VPN = Stealing? Convenient timing for this statement.
This made me laugh.
The head of a Telco which recently started offering a competing service and MUST have been aware of this WELL beforehand, is now trying to label using a VPN to access Netflix's US catalogue as stealing.
[Disclaimer: Don't take my word for this... laws DO vary by region.]
Firstly; No. It isn't stealing. It is actually that simple.
There are quite a few articles on this, and some even claim that this is a legal grey area. I have a hard time believing even that. Until such time as using a non-local VPN service becomes illegal I can't see a basis upon which this is illegal. Netflix has distribution rights to the content, you are paying Netflix and Netflix pays the content providers. Sure, the distribution rights are region specific, but since Netflix is the distributor, it is their responsibility to control access.
I would argue that Netflix more or less endorses the practice. Lets face it, there a ton of ways that can used individually or in tandem to stop this. The easiest ones being things like requiring a valid address for the region and/or requiring a valid credit card for that region as well. Many MANY MANY sites already do one or both of these things.
Netflix appears to periodically ban certain VPN providers from accessing their content, but the bans seem to be temporary and there are no repercussions to the users leveraging those VPN clients. But that isn't even a slap on the wrist. It is just a minor nuisance. If you knew how to setup one VPN, you know how to search out and setup another.
Basically, the only entity with something to fear is Netflix. Content providers could refuse to renew contracts if they feel like they are making it too easy for content licensed only for the US to be viewed from elsewhere. It is even possible that they are violating current contracts and may need to pay a fine. But, at the end of the day, Netflix is the one making the content available.
People like Bell Media care because they recently launched a competing service here in Canada. A service in a field in which Netflix dominates. However, there are a lot of gaps in Netflix's Canadian catalogue and competing services want to use this gap to entice users to their service. That doesn't work if a simple hack can make the gap disappear.
True, Netflix is acting somewhat unethically in my opinion. As mentioned above, there are a plurality of highly effective means of stopping this practice. And none of them are particular difficult to implement or enforce. And, Netflix is technically only licensed to display much of that content in the US. But, that doesn't make the practice stealing, or illegal or even a legal grey area.
My suspicion is that companies like Bell tried to get content providers to be more heavy handed with Netflix and it simply didn't pan out as they were had too much control over that industry at the time.
I suspect that in time either accounts will become region locked based on something like the country that the credit card on file is from or Netflix will be forced to impose account bans on those that circumvent such things. As the field grows and Netflix ceases to be the only big player it will be in the best interest of both the content providers and competitors to stop content from being distributed against the wills of those providing the content.
The head of a Telco which recently started offering a competing service and MUST have been aware of this WELL beforehand, is now trying to label using a VPN to access Netflix's US catalogue as stealing.
[Disclaimer: Don't take my word for this... laws DO vary by region.]
Firstly; No. It isn't stealing. It is actually that simple.
There are quite a few articles on this, and some even claim that this is a legal grey area. I have a hard time believing even that. Until such time as using a non-local VPN service becomes illegal I can't see a basis upon which this is illegal. Netflix has distribution rights to the content, you are paying Netflix and Netflix pays the content providers. Sure, the distribution rights are region specific, but since Netflix is the distributor, it is their responsibility to control access.
I would argue that Netflix more or less endorses the practice. Lets face it, there a ton of ways that can used individually or in tandem to stop this. The easiest ones being things like requiring a valid address for the region and/or requiring a valid credit card for that region as well. Many MANY MANY sites already do one or both of these things.
Netflix appears to periodically ban certain VPN providers from accessing their content, but the bans seem to be temporary and there are no repercussions to the users leveraging those VPN clients. But that isn't even a slap on the wrist. It is just a minor nuisance. If you knew how to setup one VPN, you know how to search out and setup another.
Basically, the only entity with something to fear is Netflix. Content providers could refuse to renew contracts if they feel like they are making it too easy for content licensed only for the US to be viewed from elsewhere. It is even possible that they are violating current contracts and may need to pay a fine. But, at the end of the day, Netflix is the one making the content available.
People like Bell Media care because they recently launched a competing service here in Canada. A service in a field in which Netflix dominates. However, there are a lot of gaps in Netflix's Canadian catalogue and competing services want to use this gap to entice users to their service. That doesn't work if a simple hack can make the gap disappear.
True, Netflix is acting somewhat unethically in my opinion. As mentioned above, there are a plurality of highly effective means of stopping this practice. And none of them are particular difficult to implement or enforce. And, Netflix is technically only licensed to display much of that content in the US. But, that doesn't make the practice stealing, or illegal or even a legal grey area.
My suspicion is that companies like Bell tried to get content providers to be more heavy handed with Netflix and it simply didn't pan out as they were had too much control over that industry at the time.
I suspect that in time either accounts will become region locked based on something like the country that the credit card on file is from or Netflix will be forced to impose account bans on those that circumvent such things. As the field grows and Netflix ceases to be the only big player it will be in the best interest of both the content providers and competitors to stop content from being distributed against the wills of those providing the content.
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