Суд ЕС признал VPN законным инструментом

EU Court Confirms: VPNs Are Legal Tools, Not Loopholes Manual · 22.07.2026 The Court of Justice of the European Union has officially recognized VPNs as "legal technical tools." Not a "gray area," not a "tool for circumventing the law," but precisely a legal tool. A formulation the privacy-tech industry fought for for years just got cemented in a court ruling. The case that led to this is absurd exactly to the degree that European copyright law can be absurd. The Diary of Anne Frank is in the public domain in Belgium and roughly 60 other countries. In the Netherlands, part of the text remains copyrighted until 2037. Dutch and Belgian universities produced a free scholarly edition of the manuscripts, hosted the site in Belgium, and applied geoblocking for Dutch IP addresses — all by the book. The Anne Frank Fonds, holder of the Dutch rights, sued anyway, arguing: since a regular VPN can fake location, geoblocking is ineffective, meaning the publication is effectively accessible to a Dutch audience — hence, infringement. The court shattered that logic. The CJEU's position: the mere fact that protection can be bypassed doesn't automatically make it "ineffective" or turn the publisher into an infringer. If the "most up-to-date" geoblocking measures were applied, that's enough. The court declined to demand impenetrable digital walls, rightly calling that impossible. Separately and explicitly, the court cleared VPN providers of responsibility for what users do with their service. In other words, a company selling VPNs isn't liable for someone using it to access a geo-restricted site. The bottom line is simple: publishers aren't obligated to build unhackable walls, VPN providers aren't responsible for those who climb over them, and copyright borders and a borderless internet can, it turns out, coexist just fine — as long as all sides rely on reasonable technical tools instead of paranoia. Source: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/vpns-are-lawful-technical-tools-says-eu-court-in-landmark-anne-frank-copyright-ruling