The extension displays the best alternative headline chosen by the readers of the article, and it had 10,000 users within the first few days.

The main legal question centers on whether the extension in some way harms copyrighted material such as opinion pieces.

Being on the receiving end of claims filed by the counsel of major news sites, Karolis Januškas was forced to put a stop to "Propose a Headline" ("Siūlyk antraštę"), a browser extension that lets Internet users who were fed up with the so-called "clickbait" headlines to propose their own versions.

Readers were being misled

The extension would display the best alternative headline chosen by the readers of the article, with the original crossed out and shown next to it.

According to Karolis, he was angry because of absurd and misleading headlines, and this led to the idea to give people the tools they need to deal with them. "Propose a Headline" caught on fairly quickly, with 10,000 users registered within the first few days.

News sites respond

The extension and its creator garnered attention once again when major news sites requested that it be removed. The heads of major news sites claimed copyright infringement for altering the original headlines and loss of ad revenue, as ads were purportedly being blocked by the "Propose a Headline" version developed for mobile phones.

The social media community rallied to the defense of the programmer, nominating Karolis for the LOGIN Person of the Year on the Web award.

The commentators expressed outrage at the pressure put on by the news portals, which, in their view, was tantamount to censorship of civil initiatives and restriction of the freedom of speech.

Copyright infringement?

"Looking at it from a legal perspective, the situation is unprecedented in Lithuania. At first glance, it appears as though the conflict revolves around copyright held by website editors and authors on the one side and the freedom of expression of the creator of the 'Propose a Headline' and its users on the other. However, upon closer inspection, in this case even the infringement of copyright is purely hypothetical," said Natalija Bitiukova, expert at the Human Rights Monitoring Institute.

"Here's the main question: Does the extension in some way harm copyrighted material such as opinion pieces? After all, it doesn't distort the original text, it only presents it on the user's browser according to that user's specifications," Bitiukova said.

She also pointed out a previous precedent in Europe. "Speaking of ad blocking - in the German Adblock case, the courts held that an ad blocking extension was legal since by using it, the users were exercising their right to privacy."

"Propose a Headline" has been updated to work on one news site that volunteered to participate in the initiative. Whether the extension will work with other websites depends on the outcome of the legal disputes.