Policy on questions asking for help to circumvent licensing laws

Question

We often receive questions like:

"I'm trying to watch content provided by the BBC/Netflix/HBO/etc. from outside the country of origin, but Tor isn't working. What should I do?"

For example:

• Can't watch BBC iPlayer content despite UK IP
• Newbie trying to use Tor to view BBC but instructions involve Vidalia?
• Can Tor be used with Netflix or Hulu?

I'm struggling to think of legitimate reasons for accessing video streaming services from other countries. (If they want to watch, for example, the news, then why not just access the related non-video sites via Tor? I'm sure the standard BBC News website isn't blocking Tor connections... )

I realise that there are often legal grey areas involved in using Tor across borders, but if the question involves an obvious attempted breach of licensing laws, should we mark the question as off-topic? Or does that risk the users answering the questions becoming moral judges, without, perhaps, knowing all the information?

Answer 1

Yeah, I find these questions a bit tricky to 'judge', it would be nice with a clear way of answering these questions.

I can understand that a person wants to select specific exit node countries for reason X, but when they as specifically about netflix, hulu etc - then I think it's a bit unclear what to do with the question.

I do think the first question you refer to has a good answer to it. Stating specifically that it's BBC who blocks it.

If it's against the providers policy to let the user use proxies\vpn then I think the question should be closed with that information supplied as reason.

Answer 2

The crime is in the brain, not in the tool: in all human history no weapon killed anyone just by itself, there's always a person controlling it. So - if the person is from the "allowed list" of the countries for video watching, but traveling overseas - it is ridiculous to block the video after the person was able to authenticate itself to the service. And I think that Tor is a great tool to help to resolve such an issues. A real criminal will find it's way to mischief even without Tor, Internet and electricity - as it was before. So - these "gray areas" are highly questionable, in my humble opinion.