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Checkout producer calls for VPNs to become illegal

The Checkout producer, whose show champions the rights of the consumer, suddenly isn't happy with consumers working within the law?

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Well this one does not really add up….

Nick Murray, whose company CJZ produces The Checkout, is calling for a clampdown on Australians using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access content from overseas.

Asked by Mumbrella if VPNs should be illegal, Murray said, “It should be. It should absolutely be regulated somehow to make it so people in Australia shouldn’t use VPNs.” Murray defended the arrangement of selling content by territory saying “that’s how we get our money” adding: “The people who say we should get rid of the geo-blocker, it’s just bizarre, as that is how content is sold.”

The Checkout, as you may recall, spends much of its half hour championing the rights of the consumer and advising them how to work within the legal rights of fine print.

Even CHOICE magazine has openly published on the legal ways Australians can use VPNs.

Back in 2011 Hungry Beast, told viewers “If you are nervous about your privacy online, conscious that every website you visit might be tracked, recorded and analysed by others, don’t worry, there are ways
around the problem. One of those solutions is a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. Using a VPN allows you to visit websites anonymously, masking your computer’s IP address. This story by Hungry Beast’s Lewis Hobba and Patrick Clair explains how it works.”

The show was produced by Zapruder’s Other Films, which later merged with Cordell Jigsaw to form CJZ.

Murray had really better hope that well-informed Australian consumers don’t mark this one down for the F.U. Tube.

26 Responses

  1. There is a point that can be made here… too much reliance on the internet for entertainment(sucking it down from whichever website instead of buying it from a “bricks & mortar” shop). The internet was only meant to provide information by text and images but has ballooned into what it is today, usurping the traditional outlets for movies and music, the video library or record(CD) shop. These places actually gave employment to people who were required to manage such businesses. So many are disappearing because people are buying “on-line” instead of supporting the local shop to buy their Blu-Ray or DVD movie or their CD album. The only thing that should be seen “on the net” is a catalogue of what’s on offer, print it out, then take it to the shop and buy what you want from that catalogue – who knows, you may save a business from going to the wall, you may even find a job there if…

  2. With geoblocking, not only do we miss out on products that have a fee attached to them but we also can’t view movie and TV trailers/previews, YouTube videos, web series, etc.

  3. Maybe I should start a business, be rude to my customers, over charge my customers and treat them like dills and when my customers choose to take their business elsewhere, I’ll lobby the Government to change the laws so they are stuck with my overpriced poor service. I’m a business the Government should assure me of my Profits!!!

    1. Spot on, bagbuffy. The changes to copyright laws are not about helping the artists to keep creating content. It’s about mega-rich companies increasing their profits.

  4. By his logic all modes of transport should be banned to as it is completely unfair on local shops when people go to another location to get goods they can’t get close to home.

    The EU is getting quite uneasy about geo blocking so it’ll be interesting to see where that goes. Sports rights is the main complication and it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for those to be sold at a European level.

  5. This is coming from a bloke who’s show explained how viewers could dodge Australian ITunes and create an American account in order to save money. You Nick Murray are a hypocrit.

  6. Interestingly as of right now HBO NOW are sending these EMails out (via Whilpool:)
    Dear HBO NOW User:

    It has come to our attention that you may have signed up for and viewed video content on the HBO NOW streaming service from outside of the authorized service area (the United States, including D.C. and certain US territories).

    We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the HBO NOW streaming service is only available to residents of the United States, for use within the United States. Any other access is prohibited by our Terms of Use.

    If you feel that you have received this message in error, and that you have both met the eligibility requirements for HBO NOW and have been using the service within the United States, please call us at 1-855-366-2183. If we do not hear from you by April 21, we will…

  7. “…that’s how we get our money”
    So, you can’t make money by selling content to people at the same, no matter where they live? Then there is something wrong with your business model and it is that which should be changed not the market.

    As others have pointed out, he clearly has no idea what a VPN is and how many Australians use them to securely log in to remote networks for completely legitimate purposes. Plus, exactly how does he think “the authorities” will go about preventing the use of VPNs?

    Yet another clueless twit, stuck in the 1990s trying to get other people to hold back the tide so he doesn’t have to think about doing things differently.

  8. Is it because I am accessing this via VPN that the above text seems garbled?
    “” “The people people who say we should get rid of the geo-blocker, ….””
    “”The Checkout, as you may recall, spends much of its half hour championing the rights of the little guy and advising them how to work within the legal rights of fine print. The Checkout, as you may recall, spends much of its half hour championing the rights of the consumer and advising them how to work within the legal rights of fine print.””

  9. So he wants the government to send armed police to arrest people who use an IP number he doesn’t like.
    So that companies can make larger prices with discriminatory releases and pricing.

    I guess consumer rights are competition are fine as long as they don’t cost him any money.

  10. Or…we could stop existing in a new digital age where content is restricted to territories and is instead released globally and the user watches it when they want. Not for free, I don’t condone that, but this notion of territorial ownership and drip feeding from the established networks is slowly going the way of the dodo.

  11. Does he know what he’s saying?

    Let’s just call up every business in Australia and tell them their employees can’t work from home anymore since VPN’s are suddenly illegal.

  12. Shows how out of touch these people are. That is the way they have traditionally made money but the world has changed and they need to adjust. Good to see Netflix understand this and are going for international rights on things rather than this ridiculous regional rubbish.

  13. ‘Thats how we make our money’ is very close to ‘but that’s how we have always done it’.

    Which is the sign of a fool unwilling to move with the times. Geoblocking is simply a way to rip off consumers.

    The music and games industries have had to move with the times, so why are the tv and movie industries so damn set in their ways? We will find ways to access content, so why not make it available, at a reasonable price, without DRM, at the same time anywhere in the world?

  14. Companies that want to ban VPNs need to realise that their old models of business (selling rights by region) is an old business model. If they don’t adapt to the modern world, then their profits will go the same way as newspapers. Sure, they can sell programs to tv networks (people still watch tv), but also sell the global online rights to a company, or companies. Then we wouldn’t need a VPN, and overseas tv networks will be more or less forced to fast track (at least same week) tv shows.

    For me, VPNs are good to watch Australian tv content when I’m overseas, as much as I watch overseas content when I’m in Australia.

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