What, no. We all use VPNs for the enhanced security they provide. Totally legit.
Yeah, I personally have no problems with it, but I also don’t want to do anything that gets the WK in hot water so I can respect their stance on the issue. And if you think flagging is inconsistent, the draconian application of copyright enforcement is worse.
I don’t think you need to go that far. Just searching in Japanese should do it. You do have to be able to navigate the web in Japanese so there’s a barrier to entry.
I meant in the context of accessing services that offer geo-isolated content. It’s against their ToS and is a circumvention of viewing the content allowable in your region - so no different than Animelon.
While alo was obviously kidding, depending on the country, there is a rather large difference in legality. In many countries streaming pirated anime is illegal and punishable by law, while using a VPN on Netflix is only against ToS and gets you banned of their platform at worst. In terms of the law, responsibility lies with Netflix to make sure you can’t circumvent geo restrictions.
(Will obviously vary depending on where one lives)
Right. The same as viewing restricted content, like those shown on pirate streaming sites, is not illegal - making it accessible is, so the legality is that the onus is on the site operator.
Let’s remember that piracy in the context of viewing anime means watching content that is not properly licensed in your region. In the case of the site I mentioned, it isn’t licensed anywhere apparently. In the context of Netflix, much of the content is licensed for multiple countries, but bypassing the geo restrictions still results in piracy on the part of the consumer. Not punishable by law - but neither is watching An*melon.
“You can get a VPN” is something that won’t get WK in any kind of legal trouble. It’s ambiguous and doesn’t require extra moderation, because VPNs have multiple uses. It’s often against ToS of a platform, but a ToS is not a legal issue, and so WK is in the clear here.
“You can go to a site that is streaming pirated content” is a legal issue. If WK allows for open discussion of where to view illegal content, especially since many people include links, that is something that they could get in legal trouble for.
That’s the difference. One is against ToS of a platform, not legally binding in any way. Viewer might get banned, but that’s it.
Piracy is against the law, and supporting it is against the law. WK’s stance here is perfectly reasonable because it keeps them from any liability issues.
(And to be clear: by “piracy”, I mean the hosting thereof, not the viewing.)
I only meant that as far as a person reconciling their conscience, internally, at the end of the day, there’s not much personal ethical difference between accessing geo restricted content and putting on an eyepatch.
Sorry, yeah, that was sarcasm. I meant that VPN has a legitimate use case that we can claim so it doesn’t get the same level of heat.
Yup that’s the important part. I think many people forget that things like DMCA safe harbor provisions only apply to the US. Many countries, possibly including Japan, will absolutely hold the hosting site liable for hosting links to infringing content.
I totally agree. But here on WK’s platform, I play nice with their rules because I don’t want my personal actions and ideologies to affect the platform for everyone else.
Changing the language on your device is effective for like a day, but you operate a lot of these devices by behavior and not so much language recognition. I often would just look at the icon or use the search and it was overall not that effective. For your Switch that’ll at least change the language for your games so no issues there. I think you’re setting yourself up for burnout.
AJATT works for some highly motivated people and I don’t doubt it works for them, but I just think the all or nothing approach will get you more nothing than something. That’s just my opinion though, so whatever floats your boat.
I meant that VPN has a legitimate use case that we can claim so it doesn’t get the same level of heat.