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Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#31

Post by Vinnl »

kstrauser wrote: post #26

A 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…

Yeah, that's also the main warning from the blog: the reasoning here is that adjusting how the website code executes on your computer is copyright infringement. The effects of that would go way beyond just adblockers.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#32

Post by Vinnl »

guerrilla wrote: post #9
mortenjorck wrote: post #3

> We sincerely hope that Germany does not become the second jurisdiction (after China) to ban ad blockers. Given the other restrictions on internet use in China, it should have come as no surprise, but I had no idea this was the law of the land there.

Is it? Can we can confirmation?

In the original blog, "after China" is a link.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#33

Post by layer8 »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #16
close04 wrote: post #8

If the user is legally obligated to allow the ad on their device then the site owner must be legally accountable for what the ad does, for example if it's malware. No passing this on to the ad-network. Their code, their copyright, their malware distribution.

Surprised to see this downvoted; I hadn’t even thought of it but it actually seems like an eminently reasonable take. The only logical conclusion, even. How could you argue otherwise? Would love to hear a down voter’s dissent because I’m not seeing it.

It was probably downvoted because it is orthogonal to the issue. The website is (or should be) responsible for malware regardless of whether you are allowed to block it or not.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#34

Post by Vinnl »

9dev wrote: post #21

Sparing you both the reading time and the outrage: No, it is not.

Actual answer from the blog post (tl;dr: maybe):

> The full impact of this latest development is still unclear. The BGH will issue a more detailed written ruling explaining its decision. Meanwhile, the case has now returned to the lower court for additional fact-finding. It could be a couple more years until we have a clear answer. We hope that the courts ultimately reach the same sensible conclusion and allow users to install ad blockers.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#35

Post by limagnolia »

kstrauser wrote: post #26

A 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…

While I am a huge fan of ad blockers, and as some one with ADHD I am very sympathetic to the argument, I suspect that your friend is not a lawyer, and/or is not very familiar with the limitations of the ADA.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#36

Post by raverbashing »

1a527dd5 wrote: post #27

My 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.

You don't but good luck explaining to the Luddite boomers there

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#37

Post by kstrauser »

limagnolia wrote: post #35
kstrauser wrote: post #26

A 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…

While I am a huge fan of ad blockers, and as some one with ADHD I am very sympathetic to the argument, I suspect that your friend is not a lawyer, and/or is not very familiar with the limitations of the ADA.

He is not, nor am I, but I don’t see a reason you and I shouldn’t get the same legal protections as other groups. What about blind people who pipe the output of a screen through text-to-speech? Or people with epilepsy who can’t use flashy screens? Or someone who needs to enlarge print or change its contrast? There are plenty of medical reasons to need to alter their browser presentations.

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#38

Post by Meneth »

guerrilla wrote: post #9
mortenjorck wrote: post #3

> We sincerely hope that Germany does not become the second jurisdiction (after China) to ban ad blockers. Given the other restrictions on internet use in China, it should have come as no surprise, but I had no idea this was the law of the land there.

Is it? Can we can confirmation?

Mozilla cites what appears to be an auto-translated abstract of a chinese science paper:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&h...

"China takes a different approach to protect the ad-based business model under unfair competition law and bans ad blocking software directly by regulation. The Chinese courts held that providing ad blocking software is anti-competitive under a vague general principle of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law."

Re: Is Germany on the brink of banning ad blockers?

#39

Post by andy99 »

Much like the old "piracy" nonsense, I wonder if banning ad blockers would be a net gain for advertisers (if it was possible). Personally I wouldn't go to a site that had any remotely intrusive advertising, even if I wanted to I get too distracted to read the real content.

Less views means fewer network effects - for a small example, fewer people posting and discussing on sites like HN or reddit. And therefore less pull in of those unfortunate people who don't block ads, and less views overall.

I don't know if it actually works out that way, but I do think forcing people to accept the full bore of your annoying site or not use it at all is a double edged sword.

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