Technology German court revives case that could threaten ad blockers

[nicolaasjan]

Content source

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/german_court_ruling_ad_blocking/

A recent ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has reopened the possibility that using ad blocking software could violate copyright law in Germany.
In a decision last month, the BGH – the final court of appeals on civil and criminal matters – partially overturned an appeals court decision in an 11-year copyright dispute brought by publisher Axel Springer against Adblock Plus maker Eyeo GmbH.
The ruling says that the appeals court erred when it determined that the use of ad blocking software does not infringe on a copyright holder's exclusive right to modify a computer program.
Springer has argued – unsuccessfully so far – that its website code falls under the control of the German Copyright Act. So modifying the web page's Document Object Model (DOM) or Cascading Style Sheets – a common way to alter or remove web page elements – represents copyright infringement under the company's interpretation of the law.
The appellate court that initially heard and rejected that argument will now have to revisit the matter, a process likely to add several years to a case that Eyeo believed was settled seven years ago.
Eyeo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While it offers ad blocking software, the company generates revenue from ads through its Acceptable Ads program – advertisers pay to have ads that are "respectful, nonintrusive and relevant" exempted from filtering. Non-commercial open source projects like uBlock Origin rely on community support.
Philipp-Christian Thomale, senior legal counsel for Axel Springer, celebrated the ruling in a post to LinkedIn, calling it "a true milestone in the copyright protection of software – especially with regard to cloud-based applications (SaaS)."
Among the implications, he argues, is that "software providers will be better equipped to defend against manipulation by third-party software."
While the outcome remains undecided, Mozilla senior IP & product counsel Daniel Nazer worries that if the German courts ultimately uphold the copyright claim, that will hinder user choice on the internet.
"We sincerely hope that Germany does not become the second jurisdiction (after China) to ban ad blockers," he wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
"This will significantly limit users’ ability to control their online environment and potentially open the door to similar restrictions elsewhere. Such a precedent could embolden legal challenges against other extensions that protect privacy, enhance accessibility, or improve security."

 

[Marko :)]

I don't know what is happening with the Western European countries lately. Eastern European and Balkan countries are literal heaven for internet users.

 

[Parkinsond]

I don't know what is happening with the Western European countries lately. Eastern European and Balkan countries are literal heaven for internet users.

You did not witness the paradise of North African internet users.

 

[Trident]

I don't know what is happening with the Western European countries lately. Eastern European and Balkan countries are literal heaven for internet users.

Yeah, they’ve already sorted everything else out, the internet and the adblockers are the first priority now.

 

[Marko :)]

You did not witness the paradise of North African internet users.

Maybe regarding piracy, but anything else I wouldn't really call North African countries a "paradise" for internet users. They are known for censoring the web and shutting down internet during turbulent times.

 

[Parkinsond]

Maybe regarding piracy, but anything else I wouldn't really call North African countries a "paradise" for internet users. They are known for censoring the web and shutting down internet during turbulent times.

Mainly politics-related websites (most users do not care about) and vpn (to be able tracking criminal activities); the rest is allowed: adblocking, piracy, pornography, torrenting.

 

[piquiteco]

Have you ever thought about banning adblockers? First it was VPN, then the deep web, social networks, now what's next...

Edit.
I only know one thing: this is bad news for Adblock Plus.

 

[Parkinsond]

Have you ever thought about banning adblockers? First it was VPN, then the deep web, social networks, now what's next...

The deep web is fine here; I can access the deep web, but cannot do the same for Opera browser homepage.

 

[piquiteco]

The deep web is fine here; I can access the deep web, but cannot do the same for Opera browser homepage.

Using TOR?

 

[Parkinsond]

Using TOR?

using Edge.

 

[piquiteco]

using Edge.

EDGE is not a suitable browser for accessing the Deep Web. If you manage to use it, you will be exposed, and everyone will know your real IP address.

 

[Marko :)]

Mainly politics-related websites (most users do not care about) and vpn (to be able tracking criminal activities); the rest is allowed: adblocking, piracy, pornography, torrenting.

Countries aren't banning VPNs to be able to track criminal activities. They are banning them in order to keep you from escaping their bubble and so they can spy on you. China is perfect example for this. If you want to make an account on any major Chinese website, you have to provide your phone number. Why? In case you post something controversial or not in line with the government, so they know exactly who to punish. They also have thousands of people working behind the scenes removing "illegal" content.

This is why I mentioned Eastern European and Balkan countries as heaven for internet users. Here the internet isn't regulated, it's free and you can do anything you want from piracy to watching pornography. Our ISPs also can't spy on us because of strong data protection laws and they aren't allowed to disclose any data of their users to 3rd parties without valid court order (which is hard to get).

The deep web is fine here; I can access the deep web, but cannot do the same for Opera browser homepage.

EDGE is not a suitable browser for accessing the Deep Web. If you manage to use it, you will be exposed, and everyone will know your real IP address.

You guys are mixing terms deep and dark web.

Deep web is part of web that isn't indexed or accessible from any website. You can only access it if someone shared the URL with you.
Dark web is part of the web you can't access using normal web browser, only with special software like Tor.

 

[Parkinsond]

EDGE is not a suitable browser for accessing the Deep Web. If you manage to use it, you will be exposed, and everyone will know your real IP address.

Then they will come to my house to kill me?

 

[piquiteco]

You guys are mixing terms deep and dark web.

Both require TOR, but I have never accessed the dark web and do not intend to.

 

[piquiteco]

Then they will come to my house to kill me?

Of course not, don't exaggerate. Only if you are buying or sharing illegal stuff.

 

[Parkinsond]

They are banning them in order to keep you from escaping their bubble and so they can spy on you

This is the second reason; they are blocking every single vpn service homepage including browsers with built-in vpn such as Opera; Avast homepage was blocked for years, but they permitted it months ago.

 

[Parkinsond]

Of course not, don't exaggerate. Only if you are buying or sharing illegal stuff.

What I mean knowing IP carries only the risk of being able to determine your geolocation, which does not matter, except for those practising non-legitimate activities.

 

[piquiteco]

This is the second reason; they are blocking every single vpn service homepage including browsers with built-in vpn such as Opera; Avast homepage was blocked for years, but they permitted it months ago.

This happens. The other day, a page was blocked, and I was connecting to the VPN that comes with McAfee.

 

[Parkinsond]

Deep web is part of web that isn't indexed or accessible from any website. You can only access it if someone shared the URL with you

such as McAfee webadvisor extension on Chrome store; I could not reach without being provided with by harlan.

 

[Marko :)]

Both require TOR, but I have never accessed the dark web and do not intend to.

Not necessarily. There are a lot of websites that are available through normal web browser, just aren't shared anywhere this is what we call deep web. Any "hidden" website that you can't access using normal web browser is dark web.

BUT you do have deep web on Tor network as well. There are onion websites listing other onion websites. Those that aren't on the lists are considered deep web.

I have never accessed the dark web and do not intend to.

We did in school; really nothing interesting to see. Not everything is illegal there, you have legit sites like BBC on bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion or Facebook on facebookwkhpilnemxj7asaniu7vnjjbiltxjqhye3mhbshg7kx5tfyd.onion.

The shady stuff is well hidden and you'd have to search bunch of directories to find something illegal. We didn't find anything illegal, we just wanted to see how it looks and how to access it. Basically, bunch of ugly designed websites.

This is the second reason; they are blocking every single vpn service homepage including browsers with built-in vpn such as Opera; Avast homepage was blocked for years, but they permitted it months ago.

You actually can't block VPNs; you can only block public VPNs. If you rent AWS server and install VPN client on it, you could surf normally through it. Government can't block something it doesn't know it exists. Even if they block the IP of your own VPN server, you can always change it but I doubt they would block AWS considering they will make web useless.

Remember that Russia tried to block Telegram and it ridiculously failed. Turns out Telegram uses AWS and by blocking AWS servers, they blocked half the web and so they had to unblock it. Now even the government uses it despite trying to block it first.