JimmyH:

 

tdgeek: They just protect their business, its that simple. Should NF get screwed too as they geoblock? 

 

 

Insofar as geoblocking is concerned, in my view yes. I have no issue with someone evading geoblocking and purchasing a Netflix package from another jurisdiction.

 

So, its not ok to illegally distribute copyright content but its ok to bypass systems to access copyright content? Thats like saying you cant steal cars them sell them, but you can steal them for yourself

 

 

No, it isn't. It's like saying you can't steal cars/books/shirts, but you can buy them from a (legitimate) overseas vendor if you don't like the excessive price the NZ distributor is charging. Just like when I buy a book from Amazon because it's less than half the price a NZ bookstore is charging.

 

Parallel importing, whether of digital or physical goods, isn't stealing. Not even remotely, irrespective of what a NZ distributor, who may have paid handsomely for the exclusive NZ rights to sell something may claim. A case in point being the Adidas shirt debacle in 2011, where Adidas tried to charge more than twice as much here for All Black Jerseys than in other countries, and tried to use geographic licencing (setting lawyers on worldrugbyshop.com etc) to try prevent jerseys being shipped to buyers here at the world price, to protect it's price structure in NZ. I had no issue with people wanting to source jerseys from overseas, and have no issue with them trying to source cheaper digital product either.

 

There was widespread anger and contempt directed at Adidas (condemning Adidas was one of the few things that Phil Goff and John Key publicly agreed on that year, joined by a cast of NZ luminaries such as Colin Meads) over this. This was appropriate. And Sky's attempts to prop its business up by undermining parallel importing of digital content are worthy of the same anger and contempt in my view.

 

Your first quote. You support copyright infringement. ok, thats settled.

Second quote

You cant compare a $15 book with a $15 sub to another provider where the "book" is included. You didnt buy it from another provider. Not unless you subscribed to watch one title, then cancelled. 

When the book leaves the factory, the manufacture does not care who buys it. Its one sale at the factory door. When a movie etc leaves the factory, it gets sold also to a wholesaler, who pays handsomely, and adds that to their catalogue, in the expectation that the better catalogue will get more subscribers. If you bypass that to access it from another source for free (as you already subscribe to that other source despite breaking the T+C's) you undermine the rights holder. If everyone did that, then the local sources have a poor catalogue, then if they find a way to block bypasses, then you complain that the local sources, say Sky, LB, NF are useless. Its not far off piracy, as its not about paying for one book/title, its using its catalogue, and telling yourself that you paid for it. You didnt way for that title. As you forego the local service. You cannot treat a sub to 4000 movies the same as buying one book.