Hollywood continues to wage its war against VPNs and Internet freedom

It’s sad how the very companies that provide us with the movies and television shows that we enjoy so much are also the ones that’re working so hard to restrict our freedom online. Few tools are as essential to this freedom as VPN services, and few tools are as loathed by media companies. That’s why you see companies like SKY and TVNZ suing VPN providers for doing nothing more than providing VPN services to their customers. 

As Internet users demand more freedom online alongside an ability to consume media in a manner of their choosing, tools allowing them to do so are gaining in popularity. Notable has been the rise of VPN services, which not only provide an increased level of privacy but also allow users to appear in any country they choose. This opens up a whole new world of content availability – such as better service from Netflix – often at better prices than those offered on home turf. While popular with consumers, this behavior is frowned upon by distribution companies that spend huge sums of money on content licensing deals specific to their regions of coverage. Losing customers to overseas providers isn’t part of their plan and now some are doing something about it. Earlier this month media companies SKY, TVNZ, Lightbox and MediaWorks told several Kiwi ISPs that if they don’t stop providing VPN services to their subscribers, legal trouble would be on the horizon.