to down vote. Probably some German bureaucrat unhappy somebody's flagging dead laws before they are pushed through people's throats :-)

pavel_lishin 10y ago
> Yeah, let them try to detect I'm using adblocker Nothing in that translation says that the use of an adblocker is illegal. > And what will prevent community from developing same thing under different name? Nothing. This isn't about whether the adblocker itself is illegal or not; it's 100% about whether creating such a piece of software with a goal to make profit is legitimate or not. From the article: > However, the court does not consider the blockade of advertising in itself anticompetitive, but probably the whitelisting, which operates Eyeo to finance it. As an aside, complaining about downvotes 30 minutes after something is posted is silly. For all we know, the downvotes are automated. Throwing out vague ad hominem attacks against perceived enemies makes you sound goofy. And likely, it's not that your comment bothered anyone, it's just that it's inaccurate and adds nothing to the discussion. </meta>
bgun 10y ago
You obviously didn't read the article, but the terrible headline is at least partly to blame for this.
- ramtatatam 10y ago
  Well, I did not - shame on me :-) Though didn't think the title could be that far from actual content.

embik 10y ago

Please note the court explicitly considers ad blocking legal. This is about ABP's "acceptable apps" program.

Kristine1975 10y ago

HN headline is click-bait. The article's headline is: "Axel Springer vs. Eyeo: OLG Köln stated business model of AdBlock Plus unlawful". So this only concerns Eyeo and its "pay us, or nobody will see your ads" business model. Adblocking is legal. Even using ABP is legal. Much ado about nothing, unless you're Eyeo. Edit: This isn't even about adblocking, but about anti-competitive behavior: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gesetze-im-internet.de%2Fuwg_2004%2F__4a.html&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3... The lawsuit has been going on since at least 2014. Here are some comments by a German lawyer on it: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.internet-law.de%2F2014%2F12%2Fsind-adblocker-wettbewerbswidrig.html&edit-text= https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A...

vincent_s 10y ago
Article says "the OLG forbade the distribution of Adblock Plus", headline says Adblock Plus is illegal.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  Weird and silly mismatch. Might as well write a headline saying "Sex is illegal in Texas" because the article says that it's illegal to offer up services as a prostitute.

bediger4000 10y ago

What if I run my own DNS aggregator (dnsmasq, say), and send the most egregious advertisers to 127.0.0.1 via DNS lookup? Does that count as an "ad blocker"? See: https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Someone told me it was pretty effective to do this.

Kristine1975 10y ago
Adblockers are not repeat not illegal in Germany. Using Adblock Plus is not illegal in Germany. Only Eyeo's business model is. If the ruling is upheld by the Federal Court of Justice, that is.
- _nalply 10y ago
  Exactly. «Das Gericht hält die Blockade von Werbung an und für sich jedoch nicht für wettbewerbswidrig, wohl aber das Whitelisting, das Eyeo zu seiner Finanzierung betreibt.» Translated into English by myself: However the jury doesn't regard the blocking of ads as basically anti-competitive, but arguably the whitelisting done by Eyeo to finance itself.»
pfg 10y ago
Blocking ads wasn't made illegal, just the opposite. Eyeo's business model of getting paid to whitelist ads in their ad blocking software was deemed illegal.
dmfdmf 10y ago
> and send the most egregious advertisers to 127.0.0.1 via DNS lookup? I've done this with my local HOST file and its only moderately effective. The problem is that 127.0.0.1 never replies and the timeout period causes the page load to stall. If I knew how I'd redirect requests to a local IP running a webserver that replies 410-Gone, 202-Accepted, 200-OK (or whatever code necessary) to any and all requests so the requesting page moves on and doesn't stall. If I was even more talented I could set up a public webserver and share it with the world so we could all point to it and block these ad servers that are ruining the internet. NB: I'm not opposed to ads but the marketers need to realize the WWW is not TV and stop forcing unwanted, irritating and obnoxious ads and auto-play videos.

anilgulecha 10y ago

Can the title be changed to "Whitelisting by adblock plus declared illegal in Germany" to stop the confusion.