Adblocker
Adblockers - the BGH is waiting for an ECJ ruling.
Axel Springer Verlag has filed a lawsuit with the BGH against the use of the Adblock Plus ad blocker for infringing its copyrights. The BGH has now postponed its decision in this matter as it is awaiting a decision from the ECJ in a similar case.
What is it about?
Many online users find the advertising they encounter while surfing the web intrusive and annoying. Ad blockers such as "Adblocker Plus" are browser extensions that suppress advertising media such as banner ads, pop-ups or advertising videos.
Freely accessible online media in particular refinance their content through such advertising. In this respect, ad blockers jeopardize their business model, which is why Springer is attempting to take legal action against them.
What are adblockers?
An adblocker recognizes advertisements and prevents them from being displayed on the user's screen.
The source code of a website is analyzed and elements that represent advertising are identified.
One possibility is to use certain commands, so-called "tags", in HTML. Another option is to check the URL. If the address of the web server can be assigned to an advertising provider, the loading and display of corresponding content is suppressed.
What has Springer already done about this?
Axel Springer had tried to claim that Eyeo's adblocker constituted an infringement of competition law. Even the fact that Eyeo was paid money by companies in the advertising industry so that these were not filtered out but presented to the user as acceptable advertising was not enough for the BGH. In its ruling from April 2018, BGH, 19.04.2018 - I ZR 154/16, it essentially stated that the decision to use an ad blocker lies with the user of the website and not with the defendant company.
What is the specific legal accusation?
The current proceedings are about the admissibility of adblockers under copyright law. The question is whether the adblock software modifies or reproduces the respective website programming and thus infringes the copyright of the website operator.
In particular, Sections 69a and 69c UrhG are at issue here.
The adblockers would change the HTML programming codes of the websites, which would constitute an infringement of copyright.
So far, neither the Hamburg Regional Court nor the Hamburg Higher Regional Court have followed this line of argument. The BGH has now suspended its decision for the time being, as the ECJ will rule on a similar case in October.
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