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But violating the license terms by border hopping is piracy. Not saying I agree with geo restrictions, or any of the other silliness (I don't, and thankfully w

But violating the license terms by border hopping is piracy. Not saying I agree with geo restrictions, or any of the other silliness (I don't, and thankfully we're rapidly moving away from that sort of thing), but using VPNs or foreign credit cards to subscribe to a service that isn't available to you because the company selling it doesn't have a license to do so is still, technically, piracy.

anExcitedBeast 10y ago
Sure, but piracy where everyone gets paid.
- rhino369 10y ago
  No, piracy where the service provider you subscribe to gets paid, but the rightful license holders don't. Sometimes the license holder and the service provider are the same, in which case everyone gets paid. But in most cases you aren't. Sure you pay netflix, but netflix just keeps the money. They definitely don't go find and pay the right people.
Johnny555 10y ago
That is certainly an ethical gray area -- an strong argument could be made that paying for content (even when you pay extra to view out-of-area content by using a VPN) is not piracy at all since the content owner is still getting paid for his content. (you're still paying a fair price for the content even though the content owner might have gotten more (or less) money for his content had you viewed it in your own country). It may be against the law in your country (or the country that hosts the content), but that doesn't neccessarily mean it's piracy) Much like how visiting Canada to purchase much cheaper prescription drugs is not "stealing" drugs even though it means that drug manufacturers are getting less revenue than if you bought the drugs in the USA. (I'll admit being guilty of that one when my mother was on an expensive prescription drug that was not covered under her insurance plan. I helped her source the same drug for 20% of the cost at a Canadian Pharmacy, otherwise she couldn't have afforded it and would have had to use a less effective substitute (with more side effects) that was covered under insurance.

anExcitedBeast 10y ago

Sure, but piracy where everyone gets paid.

rhino369 10y ago
No, piracy where the service provider you subscribe to gets paid, but the rightful license holders don't. Sometimes the license holder and the service provider are the same, in which case everyone gets paid. But in most cases you aren't. Sure you pay netflix, but netflix just keeps the money. They definitely don't go find and pay the right people.

Johnny555 10y ago

That is certainly an ethical gray area -- an strong argument could be made that paying for content (even when you pay extra to view out-of-area content by using a VPN) is not piracy at all since the content owner is still getting paid for his content. (you're still paying a fair price for the content even though the content owner might have gotten more (or less) money for his content had you viewed it in your own country). It may be against the law in your country (or the country that hosts the content), but that doesn't neccessarily mean it's piracy) Much like how visiting Canada to purchase much cheaper prescription drugs is not "stealing" drugs even though it means that drug manufacturers are getting less revenue than if you bought the drugs in the USA. (I'll admit being guilty of that one when my mother was on an expensive prescription drug that was not covered under her insurance plan. I helped her source the same drug for 20% of the cost at a Canadian Pharmacy, otherwise she couldn't have afforded it and would have had to use a less effective substitute (with more side effects) that was covered under insurance.