Ask HN: Is it ethical for people to get around region lock in Netflix?

To start with, there are many different ethical frameworks, so you can always pick the one that makes you feel better about your actions.

You could adopt ethics that elevates a global marketplace where goods available anywhere should be available anywhere at a price approaching the current price plus cost of transport. In such a system, it is likely ethical to circumvent any attempt to enforce regional pricing or availability.

You could adopt ethics that elevate people's ability to enter contracts, and finds it unethical to induce someone to violate the terms of a freely entered contract (perhaps only if the contract is unethical). In such a system, assuming you find the distribution contract ethical, it would be unethical to stream media in a country that was not allowed by contract.

You could adopt universalism, and consider the results if everyone cirumvented the restrictions. IMHO, if everyone did it, Netflix would be limited to getting global distribution deals (and then nobody would do it), and that may shape the market, but in the short term would limit the catalog to only those items where global distribution is feasible, which excludes a lot of content.

You may want to consider the specific case of your content. Is it available in your country through other means? Is it likely to be available on Netflix in your country at a later date?

To me, it makes a difference if it's in an exclusive distribution in your country (maybe in theaters, or pay per view, or premium tv, on disc, or even just a different streaming service) than if it's simply not available.

If you bought a DVD, would you consider it wrong to get around the region lock on it?

If you bought a BMW, including the heated seat hardware, would you consider it wrong to activate your heated seats without paying BMW more money?

If you feel that way, I think it's probably helpful to look at it from an opportunistic-creative perspective. And maybe not the kind of opportunism most people would think of in this situation.

The ethics is based on a covert contract wherein one wishes to test one's ability to live a "higher" interpretation of a relationship standard between two parties. So effectively you end up going, "ok, here's what they say they want, and what they aren't OK with. I'll respect that boundary."

There's a little bit of a depth and details issue there (who exactly wants what, what are they like, are they respectable, you treat them as an individual through they are party, but do they care about you as an individual, etc.).

Still, I think if you still feel uncomfortable with it, I wouldn't play around fighting your psychology unless you can give yourself lots of time (years) to dive in and explore. For now I'd instead find and rank your favorite alternatives. Make it a research+values problem.

For example rank foreign films by country, films available through other sources, YouTube channels you like, and so on.

We are in a golden age for cinema of all kinds so there is a huge upside to carving the path you want in a way that rewards creativity. You are almost guaranteed to learn about lots of new and interesting things you like. And sticking with your covert-subjective ethics will help you retain your likely-craved feeling of fidelity and integrity.

Artificial scarcity and government censorship are much more "wrong" than using a VPN to watch Britain's Got talent, America's Got Talent, Brazil's Got Talent... actually never mind... That's also an objective wrong, but for "brain rotting trash tv" reasons.

Who do you think you're hurting by... ummm... watching a movie... on a service that you paid for?

"Ethical" is tricky as it is subjective.

I believe using a vpn to bypass region locking would be found to be in violation of the terms of service one agrees to and potentially fraudulent. In the extreme, it might be criminally viewed as "hacking" or illegal access to a computer system. In my world view, that would make it un-ethical.

I am sure others would argue that since there is no practical harm to Netflix for one person to use a vpn to bypass region locking that it would be ethical.

I think you should determine for yourself.

Probably not, but I wouldn't consider it in many ways a big violation. It kinda goes against our societal norms of contracts and rights and so on. Now if those are ethical is good question.

On other hand, I find advertising such use cases significantly more unethical.

Getting around region lock for what reason?

A) view the same content, but pay for it in a region where it is cheaper?

B) be able to view the content in a region where it is simply not available, by accessing that region where the content is available at its most expensive price?

I think there are other ethical issues you should be worried about before this one.

I'm okay with it. If you're not, don't do it.

Why is it wrong?

It's unethical for companies to try to exert control of where or how their goods are used, since that infringes on basic user autonomy. That includes importing a (paid-for!) stream from one country to another.

Resistance to this trend of diminishing user autonomy is not only ethical, but our duty. Not circumventing these limits is what is unethical.

It is never unethical to steal from corporations.

Human rights are for human beings.

Corporations are not human beings.

Therefore, corporations should not be seen to have human rights.