Advertisements are everywhere on the Internet, from video websites, search engines, portal websites, and even daily office suites and input methods. These advertisements have laid the foundation for the sustainable development of website and application developers, but it also has advertisements. It brings a problem, that is, the excessive number of advertisements in the form of annoying display will damage the user experience. Faced with these problems, users either continue to suffer, or use ad blocking tools to block them.
Beginning in 2019, Axel Springer, a German publisher, filed a lawsuit against Eyeo GmbH, a German software developer who developed the well-known ad blocking tool Adblock Plus, on the grounds that Adblock Plus modified the code of their website, and its website content and related code were protected by copyright laws. And they've lost billions in ad revenue because of ad blockers.
Axel Springer likens Adblock Plus's ad-blocking mechanism to the PSP's cheat tool (PSP is Sony's game console, with the help of cheat tools users can get special advantages in the game), it can modify the code in memory, and modifying the code is correct Copyright Infringement.
In response, Eyeo GmbH stated that "the code has not been rewritten, the blocking rules in Adblock Plus just don't load specific code." They considered the accusation "ridiculous" and asked the court to dismiss the other party's allegations.
After three years, on January 18, 2022, the District Court of Hamburg, Germany ruled in this case, "There is no evidence of unauthorized copying and/or re-production of computer programs by Adblock Plus. The plaintiff is not entitled to the The injunction requested." Developer Eyeo GmbH said after the court's decision: "We are delighted with this ruling, which sets an important legal precedent and defines who owns the underlying code of the website, as well as the popular browser. How functions and utilities can continue to operate legally on the public Internet.
Publisher Axel Springer said after the ruling that it would continue to appeal.
互联网上广告无处不在，从视频网站、搜索引擎、门户网站，甚至是日常使用的办公套件和输入法都有广告，这些广告为网站和应用的开发商能够持续发展奠定了基础，但它也带来了一个问题，那就是数量过多、展现形式恼人的广告会损害用户的使用体验。面对这些问题，用户要么继续忍受，要么使用广告屏蔽工具来拦截。
在 2019 年开始，德国的一家出版商 Axel Springer 对开发了知名广告屏蔽工具 Adblock Plus 的德国软件开发商 Eyeo GmbH 发起诉讼，理由是 Adblock Plus 修改了他们网站的代码，而其网站内容以及相关代码都受到版权法的保护。而且因为广告屏蔽工具的存在，他们已经损失了数十亿的广告收入。
Axel Springer 将 Adblock Plus 的广告屏蔽机制比作 PSP 的作弊工具（PSP 是索尼的游戏机，借助作弊工具用户可以在游戏中获得特殊的优势），它可以修改内存中的代码，而修改代码是对版权的侵犯。
作为回应，Eyeo GmbH 则表示，“代码没有被改写，Adblock Plus 中所具备的屏蔽规则只是不加载特定的代码。“ 他们认为这个指控是「可笑的」，要求法院驳回对方的指控。
时隔三年时间，2022 年 1 月 18 日，德国汉堡地方法院在此案中作出裁定，”没有证据表明 Adblock Plus 存在未经授权复制和/或重新制作计算机程序的情况。原告无权获得所要求的禁令。“
开发商 Eyeo GmbH 在法院作出裁定后表示：
我们对这一裁决感到高兴，此次裁决确立了一个重要的法律先例，并界定了谁拥有网站的基础代码，以及流行的浏览器功能和实用程序如何能够继续在公共互联网上合法运行。
出版商 Axel Springer 在此次裁决后表示，将会继续上诉。
