Is it legal to watch Netflix with a VPN?
Since US Netflix has the widest range of movies and TV shows, if you live in a country other than America, you might be interested in accessing the biggest library of Netflix which is available only in the United States. But the question is “How to access the US library content”?
Probably most of you already know that you can get around Netflix’s geo-restrictions by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). But, the more important question that comes next is that “Is it legal to watch Netflix with a VPN?”
There is no clear answer to this question. Not quite clear nor completely dark, it can be said to be in a gray area.
To better understand this let’s see what a VPN really does:
In the world of internet, you are recognized with IPs and it is your IP that detects your information such as geographical location. A VPN is a virtual tunnel that you can use to change your IP. When you use a VPN, instead of your IP, the IP server is detected and Netflix or any other services can not detect where your real geographical location is.
So if we want to answer this question that how can we access geo-restricted content using a VPN, the answer is that by using a VPN we can change our geographical location virtually.
Now let’s see what Netflix’s idea is about changing our geographical location:
Netflix is available for streaming in over 190 countries around the world. When you’re traveling or relocating to a new country, you will have access to the local content that is available in that country. This means that if you have a Canadian Netflix account and you travel to the US, you can watch the US Netflix content.
So, going to a new geographical location and watching its content is not illegal for Netflix.
As previously mentioned, Netflix detects your geographical location from your IP and cannot figure out whether you really or virtually changed your location.
Using a VPN to hide internet activity is legal in many countries around the world. So it could be said that technically, it is not illegal to watch Netflix with a VPN unless you are living in a country like China which makes it illegal to use VPN services. Although content producers believe that its use violates the local content distribution law. Therefore, they call on services such as Netflix to restrict users’ access to their content. That’s why not all VPNs work with Netflix.
Actually, there are only a few VPNs that can work with Netflix to bypass their block and Wachee is one of them. Wachee is an exclusive VPN for streaming, with Wachee you can stream safely without encountering a proxy error.
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