One for the lawyers - copyright, ad blockers, and paywalls

Started by Syt, October 21, 2015, 05:37:01 AM

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Syt

October 21, 2015, 05:37:01 AM
German tabloid BILD.de hates ad blockers. (In fact in a recent court case their lawyer explained that the main business of the publisher is selling advertising space.)

So they now block their webpage for people who use ad blockers and instead ask them to subscribe to the page if they want no ads. Fair enough.

Shortly after, though, there were many instructions on the webs on how to get around this by e.g. adding new filter commands to ad blockers, because of course.

One guy who had a how-to video on YouTube received a cease and desist letter from the publisher's lawyer, plus a lawyer's fee invoice of EUR 1800.-

The lawyers invoke German copyright law - it's illegal to circumvent effective copy protection measures of protected content, and also illegal to disseminate knowledge on how to do so. Obviously, the law was made with mainly CDs, DVDs or computer games in mind. (I believe other countries have similar laws.)

BILD's lawyers claim that using the adblocker-redirect to a subscription offer is an effective copy protection measure for their online content (and you either have to pay by seeing ads or by paying a fee to BILD).




While I'm not a fan of BILD (and I don't visit their web page), I think they're within their right to not allow people to see their content for free. However, even if copyright law is applicable here, I'm not sure if it can be considered "an effective copy protection" in the sense of the law if a few extra lines can be added to the ad blocker to get around it.

Are there experiences with this in other countries? :unsure:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Zanza

#1
October 21, 2015, 11:34:52 AM
I would question the "effectiveness" of their paywall if I can circumvent it with an adblocker. I don't alter their original content or their web server configuration by using an ad blocker. I merely change how my computer queries their server and how it processes the received data.

The Brain

#2
October 21, 2015, 12:42:04 PM
I'm not a lawyer but I like to post.

How do you circumvent effective copy protection measures?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

#4
October 22, 2015, 02:07:41 PM
I just had a look at how much ads they have in an article (choosing one about DFB head Niersbach's press conference). The article has ca. 630 words.

Casually scrolling through I see 9 ads that jump out, because they have a different look/feel to the rest of the article. One of them is a video that plays audio when you hover the mouse cursor over it. :bleeding:

Looking more carefully, the number of ads jumps to 15, by having ads between links to other articles that looks similar to those links, but have the word "ANZEIGE" (= advertisement) in a corner.

There are 16 links to actual other articles. However, 4 of them are part of BILD+, meaning you need a 4.99/month subscription.

Example:



Top two: articles (though the first one is the one I was looking at ...).
Then two ads. Then a Bild+ story behind a pay wall.


Or at the bottom of the page:


Left hand side (More from the Web): ads. Right hand side (More from BILD): articles (with one behind a pay wall).
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Syt

#5
October 22, 2015, 02:11:54 PM
Their subsription promises "up to 90% fewer ads, and up to 50% less load time." :lol:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Minsky Moment

#6
October 22, 2015, 02:37:07 PM
In the US this is governed by the DMCA, codified in the US Code as 17 USC 1201-05.
One interesting feature is that it can be illegal to circumvent a copyright protection system even if the underlying work has not been registered for copyright - as long as it is "copyrightable"
This is a tricky area as the case law isn't so well developed and there are various exceptions via rulemaking by the Library of Congress.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Caliga

#7
October 22, 2015, 03:24:09 PM
I had a meeting earlier today where some folks were bitching about a legal invoicing system we have and how the lawyers don't want to go in to it and do the coding so that their invoices actually get generated properly.  I made the joke that lawyers are too busy destroying the world to be bothered with details like being paid correctly.  Everyone laughed.  I'm awesome. :cool:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

Malthus

#8
October 22, 2015, 05:23:48 PM
Quote from: Caliga on October 22, 2015, 03:24:09 PM
I had a meeting earlier today where some folks were bitching about a legal invoicing system we have and how the lawyers don't want to go in to it and do the coding so that their invoices actually get generated properly.  I made the joke that lawyers are too busy destroying the world to be bothered with details like being paid correctly.  Everyone laughed.  I'm awesome. :cool:

As a lawyer, I take exception to that.

Destroying the world definitely takes lower priority to being paid correctly.  :P
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Caliga

#9
October 22, 2015, 06:54:57 PM
Not all lawyers are Jews though. :)
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

Eddie Teach

#10
October 22, 2015, 06:55:24 PM
Quote from: Malthus on October 22, 2015, 05:23:48 PM
As a lawyer, I take exception to that.

Destroying the world definitely takes lower priority to being paid correctly.  :P

Not when you're being overpaid. Like lawyers. :contract:
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

The Minsky Moment

#11
October 22, 2015, 08:10:57 PM
Quote from: Caliga on October 22, 2015, 06:54:57 PM
Not all lawyers are Jews though. :)

We assumed you were talking about good lawyers.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Admiral Yi

#12
October 22, 2015, 08:24:40 PM
Quote from: Syt on October 22, 2015, 02:11:54 PM
Their subsription promises "up to 90% fewer ads, and up to 50% less load time." :lol:

This "up to" language you see all the time in ads is a failure of communication.  So it could be 10% fewer ads?  It could be more ads?  I understand they don't want to *guarantee* 90% in case they slip, but surely there must be a better way to say this.

Josephus

#13
October 22, 2015, 09:21:36 PM
Do you really think lawyers are gonna give out their advice for free?
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Malthus

#14
October 23, 2015, 08:41:06 AM
Quote from: Caliga on October 22, 2015, 06:54:57 PM
Not all lawyers are Jews though. :)

Really? Not so as you'd notice.  ;)
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius
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