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Ad Blocking Infringes Copyright? Ancient Sony Cheat Lawsuit May Prove Pivotal

https://torrentfreak.com/ad-blocking-infringes-copyright-ancient-sony-cheat-lawsuit-may-prove-pivotal-240729/

Reminder: Install Ublock Origin

#adblock #privacy #technology #news

@technology@lemmy.world

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[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 137 points 4 months ago (8 children)

When the web pages are called up by the web browser, the HTML file is transferred to the RAM on the user’s device. To display the HTML file, the web browser interprets its content, creating additional data structures. The plaintiff sees the influence on these data structures by the ad blocker as an unauthorized modification of a computer program

This has to be the most idiotic thing I read this week.

[–] tabular@lemmy.world 97 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

"Wearing eye glasses modifies the text in a copyrighted book"

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The curl command is a hacking tool for copyright infringement.

[–] Eril@feddit.org 7 points 4 months ago

Gotta make curl illegal now. Or why stop there? All Http clients! Nothing could go wrong 😊

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

How very very dare you to modify the contents of this media to your liking, you horrible soulless excuse for a human being.

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

How dare you interpret this media with your mind in a way we never intended! Now that your brain has processed our information, it is an asset of Sony corporation. All your brain and its thoughts below to us.

[–] kjaeselrek@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago

Highlighter? Believe it or not, jail.

[–] hsdkfr734r@feddit.nl 18 points 4 months ago

This has to be the most idiotic thing I read this week.

Landgericht Hamburg enters the room to agree with the plaintiff.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago

The plaintiff sees the influence on these data structures by the ad blocker as an unauthorized modification of a computer program

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The original idiocy here is the DMCA, this and the other idiocies practised in its name are consequences. Over time the idiocies build up as case law precedents until new and ever more egregious cases are made, some of which stick (as in throw shit at the wall and see what sticks) and the cycle continues. Eventually the only way to root it out becomes new legislation.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Eventually the only way to root it out becomes new legislation.

Or violence, which is justified self-defense when tyrants are trying to destroy everyone's property rights.

Make no mistake: these companies are trying to subjugate us and turn us into the digital equivalent of serfs, to be exploited without recourse. We should be a lot more pissed off about this than we are!

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 months ago

Or violence, which is justified self-defense when tyrants are trying to destroy everyone’s property rights.

Valid option. Burn it all down and start again is always possible, and probably more efficient than fixing things at this point.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's all well and good, except this is a German court case and the DMCA doesn't apply.

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm not American either, but law precedents are contagious, once enough judges think it's reasonable, others start to as well, even across borders. A lot of the world runs on Scottish common law at base. If you really want to get to root causes, I'd go with greed, the tendency of the rich to seek rent, and Late Stage Capitalism.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 months ago

And they'll do everything to push some kind of DRM to force their crap down our throats.

[–] BlitzFitz@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I didn't know this was how adblockers and sites worked in general.

If the html file is on the users device and they overwrite it, via an ad blocker, that is in their rights as the property owner of the machine.

Seems like sites need to get creative in new ways to force ads, which I'm sure will be a different kind of intrusive, instead of trying to push their ownership into the space of the users systems.

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago

I thought ad blockers simply prevent that part from being downloaded, saving bandwidth. In that case, there is no manipulation, it was never there to begin with.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

Overwrite doesn't even seem accurate. They're mostly just blocking connections to malicious domains, with a little blocking malicious portions of scripts from executing.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 4 points 4 months ago

Seems like you could argue muting the volume during an ad is an unauthorized modification as well.

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Html isn't a program or programming language.