'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark copyright ruling
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
EU Court rules VPNs are lawful, reducing copyright liability for providers.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that publishers and VPN providers are not liable for copyright infringement when users bypass geo-blocking. The ruling states geo-blocking is the copyright holder's problem, not the VPN's. The author notes this decision may influence UK government policy on potential VPN bans related to child protection measures, though UK government intentions remain unclear.
What commenters are saying
Most commenters support VPNs as legitimate tools, citing corporate access, public Wi-Fi security, and home server use. One comment, likely sarcastic, argued VPNs are only for illegal activity, which sparked meta-discussions about reading comprehension and quotation formatting. Several noted the original comment's structure caused many to reply without reading the full context.
Critics of VPN necessity argued TLS and HTTPS already provide encryption, making VPN redundant for most security needs. Others defended VPNs for defense-in-depth and trusted-context access to home services.