Streaming media from outside NZ is unethical but not illegal.
We consulted with a number of copyright law experts and all of them agreed that accessing Netflix from New Zealand is in no way illegal. For this section I'm going to use "Netflix" to represent all online streaming services not based in New Zealand such as Hulu and Amazon Prime, but also services from Australia and the UK.
First, as we have mentioned many times in the past, in New Zealand you are allowed to legally circumvent geoblocks. For example, you are allowed to buy a multizone DVD player in order to watch Zone 1 DVDs that are meant only for the US. Similarly if you find content online that says "this is not available in your country", you are legally allowed to get around that block.
The broadcast rights for a lot of the content on Netflix is owned by local providers such as Sky or TVNZ. New Zealand has parallel importing laws which allow you to bypass the local distributor. This is true for the physical goods that you might buy from The Warehouse and it's also true for digital products such as movies and TV shows online.
There is no differentiation in the law between physical and digital objects. So in essence watching Netflix is simply a new form of parallel importing.
The main reason accessing Netflix isn't illegal though is that you are paying for it. The content you are accessing is being sold to you legitimately. It is in no way piracy.
https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/global-mode-i...
I don't know that much about it so was very interested in what you posted. Thanks for that.
Your right though illegal seems a bit strong of a word.
But taking what you posted, that last paragraph seems to indicate that the main reason it's not illegal is that it's a paid site, but isn't this stream free?
I only questioned the official stream because that seemed odd for the a league to stream into NZ when there was already coverage. And you have confirmed that's not the case
Livesport is not free, you pay around $10 per month. If you stop to pay, you don't have access. It's exactly how SKY should work, you pay a fee and watch what you pay. Quality is pretty good and you got even interviews after the game! They block the stream to NZ, but in livesport's case it easy to go around, just a browser plug-in.
I drop Sky after this season and go back to that the streaming system. I'm glad it is not illegal. They are other streaming sites with bad quality most of them look like illegal sites, but I'm not sure if streaming content from an illegal site is actual a crime. In some country it is not, not sure about NZ.
Ok, didn't know it cost. Makes sense.
EDIT: anyway off topic - sorry about that - shouldn't be taking the gloss off another great result!
I'm really enjoying watching the Nix this season, starting to get non football people in the office interested as well - hopefully after the break the crowds and the viewer numbers stay high.