Using services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) or a DNS-based “un-blocker” such as UnoTelly to access Netflix, Spotify, and other online content services from South Africa is copyright infringement. This is according to Nicholas Hall from Michalsons Attorneys, who was answering MyBroadband’s questions about bypassing region restrictions put in place by online content services such as Netflix. The problem isn’t that you are fooling these services into believing that you are from the United States. Using a tool such as UnoTelly or a VPN is perfectly legal so long as you use them for legal purposes, Hall said. However, it is illegal to access content outside the region that it has been licensed for, Hall said.

This is because you are using copyrighted material outside the terms of its license, which is copyright infringement. Or, in the vernacular, “piracy”.

“Having the capability to access Netflix’s content doesn’t equate to permission to access it. If you lack permission to access the Netflix content you lack a license to access that content and unlicensed or unauthorised access to the Netflix content is copyright infringement,” Jacobson said. “In legal terms, this is tantamount to torrenting the content,” he added.

When Hall was asked whether it would be accurate to say that SA law regards bypassing region locks and simply downloading a movie using BitTorrent or Usenet as the same offence, Hall said that different sections of the Copyright Act apply. “Strictly speaking it isn’t the same offence, but it amounts to the same thing,” Hall said. Hall explained that such infringement isn’t criminal, but added that rights holders could sue offenders if they wanted to, though he doesn’t believe they would.

The services themselves could also hold you in breach of contract as circumventing their region restrictions is against their terms of service, but Hall said that they are unlikely to take action.

“To my mind the party that would be most interested in taking action are the broadcasters in South Africa, namely StarSat (neé TopTV) and MultiChoice,” Hall said.