Around the Net
Ad Block Plus Suffers Defeat Over Business Model
- Fortune, Monday, June 27, 2016 8:32 AM
One of the most popular ad-blocking browser extensions, Adblock Plus, has suffered a partial legal defeat in its native Germany over its controversial business model, Fortune reports. Adblock Plus, which has over 100 million active users, has won several victories over German publishers and broadcasters who tried to have it declared illegal. "However, one of the publishers, the media giant Axel Springer... appealed to the Cologne higher regional court. On Friday, the court handed it a partial victory: Ad-blocking is still legal, but Adblock Plus may not charge Axel Springer to have its ads show up in front of Adblock Plus users. This is the most contentious element of what Adblock Plus does. It operates a whitelist for so-called 'acceptable ads' that don’t involve obnoxious elements like pop-ups, dancing animations and auto-playing videos. Adblock Plus users can opt to see no ads whatsoever, but they can also choose to see acceptable ads."
