German Court Rules Adblock Plus Is Legal

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
If you are using Adblock Plus and live in Germany, you are good to go. The German courts have ruled after a four-month long trial that individuals have the right to block ads on visited websites.

While the decision is undoubtedly a big win for users today, it could also set a precedent for future lawsuits against Adblock Plus and any other tool that offers similar functions. The German court has essentially declared that users are legally allowed to control what happens on their screens and on their computers while they browse the Web.
Click to expand...
 
It's shocking to even think that someone even had an idea that blocking ads wouldn't be legal. Someone should sue the spammers who make flashing and popping ads to websites that annoy users.
 
Trust me, ads are so invasive now, everywhere that it's just absolutely horrible. I personally cannot watch live cable or use the internet in it's current form. I'm forced to use tools like Adblock Edge or DVR's for shows I watch.

While I don't personally click on ads and NEVER would I'm positive I do more than most to support web sites I truly enjoy, from affiliate links to word of mouth when someone asks me advice on good websites / forums.

Yeah, don't use Adblock Plus. They actually sold out to Google and others to not block some ads which if course will grow to more and more ads being allowed. You will notice I mentioned Adblock Edge. It's one of the best.

One of many sources - http://blogs.redorbit.com/adblock-plus-sells-out-allows-acceptable-ads/

Here's a fun little fact not many may know. They are actually speeding up old shows and movies by 10th of a second to squeeze in more commercial time ... true story.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Trust me, ads are so invasive now, everywhere that it's just absolutely horrible. I personally cannot watch live cable or use the internet in it's current form. I'm forced to use tools like Adblock Edge or DVR's for shows I watch.
Click to expand...

I can deal with short ads and noninvasive banner ads. What annoys me is the abusive ones that force a page elsewhere. Block content entirely. That type of thing.

YouTube has recently started slicing up (or I'm just noticing it more) long videos into 6+ non-skippable ad breaks. They're only 15secs, but that's not what bothers me. It's the same ad over and over again. I get it, your toothpaste is awesome, now kindly f*** off.
 
B00nie said:
It's shocking to even think that someone even had an idea that blocking ads wouldn't be legal. Someone should sue the spammers who make flashing and popping ads to websites that annoy users.
Click to expand...

Heading is misleading, and the article is crap as well. The company that purchased AdBlock Plus is white listing ads for money. It's horseshit.
 
reb00tin said:
Can you stop youtube ads? I've stopped watching their videos because of that.
Click to expand...

Yes, AdBlock and kin (I use uBlock with Firefox) block YouTube ads.

For me that was a necessity because with ads enabled on YouTube it slows down the videos to a crawl, causing frequent buffering and slowdown issues for some bizarre reason. Not being forced to sit through a 30 second ad to watch a 1 minute video is a bonus :)
 
SixFootDuo said:
You will notice I mentioned Adblock Edge. It's one of the best..
Click to expand...

At the Adblock Edge add-on page, it says..**This addon will be discontinued on June 2015 - Reason: Discontinued in favor of uBlock, a general purpose blocker, that not only outperforms Adblock Edge but is also available on other browsers and, of course, without "Acceptable Ads Whitelist".***

SixFootDuo said:
Here's a fun little fact not many may know. They are actually speeding up old shows and movies by 10th of a second to squeeze in more commercial time ... true story.
Click to expand...

This was already discussed two months ago.. Cable Speeds Up TV Shows To Show More Ads
 
Elledan said:
Yes, AdBlock and kin (I use uBlock with Firefox) block YouTube ads.

For me that was a necessity because with ads enabled on YouTube it slows down the videos to a crawl, causing frequent buffering and slowdown issues for some bizarre reason. Not being forced to sit through a 30 second ad to watch a 1 minute video is a bonus :)
Click to expand...


Thank you. I Just installed Adblock Plus 2.6.9 in Firefox.

NoScript blocks most ads, but not all, I'm bullet proof now :)
 
reb00tin said:
Thank you. I Just installed Adblock Plus 2.6.9 in Firefox.

NoScript blocks most ads, but not all, I'm bullet proof now :)
Click to expand...

You should have installed Adblock Edge, it is a fork of Adblock Plus but without a whitelist so is better. Ghostery is worth installing too to block trackers.
 
dgz said:
Heading is misleading, and the article is crap as well. The company that purchased AdBlock Plus is white listing ads for money. It's horseshit.
Click to expand...

Can you not just un-check "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" and block the "whitelisted" ads as well? I was pretty sure that's how it worked, but maybe I'm wrong.
 
rezerekted said:
You should have installed Adblock Edge, it is a fork of Adblock Plus but without a whitelist so is better. Ghostery is worth installing too to block trackers.
Click to expand...

Ugh, he's already blocking scripts, which renders Ghostery completely unneeded. It's also maintained by the people running all those ad platforms/trackers.

Spewn said:
Can you not just un-check "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" and block the "whitelisted" ads as well? I was pretty sure that's how it worked, but maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Sure you can. I still find it shady, though.
 
Spewn said:
Can you not just un-check "Allow some non-intrusive advertising" and block the "whitelisted" ads as well? I was pretty sure that's how it worked, but maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

Yes. If you disable those then adblock plus will work as before. The bigger problem with adblock plus is its such a memory hog nowadays and slows the browser startup a bit. Ublock is much smaller.
 
What is the "EasyList"? Should I uncheck it in Filter Preferences?

There is a description of it but it's techno-gibberish, and maintained by an entity named "Fanboy".
 
MaZa said:
Yes. If you disable those then adblock plus will work as before. The bigger problem with adblock plus is its such a memory hog nowadays and slows the browser startup a bit. Ublock is much smaller.
Click to expand...

Ive been using Privoxy for years on the desktop. Just as small and minimal now as it was then.
 
reb00tin said:
What is the "EasyList"? Should I uncheck it in Filter Preferences?

There is a description of it but it's techno-gibberish, and maintained by an entity named "Fanboy".
Click to expand...

You get to use adblock filters compiled by others as a quick getting started method, or you can painstakingly compile your own list together.

In short, unless you do not value your time, just use this 'EasyList' list :)
 
It is a Catch 22. No one likes ads but everyone loves at least some of the content that funded by ads that they normally wouldn't pay for out of pocket.
 
heatlesssun said:
It is a Catch 22. No one likes ads but everyone loves at least some of the content that funded by ads that they normally wouldn't pay for out of pocket.
Click to expand...

A lot of it is also about making ads relevant, fun and non-obtrusive. Many people moved away from cable TV because watching ten minutes of obnoxious ads for every 10-15 minutes of content ruined any chance they had of enjoying said content. Hence why services such as Netflix are so popular.

YouTube is also moving to a subscription model, whereby you can have YT be ad-free for a fee. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

In general people don't mind paying for a service they enjoy (see how many US-based proxies we Germans have for example to watch US-based Netflix), but it has to be made available to begin with.
 
Elledan said:
A lot of it is also about making ads relevant, fun and non-obtrusive. Many people moved away from cable TV because watching ten minutes of obnoxious ads for every 10-15 minutes of content ruined any chance they had of enjoying said content. Hence why services such as Netflix are so popular.

YouTube is also moving to a subscription model, whereby you can have YT be ad-free for a fee. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

In general people don't mind paying for a service they enjoy (see how many US-based proxies we Germans have for example to watch US-based Netflix), but it has to be made available to begin with.
Click to expand...

YouTube's subscription model is exactly the path cable TV went down. History is repeating itself.
 
^it's not quite that bad.... yet. It's one ad a video that can be pretty long.

I don't doubt they'll further it to more sooner or later. But it's not bad yet.
 
pothb said:
^it's not quite that bad.... yet. It's one ad a video that can be pretty long.

I don't doubt they'll further it to more sooner or later. But it's not bad yet.
Click to expand...

Yet being the operative.

Cable TV used to ad free when you paid for the subscription. Then it became less ads than free. Now cable TV paid is just as saturated with ads as free OTA.

Give it a while...look at Hulu. Same thing is going to happen.
 
It may have been deemed legal in Germany, but not here at the [H]Forums, turn off your damn adblockers, support the KB foundation.
 
I do not block ads on the major sites I go to because that is how they make money. However, I will block ads on sites that use then and flash so much, it takes 10 seconds to load a site on a 50 Mb connection with 16GB of ram and an 8 core processor. Thank you [H]ard for making ads relevant and yet unobtrusive.
 
Just a reminder to the newer guys....[H] rule #23 (don't block ads here):

(23) Any discussion of AD BLOCKING software or instruction for using ad blocking regarding this forum or any other discussion in general of attempting to block advertisement will result in a no questions asked permanent ban on your account. This is not done lightly, rather deliberately to deny access to those who choose to utilize this forum, but not support our sponsors. It takes money to finance the cost of bandwidth, especially a forum of this size and if you don't care enough to support us through our advertisers, then we don't need your business. This will be the only warning with no discussion.
Click to expand...

What you do elsewhere is your business, but make sure you keep your [H]ard on. ;)
 
Monkey34 said:
Just a reminder to the newer guys....[H] rule #23 (don't block ads here):



What you do elsewhere is your business, but make sure you keep your [H]ard on. ;)
Click to expand...

If you do mention that you block ads BE SURE TO MENTION YOU HAVE [H] WHITE LISTED.

I've done this and never had an issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top