LegalReader.com  ·  Legal News, Analysis, & Commentary

Business

How the Copyright System Works with Geo-restricted Streaming Services


— July 21, 2021

But the heart wants what it wants; users try hard to access all types of shows that they otherwise cannot with the use of extra technological tools like VPN and proxies.


Even tried to access the infamous HBO Max from your country? Of course, if you live in the USA, then this won’t be an issue for you in any way. Why is that so? It may seem like a skeptical business that the said streaming service is not functioning well in your region. But its purpose is to provide entertainment, right? But it isn’t working, so why even make it if it is not working? 

These are the series of questions that come across viewers’ minds who are very desperately trying to access their favourite content on the popular streaming service which others may seem to enjoy. 

This is a familiar concept of geo-restriction from the said streaming services. But why do they feel the need to impose something like this? Aren’t they cutting back their own chances of profits by preventing users? They are, but that’s because they are bound to do so by the law.

Netflix Under Fire for Sexually Suggestive 'Cuties' Film
Photo by Thibault Penin on Unsplash

Streaming services need to have a proper license to stream in a region; till then, they are geo-restricted. Geo-restricted or geo-filtering is a block the usual video streaming services impose on their content or the whole website to prevent it from streaming on a specific IP address based on the region. This is due to content distributors setting licenses on them to prevent them from being distributed in areas that have not acquired the right through legal means. 

This process may seem complicated, but the primary purpose is just to ensure that the content is getting to places where it must and will not end up in regions that do not have the copyright to play it. This is very important because a lot of money is involved in this. Without this, there are high chances for the content to get out in the wrong manner, aka piracy. But there are other ways via which you can legally stream from these services. 

A VPN or a Virtual Private Network is your way to legally stream all the geo-restricted services without hurting the brand or going against the law whatsoever. ScreenBinge has a series of guides to help you out with this query on how you can use a VPN to access these geo-restricted streaming services. 

Moreover, you will find various other factors involved which allow you to get more from a VPN service in terms of cybersecurity. Using a VPN is not even close to piracy because these are all well-known paid subscriptions, and you are eventually buying paid membership plans from the streaming service as well. So it’s all legal; you are paying for what you are watching, a little more than usual but not going against the law at all. 

Just how some of these streaming services show the infamous geo-restriction error, Netflix has certain libraries that are available in the said region only. Netflix is a widely available streaming service, and every area has its own foreign content library, which differs from each other. Again copyright issues strike, and distributors buy rights to only specific regions where they know the content will flourish and also do not defy the community standards of the said region. 

But the heart wants what it wants; users try hard to access all types of shows that they otherwise cannot with the use of extra technological tools like VPN and proxies. These tools help them get access to all kinds of content online. So if you are one of those willing to pay the extra buck to stream online legally, then this is the right way for you because, let’s face it, no one loves to go against the law by supporting piracy and using illegal means to watch content online for free. 

Join the conversation!