The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued an important ruling on the legality of VPNs and the responsibility of platforms for circumventing geoblocking. The case began with the publication of Anne Frank's works, which in some countries have already entered the public domain, while in others remain protected by copyright. Scholars created a free academic edition and restricted access to it for users from the Netherlands, where some materials are still protected.
However, the rights holder Anne Frank Fonds considered the protection insufficient. The argument: a user from the Netherlands could connect via a VPN and open the site by choosing a server in another country. Therefore, the platform should have ensured absolute protection against circumventing geoblocking.
The EU Court disagreed. It stated that website owners must apply reasonable protection measures but are not obliged to guarantee that no one will ever be able to bypass restrictions. Absolute technical impenetrability is not required. Furthermore, VPN is recognized as a legal tool: its use alone does not make the user an infringer, nor does it make the provider a participant in infringement.
For IT professionals and copyright lawyers, this ruling sets the tone for regulating similar disputes. Content owners should remember: applying modern blocking measures is sufficient to comply with the law. And users can rest assured: using a VPN does not automatically make them guilty. The context is clear, the boundaries are set.
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