The Recent move of Australian Government Says VPN is not against Law
The Productivity Commission of Australian Government really shocked the world with a several interesting actions that they have taken recently. Due to the fact that many laws considering were changed, the Productivity Commission came up with a report that is as much as 600 pages long and describes everything regarding copyright, patents, etc. A part of this report was one interesting thing – the encouragement of the Australian citizens to partake in using a Virtual Private Network as a mean of accessing the content on the internet.
What exactly is the Australian Government suggesting?
Although the official language in Australia is English, the citizens of this continent do not have the right to access the content on the internet that all the other English-speaking countries have. In other words, they are not allowed to watch premium content on websites such as Netflix and they are prone to using VPN as a mean to get through the virtual barriers and enjoy watching TV shows and everything else. If they were not to use VPN, they would have to pay much more money to watch the same premium content a few days later – which is a bad thing for Australians for sure.
To paraphrase the Government of Australia, they say that using VPN in not against the law anymore and that it is the only way to avoid geoblocking and allow Australian citizens to access the content. Simply, they care for their citizens and want to make them equal to the other English-speaking countries in terms of getting the content on time and for a reasonable price.
However, other countries reacted to this step and started questioning these actions as a way of „breaking the rules“. Australian Government answered to these pressures that they „should seek to avoid any international agreements that would prevent or ban consumers from circumventing geoblocking technology“. Basically, this means that they will not fall under the influence of other countries and big corporations ruling them and persist in their action to make content cheaper and available for their citizens.
How did the Government deal with piracy?
Unusual as it seems, the report has a very different view on piracy which, once again, protects citizens of Australia. According to the Government, piracy is on the rise when the content is not available immediately and when the price for the content is too high. To put it simply, people would illegally download stuff from the internet if they find it expensive or it is not available in their country. Therefore, the Australian government sees the solution in VPN which will avoid geoblocking and allow the Australian citizens to pay lower prices and access the content as soon as it is available in the other countries.
Basically, it all makes perfect sense because people of the Australia are indeed feeling as not having enough rights when it comes to accessing content. Some of the Australians turned to piracy simply because some of the shows were not even available on Australian Netflix. For comparison, the data states that Netflix offered 7200 titles for the US users while Australian users had access only to 1120 titles. Over the years, this numbers did not change a lot and Australians still struggle to get to watch the desired title.
How can you install a VPN?
Geoblocking is not the problem only for Australian citizens but for millions of people worldwide who turn to piracy due to not being able to watch their favorite shows at all. In order to use VPN, first of all, you need to choose a good provider of VPN services, such as LimeVPN. After that, you will be given several things that will bring many other benefits regardless of avoiding geoblocking.
For example, VPN service should provide enhanced protection while surfing the internet and while sending and receiving data. Apart from security, anonymity is the other crucial thing that VPN providers can give you. This means that people who use VPN will be able to protect their privacy and not live in fear of their information being stolen from the third party.
What is the moral of this story?
To sum up, the steps taken by The Productivity Commission of Australian Government are indeed brave ones. Although it seems rather insignificant to the rest of the world, this act may have a much bigger impact in the future, redefining the copyright laws as we know them today. Furthermore, this also means that we are striving as humanity towards the equality when it comes to accessing the content on the internet. Although it seems like a new idea right now, VPN is slowly becoming more popular and it is expected that it will become an ordinary and necessary part of every internet connection in the near future.
Rachael Chapman
A Complete gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and love in writing blogs on IOT, software, technology etc
