Is VPN Use Copyright Infringement? Not So Fast, Lawyers Say

Copyright holders are urging services such as Netflix to crack down on the use of VPN (virtual private network) to access content that is only available in other countries, as the copyright holders view it as copyright infringement. Copyright holders want these services to enforce geographical licensing restrictions, but lawyers indicate that the law is unclear as to whether circumventing these "geoblocks" to access restricted content actually constitutes infringement. The Internet has made it challenging for copyright holders to preserve the long-standing industry practices of geography-based licensing and pricing. Bloomberg BNA reached to Finnegan attorney Margaret A. Esquenet for her thoughts on the issue.

Esquenet notes that although some argue that those watching unauthorized streams are not violating the right to reproduce, the analysis turns on the technical details of each particular service, as well as on issues such as how much content is stored on a user's hard drive at any given time during the streaming process. She attributes the lack of guidance in this area to the fact that there have been very few cases on the issue. Additionally, the few lawsuits that are filed tend to be settled without ever going to court.