Customers of the Australian ISP "Unlimited Internet" VPN service have just been dealt a significant blow. The VPN service provider has pulled the plug on the service which could be used as a geo-unblocking service to access region restricted content on Hulu and others.
Lightbox, MediaWorks, SKY, and TVNZ had threatened with legal action against services that bypass geo-restrictions on sites such as Netflix and Hulu. Unlimited Internet was one of the targets of the content providers, other Australian ISP's like Slingshot who offers a global mode currently refuse to bow under the pressure.
Tired of being stonewalled by the ISP's they decided to take the next step and initiate legal proceedings. Today they achieved their first victory. This morning "Unlimted Internet" pulled the plug on the service after being handed a letter from a legal firm informing them that their VPN service infringes on the Copyright Act of 1994. That very same letter has also been sent out to various other local ISP's to inform them.
Ben Simpson director of the ISP states that although his company does not agree with the assessment, it has decided to stop providing the service nonetheless.
"Geo-unblocking services are a direct result of consumer demand for access to content that is not made available to the New Zealand market", Simpson says. "To be on the safe side, we have taken legal advice on this matter and I have made a firm call that we will sit on the sideline until a legal precedent has been set", Simpson adds.
However even if all ISP's stop their VPN service, users of such a service will simply find other means to access the content they desire. To this day Aussies still only have limited content available to them on services like Netflix and Hulu.
