A German court has just decided that a browser extension which strips ads from websites does not violate copyright <https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/19/ad_blockers_copyright_germany/>. One may have concerns with the business model of this particular company, but the general principle of a user being able (perhaps with the help of a third party) to modify a website’s content before displaying it on their own machine seems sacrosanct. However, a similar issue is being re-raised in the US, with a website owner filing a lawsuit against Google for the way its Android search app superimposes its own ads on top of the website display. It has long been decided that this does not violate copyright, but now the plaintiff is trying to argue that a website’s HTML code is not merely “intellectual property”, but actual physical property, so the principle of “trespass to chattels” can be applied to it.