The case stems from online media company Axel Springer’s lawsuit against Eyeo - the maker of the popular Adblock Plus browser extension.
Axel Springer says that ad blockers threaten its revenue generation model and frames website execution inside web browsers as a copyright violation.
FYI, Axel Springer is a company and owns Business Insider (since 2015), Politico, and Politico Europe (since 2021). They suck.
Gudrun Kruip, a scholar associated with the Stiftung Bundespräsident-Theodor-Heuss-Haus, has claimed that Axel Springer SE, along with its subsidiaries, exhibits a pro-American stance, often omitting criticism of US foreign policy.[58] This observation is then backed by allegations made by two former CIA officers in an interview with The Nation, claiming that Axel Springer received $7 million from the CIA.[59] The purpose of this funding, they allege, was to influence the publisher to align its editorial content with American geopolitical interests.[59]
As of 2001, the Axel Springer SE names “solidarity with the libertarian values of the United States of America” as one of its core principles on its website.[60] This explicit stance has led to critiques from scholars and independent observers regarding the company’s perceived alignment with American interests.[58][61][62][63][64] Furthermore, an article in Foreign Policy has critiqued Axel Springer SE for a history of compromising journalistic ethics to support right-wing causes, implying a longstanding pattern of bias in its publications.[65]
Fun fact: they’ve also been founded with CIA money.
I bet the CIA would love to force everyone visiting a website to run their code
Seems like you forgot the Bild Zeitung, the worst piece of media out there (comparable to the Sun I’ve heard):
It is the best-selling European newspaper and has the sixteenth-largest circulation worldwide. Bild has been described as “notorious for its mix of gossip, inflammatory language, and sensationalism” and as having a huge influence on German politicians.
They also bought a lot of other services, see this list, seems like it’s not maintained anymore but still.
Let’s also not forget the time that Mathias Döpfner stole the German election in 2021 so that the FDP could screw over the coalition, see here:
Zwei Tage vor der Bundestagswahl soll er Reichelt gedrängt haben: “Please Stärke die FDP. Wenn die sehr stark sind, können sie in Ampel so autoritär auftreten, dass die platzt und dann Jamaika funktioniert.”
Also this lawsuit has been ongoing for at least a decade iirc. Springer has been trying real hard.
It’s my computer.
Fuck you.
I wonder why all these totally unrelated things in the world are going to shit? Maybe theres a common thread
Capitalism baby!
People still look at me like I’m some sort of conspiracy theorist when I say that it’s all connected back to capitalism
A friend of mine recently called me more brainwashed than anyone for questioning capitalism and said how can I question a system that gives me bread and butter.
When I tried to point out that the system does not give me food by the goodness of it’s heart but rather extracts something out of me in return, he pointed out that Milton Friedman was a staunch supporter of capitalism and there is no way I can know more than him.
But the truth is, the world is crumbling. And I had rather believe what is unfolding before my own eyes than an economics textbook from 1970s (not to mention, that unlike say math economics isn’t that objective a field. Just like he purported a free market supporting Economist, I too can forward names of folks who support the opposite POV).
The day folks stop seeing themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires would be awakening.
Milton Friedman was a staunch supporter of capitalism and there is no way I can know more than him.
Einstein supported socialism. You think you’re smarter than Einstein???
Most people are just in denial. The left has been calling out capitalism as the problem for over a century
There was just a decent period in the middle there for the west that put a lot of people into complacency, but finally we’re starting to approach the logical conclusions of capitalism again, and it’s all coming crashing down
Unfortunately I strongly believe that things are going to get much worse before they get better. I think the vast majority will need to be shocked into action
Yeah as if things happening in US isn’t chaotic enough. I wonder if that send signal to the world that it’s okay to be suppress all rights suddenly
WEF Agenda from years ago. Which governments are using as guidelines.
State Censorship with the help of Corps. heading toward Digital IDs.
This is from their site, and what their white paper entails to aim for a goal to have a central ID that can be used to easily keep track (read: doxx you) via everything about you. As it will be connected to everything, including social media, obviously. What we are seeing is the slow normalisation of this. With the goal being fully there by 2030 at the latest. Albeit I have seen 2027 being thrown around for a partial goals.
So, no privacy, for control… Sorry, to protect you and your convenience. Yeah, that. Believe me, bro. Will never be abused. Promise.
Central Bank Digital Currencies, over cash. Due to Dystopian levels of cranial digital control over the currency. Friends from the bank I used to work on the IT side have already been getting briefed that these are coming down the pipe, eventually. This was done in late 2024. These things are sloe to test and implement and take time but they are coming.
Resource management that will become intrusive in your every day, via smart everything and endless bureaucracy.
Less purchases and owning, more subscription models in absolutely everything that is possible.
Essentially technocrats larping as activists for grift and profit.
This is pretty crazy how its been in the open for so long but when you talk to people about the WEF they look at you like you’re telling them the world is flat, Its in the open for all to see but everyone has their heads in the sand and wont realise until its too late, i mean it is already. As it seems alot of these things in the diagram and what you’ve said has already come true.
I cannot describe in accurate enough words how terrified this makes me for the future and how apathetic people will be to it.
If that lawsuit is successful then I’ll be next in line suing security camera companies for disrupting my breaking and entering business.
If Germany bans ad blockers and a German citizen or company becomes victim to a malicious advertisement, do they have a case against the German government or by extension Axel Springer?
What are you thinking?? Against the capital owners?
Yes.
Technically they could argue that, if it was their code.
Corp. would likely counter with some BS that if it was not their code that they are not liable.
This is grounded in the assertion that a website’s HTML/CSS is a protected computer program that an ad blocker intervenes in the in-memory execution structures (DOM, CSSOM, rendering tree), this constituting unlawful reproduction and modification.
This would also ban Dark Mode features and extensions.
This would ban most of computing tbh
Black mirror 15 Million Merits
And this…
…in a nutshell is US patent US8246454B2. Sony owns the rights since 2009 but has not implemented it. When the permit expires in 2030, it will basically be open for other companies to use
“The EU recognizes the right of users to choose what content they receive, including the ability to block unwanted advertising.”
what happened to our privacy rights? Are they being dismantled in order for giant tech companies to take a foothold in controlling the masses? I mean that’s what we get when we elect a self-proclaimed “transatlantist” chancellor. Fuck Merz and his blackrock cronies
Europe went from leader of internet freedom to STASI police in a few months.
Guess there’s a top down policy to implement Fascism across Europe soon, judging by the speed at which Europe is passing dracnonic internet control.
That’s really unfair to Stasi. For all their problems they fought Nazis, not supported them.
Its a preparation for war with russia. If journalism and free flow of information keeps existing, its hard to explain to people they should support such madness, so its time to silence everyone
Frankly, I don’t think so, the vast majority are not fans of Russia, especially after the invasion of Ukraine. Pretty much everyone is in agreement that Russia is a threat, and there’s no need for any media suppression for that
Are you enlisted yet?
There’s a big difference between not being a fan of Russia and wanting a cataclysmic war with them
Do you think that European countries want to go on an offensive war with Russia or something? No, the discussion has always been about a defensive one
Do you think that European countries want to go on an offensive war with Russia or something?
Yes, obviously.
No, the discussion has always been about a defensive one
“Defensive” in the “pre-emptive defence” sense
I think you have no idea what you are talking about
Ok. I think the same about you.
Is it illegal for me to fast forward the previews at the beginning of my VHS too? WTF?
LOL they WANTED it to be!!
Yep and they made it that way on a lot of DVDs!
Mozilla guy saying there’s a risk, but i dont really see it, myself.
Firstly, does copyright really prevent modification for personal use? I dont think it does.
Secondly, you’re not so much modifying the content as not consuming part of it. I think thats an important distinction for the court to grapple with.
Logic and reason never stopped monied forces from twisting the letter and spirit of the law to suit their own desires.
This is grounded in the assertion that a website’s HTML/CSS is a protected computer program that an ad blocker intervenes in the in-memory execution structures (DOM, CSSOM, rendering tree), this constituting unlawful reproduction and modification.
This is ridiculous… the in-memory structures are highly browser dependent, the browser is the one controlling how the DOM is represented in memory… it would imply that opening the website AT ALL in a different version of the exact specific one they target or with a different set of specific features/settings would also be a violation, since the memory structure would likely be different too.
At that point, they might as well just ask for their website to not be visited at all.
There are other ways to fight ads, if it comes to that. But I won’t say what they are - just in case there are spies in our ranks.
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I think the logic here is that the code to deliver an ad is protected by copyright and your modification of that code is considered a derivative work that is protected under copyright law.
But that’s not what happens at the browser level.
The HTML code is sent, whole cloth, to the browser. The browser inspects the code, you know, to do browser stuff.
During this inspection, the code is put against the ad block rules. Nothing is modified. If the code violates some sort of logic, it doesn’t get rendered properly.
Hell, the opposite argument is probably more damning. Say you have this literal HTML:
<html> <title>I use arch</title> <p> Btw hello World</html>You could argue the browser is NOT showing your code the way you intended (e.g. “Btw hello World” being rendered though I’m not sure if spaces would be there or not).
At the end of the day, unless you send your webpage as an image, you can’t guarantee how the browser will render it.
yeah, website code editing is not needed, blocking of resource loading and browser API editing is what is done, and of course attaching additional stylesheets. sometimes HTML “code” editing happens too, but that’s probably not that important.
also browsers are called user agents for a reason. they should be an agent of the user, not of website owners, for the purpose of communicating with the website on the behalf of the user
You could argue the browser is NOT showing your code the way you intended (e.g. “Btw hello World” being rendered though I’m not sure if spaces would be there or not).
and that shouldn’t be legally required either. for one the web standards were not developed as laws of a government, but there’s also software bugs and unspecified behaviors, website owners should never be able to sue browser makers for not showing their website exactly as they expected.
They are also including the “CSSOM” and “rendering tree” as part of what they consider subject to “unlawful reproduction and modification”.
So, according to them, the rendering tree is also part of their IP… which is bonkers, since it’s the browser the one who implements this and even different browsers (or different versions of the same browser) might actually have different rendering strategies, different trees… different CSS extensions (or omisions), etc. You basically would be potentially violating their IP if you used any browser different than what they specifically might have had in mind (which we don’t even have a way to know for sure unless they clearly state it…).
It’s like a painter suing someone for using glasses and altering the lightwaves coming from their painting…
I have DRM on my network, I manage my digital rights with an ad blocker. If you try and circumvent my digital right can I sue?
Issue is our government and justical system is stuck in many areas between 1980-1995.
God knows what logic they had for that
Yeah, but if the indeed come and try to sue you, a competent lawyer will force the case dismissal and they will end up having to review whatever law they pass.
issue with your approach is money , a lawyer , courts and stuff all need TONS of money , not everyone got such money to burn. Here in germany simply asking a lawyer to write something is expensive like seriously expensive.
I can literally open up the development console and manually click an ad, and delete it. Am I now hacking and sabotaging a protected program?
WTF is this for nonsense, what mental gymnastics…?
