Germany's Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a case brought by media giant Axel Springer seeking to ban a popular application that blocks online advertising, in a landmark ruling that deals a blow to the publishing industry.
In a legal battle dating back more than three years, the court found in favour of Adblock Plus, an app developed by a firm called Eyeo and Axel Springer, which publishes Germany's best-selling daily Bild and also owns dozens of online portals. Developed 10 years ago and downloaded hundreds of millions of times, the open-source software Adblock Plus is one of the most popular ad-blocking programmes, aimed at preventing intrusive adverts from popping up on the screen and tracking a user's search history for commercial ends.
But websites dependent on advertising revenue to remain free-of-charge see the open source software as a scourge.
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