Sparing you both the reading time and the outrage: No, it is not.
Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
21–30 of 147 posts
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it make sense? If I buy a book I'm entitled to rip out pages and black marker words. What's the difference to removing text or images of my choice while viewing a website?
Depends on what the license says in the first page of the book. It may actually disallow you ripping out pages. You don't own the book, you merely paid for a limited license to read it per the instructions provided in the license agreement. Anything else would be immoral.
This is not true - you have received a property right to the copy of the content and can legally alter or destroy it. A license in the book cannot override your property right.
You may encounter issues if you attempt to distribute the altered copy, but that's not at issue here.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#23I can't judge the legal aspects. But a significant point here is that Adblock Plus allows you do pay them to get preferential treatment for your ads.
I don't know how much this part affects the legal issues here, but for me that is quite a different situation than a pure ad blocker. There is a coercive element here, if your ad blocker is used widely enough and you take money for preferential treatment.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it make sense? If I buy a book I'm entitled to rip out pages and black marker words. What's the difference to removing text or images of my choice while viewing a website?
Depends on what the license says in the first page of the book. It may actually disallow you ripping out pages. You don't own the book, you merely paid for a limited license to read it per the instructions provided in the license agreement. Anything else would be immoral.
No, you absolutely own the book, but you have a licence for the information in it.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#25Ok, I'll bite... what if an "ad" on a website is a bit of javascript that mines bitcoins using my GPU? Does this mean I have to let it do this?
What if it does it while showing me an ad for something at the same time?
How does running a bit of software on my computer concern anyone other than me?
I am not a lawyer and I haven't read the court's rulings but this seems assinine!
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#26A friend raised what I consider a very valid point, that ad blockers are assistive technology for people with ADHD. They prevent the web from being an unusable mess of shiny distraction. And as such, in America, blocking ad blockers is a violation of the ADA.
I’m being completely serious here and so is he. I can barely use the web without ad blockers. They make it possible for me to participate in online life. Remove them and you largely remove me. An attack on ad blockers is a direct attack on even the slightly neurodivergent, and should be treated as such.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#27My question is how do you enforce anything like this? Cookie banners, the accessibility ruling, and now this.
We've had to adhere to the rulings at work; but when I ask the lawyers; "how do you enforce this?" they say as long as you make a best effort you are fine.
Wasted effort.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it make sense? If I buy a book I'm entitled to rip out pages and black marker words. What's the difference to removing text or images of my choice while viewing a website?
Depends on what the license says in the first page of the book. It may actually disallow you ripping out pages. You don't own the book, you merely paid for a limited license to read it per the instructions provided in the license agreement. Anything else would be immoral.
Wouldn't the first sale doctrine override such terms in most cases?
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it make sense? If I buy a book I'm entitled to rip out pages and black marker words. What's the difference to removing text or images of my choice while viewing a website?
Depends on what the license says in the first page of the book. It may actually disallow you ripping out pages. You don't own the book, you merely paid for a limited license to read it per the instructions provided in the license agreement. Anything else would be immoral.
No, that is not how copyright works, at least not in this country, but probably not in many countries. You buy a book, not a license. Copyright luckily isn't an unlimited right to dictate exactly how a work is used.
Ebooks sadly are different. I only buy DRM-free ebooks that grant me rights similar to what always exists for printed books, but that sadly limits what ebooks I can buy quite significantly.
Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?
#30My question is how do you enforce anything like this? Cookie banners, the accessibility ruling, and now this. We've had to adhere to the rulings at work; but when I ask the lawyers; "how do you enforce this?" they say as long as you make a best effort you are fine. Wasted effort.
they may ban particular extensions in regions, it should be doable for majority of public. it wouldn't be a complete ban, they can't really do that, but roadblocks will be enough to deter people