欧盟司法法院在2026年7月作出里程碑式裁决，明确认定VPN是"合法技术工具"[1]。该案涉及荷兰和比利时学术机构就安妮·弗兰克手稿在线版本引发的著作权纠纷[1]。法院判决VPN提供商和出版商不对版权侵权承担责任[1]。
根据裁定，用户通过VPN绕过地理限制访问受保护内容不构成侵权，前提是网站采用了"最先进的"地理定位阻止技术[1]。法院认为，"地理定位措施的可能被绕过这一事实本身不能成为认定这些措施不充分和无效的决定性因素"[1]。这意味着出版商需要维持"最先进的"数字防护措施，但不需要达到绝对无法破解的程度[1]。
该案源于安妮·弗兰克日记的版权地位差异。该日记在比利时等60多个国家已进入公共领域，但在荷兰受版权保护至2037年[1]。
The Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a significant ruling in July 2026, establishing that VPNs constitute "lawful technical tools" and determining that VPN providers and publishers bear no responsibility for copyright infringement when users employ VPNs to circumvent geographic restrictions. [1]
The case stemmed from a copyright dispute involving academic institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium that made an online version of Anne Frank's manuscript freely available. [1] A critical factor in the dispute was the differing copyright status of the Anne Frank diary across European jurisdictions: while the work has entered the public domain in Belgium and more than 60 other countries, it remains protected by copyright in the Netherlands until 2037. [1]
The court ruled that the mere fact that geographic-blocking measures can be circumvented cannot serve as a decisive factor in determining such measures to be insufficient or ineffective. [1] Publishers are required to maintain "state-of-the-art" digital protection measures, though they are not obligated to achieve absolute impermeability against circumvention. [1]