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Eyeo GmbH, the company behind popular browser extension, AdBlock Plus, has won yet another court case in Germany, where it has now faced down and won six separate lawsuits against it. This one was against a mighty opponent too: one of the country's biggest media brands, Der Spiegel.
Although Der Spiegel is just one of many to take Eyeo to court, the case was much the same. “Every [one] wants to do the same thing,” said Eyeo's head of communications, Ben Williams (via Ars). “They say we shouldn't offer a service that allows users to block ads.”
Souce: AdBlock/Twitter
The argument in legal terms, is that by making it impossible for adverts to be viewed through a browser, AdBlock was essentially violating Germany's anti-competitive laws. This is doubly so in the case of Eyeo demanding payment to whitelist adverts it claims, adding its own moral guidelines to it by demanding ads conform to certain standards.
Eyeo however see itself as somewhat of a gatekeeper to this sort of legal blocking. It believes that companies like Der Spiegel want to see all advert blocking tools banned in Germany, so if it wins a case against the largest in the form of AdBlock Plus, it will have Β good precedent to go after the others. That's why Eyeo defends itself so strongly in these cases and that's perhaps partly why it's won nearly all of them.
In one instance Eyeo did lose an appeal, whereby it was forced to modify the process it approved adverts for whitelisting, but that was still only a partial win for the publishers and Adblock remained accessible in Germany.
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KitGuru Says: It's worth taking this time to say that if you have AdBlock and you like KitGuru's content, please consider whitelisting us. The jobs of all the writers here depend on advertising revenue, so we would really appreciate it.Β
I am all in favour of ad blocking.
I pay for my own internet service, which is not cheap, and as a result feel I have the right to choose what I would like to see directed towards me, if these companies feel it is within their rights to push unwanted ads on me then let them pay my ISP for my service, until then I will continue to block unwanted ads and feel I am within my rights to do so.
What these ad companies are doing is trying to convince people that they do not have a choice, that they need to accept what is being pushed at them. Its about time people realise they pay for a premium service they are entitled to choose the content they see on this service, and if they don’t like the content they are entitled to block it.
Just my 2 cents.
Unfortunately mobile devices are what suffer the most from adverts, they slow down the phone, waste data, use battery, get in the way of the content youre trying to view.. etc etc. I am all for ad blocking on mobile devices.
All it does take though is using your own custom DNS server, with entries added that just redirect all known ad requests to localhost, effectively nulling them off the face of the earth.
ISPs could offer a paid addon package and the money from that would go to the ad sites so they wouldnt lose out.
2-3 ads per page, max. Not the like 20+ some places have.
My PC is not an ad platform – simple as that.
It’s tough, no one wants to see ads but websites have to generate an income somehow to pay their writers etc. Would those who don’t want ads be willing to pay a subscription instead? I doubt it.
“ISPs could offer a paid addon package and the money from that would go to the ad sites so they wouldnt lose out.”
Alternatively, no. I don’t want to see a paid service that removes ads at the ISP level when I can do it for free at the browser level on my computer
Thing is, just because someone puts up a website, it doesn’t entitle them to get paid for it. Their only entitlement to payment is via a subscription service that people are willing to pay for.
As much for myself, I’m not entitled to be paid to be a web programmer. I’m not owed that by society, I have to find someone willing to pay me for it.
I’ve been to university. I’ve paid for my tuition. Now, give me my web developer moneys? Sound familiar? I’ve paid for my domain name, hosting and software. I write articles, now I should get paid, right? Wrong!
Sites like Kitguru probably make a lot of money from ads, but to rely solely on ads for your revenue is insane and poor business. I’m, pretty sure there are plenty of other revenue streams Kitguru has lined up because they’ll know this too.
Glad that it is all sorted, not a fan of the inane adverts on tv or the pc, many are intrusive and when I see cookies on the pc, it is another option to block at the dns level π
On the phone it is not so easy, the old company phone had a special offer from some advert laden malware that installed itself to the phone and apparently charged Β£2.40 per months.
Then there is the malware laden adverts that can brick a pc, are the websites now responsible for any malware they help install onto surfer’s pc ? I suspect they would find a way to get out of it
Ads need to die a vicious and horrific death. They are a stain on the internet and society in general.
I paid for my internet package. I paid for my phone and computer. I have 100% full rights to block ANYTHING I want or don’t want on my computer.
You don’t see pornhub getting up in arms over OpenDNS blocking adult sites. Where are the court cases there?
this
There is no denying there are other ways to generate revenue but your analogy isn’t that great. People that write crap and are not popular don’t make any money even with ads. It generally is sites that people want to go to and repeatedly consume content, content that needs to get funded somehow. You have a skill, you still need to produce, just like the writer or website owner, no one is entitled to be popular or in demand but people are entitled to get compensated for their work and if they aren’t, then it just won’t get generated, is simple really. What if people said what you do is awesome and they like your work but value it as free?
Right, but there’s no entitlement to reduce my internet experience via ads and I’m not obligated to unblock ads.
If someone valued my work at “free” I’d turn them down and find someone willing to pay, or in the case of being self employed, find a paying model that works.
Not that I personally don’t do work for free, being a keen open source/creative commons developer in my spare time, but there’s no way I’d work due my boss, generating him Β£50k revenue at a time without being compensated myself.
Ads on websites are a tricky subject. On the one hand, you’re right, ads are necess for the running of some sites (even if I personally think they should generate revenue elsewhere as well), on the other hand, ads are abborant, irrelevant to me and negatively affect everyone’s internet experience in one way or another.
I, therefore, personally choose to block ads on my desktop and mobile and I’m happier for it.
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On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you donβt check it
!mj88d:
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I think a lot of sites are doing as you say and turning down users who don’t pay, directly or indirectly. It is tricky because no one wants to pay and no one wants ads.
Yeah I just avoid those sites. Though, funnily enough, I have whitelisted KitGuru. The only ads they have are the ones in the background at the side of the content. None in the content and that makes all the difference.
Its less the desktop area, and more the mobile area, where it is much harder, sometimes impossible to use an ad blocker on-device
Not for android. Ad Guard does it without root
Even on mobile internet? I am assuming through the use of a built in proxy service that you would configure the apn/wifi to connect via