Slashdot Mirror
Australia: VPN Users Aren't Breaching Copyright (abc.net.au)
Slashdot reader Zanadou writes: The Australian Government Productivity Commission in a draft report recommended that Australian consumers should be able to legally circumvent geoblocking restrictions that have prevented them from using foreign online streaming services like Netflix, and that the Australian Government needs to send a clear message that it is not an infringement of copyright for consumers to be able evade geoblocking technology. Karen Chester, a commissioner with the Productivity Commission, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that geoblocking restrictions have the opposite effect of encouraging internet piracy. "Making copyright material more accessible and more competitively priced online, and not geoblocking, is the best antidote to copyright infringement."
In probably related news, Australia topped the list of countries who illegally downloaded the Game Of Thrones season six premiere, this week.
In January Netflix's chief product officer admitted that the company has no magic solution to subscribers who use VPNs to circumvent geoblocking.
In probably related news, Australia topped the list of countries who illegally downloaded the Game Of Thrones season six premiere, this week.
In January Netflix's chief product officer admitted that the company has no magic solution to subscribers who use VPNs to circumvent geoblocking.
Does this mean I'll be able to watch MasterChef Australia and MKR in the US, without torrenting them like I do now? Maybe catch some extra videos from Ten's website?
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
That's okay. Treaties, like governments, should never last more than a generation anyway. Otherwise you enslave your kids to your bad deals.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I traveled overseas a few years back. On my trip, I bought a book. On the copyright notice page it states that this book is only authorized for sale in the country I was visiting. I then flew back to the USA (where this particular edition is not available) with my book. Have I broken a law or violated a copyright?
As I see it, Australian citizens are simply purchasing material at a point of sale within the USA (the VPN's point of presence) and then they are using private means to move the material to their home. I flew. They used a VPN.
Have gnu, will travel.
This has most likely been legal regardless always. Back in the 90s we had a big drama over government laws introduced guaranteeing "parallell importation". The concept being that the consumer (and retailer) was guaranteed the right to bypass local importers and import their own stuff if they can get a better deal. This was particularly targetted at the music industry where CD distribution monopolies had kept album prices at around the $30 mark which in the 1990s was pretty damn exorbitant. The music industry had a fit about it, right down to big public scare campaigns about how it would ~somehow~ make music more expensive and cause australian musicians to go bankerupt because pirates would make cds in indoneisa or china and sell them cheap here legally. Which of course was nonsense since none of this authorized piracy. The laws also meant CD players where required to be multi region.
Later the laws where used to prohibit sony and microsoft going after modchippers , and enforced DVD multi-region requirements. This all was going great until the conserative Howard government came in and I think, but I cant prove, they told the ACCC to stop enforcing the parallell import laws. And we got DMCA style laws for copyright which actually reversed many of the freedoms of parallell import.
None the less, they ARE still on the book, so I guess this rulings most important result is clarifying that technological measures to circumvent geoblocking do not violate copyright laws.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Bingo
It's not piracy if the person is watching US Netflix from Australia. It IS piracy if the video is an unauthorized distribution downloaded from BitTorrent.
To frame this, you have to pay 10$/mo for the VPN on top of the 8$/mo for Netflix. So the Aussies are already paying for this geoblocking bullshit. It may become standard fare that everyone outside the US buys into a VPN just to circumvent restrictive content policies in their home countries, not just trying to access US content.
For example, Germany and Australia have rules prohibiting certain kinds of violent content, so that content will just not be available.
But this is OLD, and I mean VERY OLD news. People have been doing greymarket TV for decades. They used to do it with the analog satellite dish systems. If you weren't in the US, but were in the signal range (Eg Canada, Mexico, Greenland and Iceland) you could buy a US descrambler and someone you know in the US pays the bill, and you pay them.
Exact same idea.
A geographical restriction is a contract matter between a content publisher and a distributor. It has nothing to do with law, and everything to do with "rights agreements". A consumer, however, cannot be bound by a contract between two third parties. If I make a contract with my friend stating that you can no longer drive your car and try to enforce it in court I will be laughed out of the courthouse. Consumers are paying for the content - no copyright infringement is happening. An artist doesn't get to say when or where you're allowed to hear his music or play his CD.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.