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'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark Anne Frank copyright ruling
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What would it mean if they weren’t? Does every business have to put every internal service on the public Internet or else?
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that publishers and VPN providers aren’t liable for copyright infringement
- VPN providers aren’t liable for copyright infringement, said the EU Court
- The Court explicitly recognized VPNs as “lawful technical tools”
- The case centered on the copyright battle involving Anne Frank’s diary
In a major victory for digital rights and common sense, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has officially categorized Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as “lawful technical tools” while establishing new boundaries for online copyright disputes.
The landmark judgment — handed down in July 2026 — stems from a complex legal battle over the online publication of Anne Frank’s historical manuscripts. At its core, the case forced Europe’s top judges to answer a highly technical question: if a publisher actively tries to block visitors from a specific country, are they still breaking the law if a user sneaks past the digital border using circumvention software?
According to the CJEU, the answer is no. As long as a website employs “state-of-the-art” geo-blocking technology, the publisher cannot be held liable for copyright infringement simply because a determined reader decides to fire up the best VPN to bypass the restrictions.
The ruling sets a massive precedent. It confirms that copyright holders cannot point to the mere existence of VPNs to claim a website’s security measures are completely ineffective.
not_IOthanks, i was wondering what Anne Frank was doing in that headline
Does anyone comprehensively understand the effect of confirming them as “lawful technical tools” in case of further challenges to VPNs?
SibboNo idea, but it sounds like you are allowed to use them. But most likely not to do anything illegal, such as violating any license agreements. So any streaming service can forbid using a VPN to change location and bypass region-blocking. But again, no idea.
This was mostly a ruling about the responsibility for websites (don’t have to block VPNs to enforce regional restrictions of content, etc) and VPN providers (not responsible for users circumventing regional restrictions). Websites can still choose to try to block, of course. Users can still be liable as usual if they use it to break the law but private companies are generally not responsible for enforcing that others follow the law, they’re responsible just for their own actions.
MinnesotaGoddamNot sure using a vpn to bypass region-locking is violating a license, but dammit I’m a comment, not a cop, Sibbo
whyNotSquirrelIt’s weird because what else could it be, if you ban VPN: how companies are supposed to let you use a laptop out of their local network
They could ban VPNs being sold commercially. That would be enough to stop 90% of the people who currently use VPNs to evade lawful regulations on harmless activities.
Very minor. They are simply not illegal at present. This does not put a check on lawmakers wanting to outlaw or “regulate” them.
MalReynoldsOf course, Anne Frank’s diary should be way the fuck out of copyright if the US hadn’t shoved Micky Mouse copyright terms down everyone’s throats.
a) The EU extended copyright before the US. It went even further than the US by reviving previously expired copyrights.
b) The relevant copyrights are expired in most of Europe. They still exist in the NL because of a special exemption granted by lawmakers.
Thanks for the informative. I’m in the ~5 years camp, and the current situation pisses me off. Even if the EU did it of their own accord, plenty of the world had it required for ‘free’ trade agreements.
Continental Europe had worse copyright laws since the 19th century. The US founding fathers were enlightenment age idealists, hence the copyright clause. European copyright laws were created by authoritarian empires. It’s a major reason why we can’t do tech. And I suspect also why Europe can’t answer to the dominance of US culture.
Legal theft like the Mickey-Mouse-Protection-Law is controversial in the US. In the EU, it goes by without comment. That ends up giving casual observers an exactly reverse impression of the legal and social situation. Same for a lot of issues.
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This is really good news and part of the verdict may also prove valuable in the fight for privacy rights and against chat control.
Both courts of the CJEU have shown again and again not to fear ruling against nations and EU institutions and by extension move the European project forward unlike the four political institutions (Commission, both Councils and Parliament). They also actually seem to know what they’re talking about.
In the fight against chat control I had partial faith in Parliament until Metsola started torturing the rules and manufactured an outcome last week. I do still have faith in the courts and I think, hope, ultimately that’s where this fight will be won.
I have zero faith as long the EPP are in control and will keep pushing and pushing until
big techthey get their way.The EPP has no integrity, that’s their biggest problem imo. They just move where it’s politically most convenient hence they’re now rubbing against the far-right. In the past they were more in the centre as that was were they could find majorities (and power) which made them less problematic. Under current circumstances I’d be glad if that’s where they ended up again for a few years, though I’d rather see them decimated.
But, yes, the infiltration of big tech in the EU and its power centres is extremely problematic as well and I don’t quite understand why we allow them that power (I mean, I do but…).
SD and Alde voted along willingly too, despite statements to the contrary. Rotten filthy liars one and all.
Yes true, but the EPP is far more worrying. They made up the majority of attendees voting in favour of chat Control, well orchestrated, they also pushed it through in a way that has never been used before with only a few days to make the vote knowing that many of the other members wouldn’t be available to vote. Metsola made a big speech about democracy and accusations flying about x and y, and declaring interests being important, Pushing that vote through was completely undemocratic.
There are plenty of examples of the underhanded tactics used by them, and they are by far and large the biggest party in the EU. All politicians do it, but we really don’t stand a chance if the biggest party is this corrupt this early on, siding with US big tech due to lobbying (aka bribing) on a level never before seen.
I give it 1 year until the title says VPNs are illegal.
It would fuck up most EU companies as both people working remotely, edge locations and site to site communications would be rendered insecure without VPNs.
I’m sure there’ll be a caveat for capitalist interests.
This seems pretty hard to enforce. “OI you there using an odd port and TLS. Do you have a Loicense?!”
I think there’s a reasonable chance that the European Council will push for it, Commission makes a proposal and that it will pas through Parliament and the Council of the EU. Probably not within a year but three or four maybe?
And then it will be taken to the courts. People and organisations will fight this and it’s likely we will win, especially with this verdict in our back pocket.
By that time, who knows what EU leadership and global politics will look like?
This ruling states that using a VPN to access content which is public domain in one jurisdiction but copyright protected in another is legal and not the responsibility of the VPN provider or the site providing the content.
But does it apply to activity by users on VPNs like torrenting of copyright protected material?
It has no bearing on the US Millennium Rights regime. I suspect anything torrented that you’ll be in trouble over is public domain nowhere.
But the VPN itself remains legal.
Iraq and Iran don’t usually extend copyright protection to foreign works, so that may be a loophole.
Lawful Neutral.