Online payment processing company confirms it's pulled the plug on several sites that let New Zealanders access usually geo-blocked offshore services — but as with the Netflix "crackdown," there's an easy workaround.
See also: PayPal ‘on shaky ground’ as it pulls service from second Netflix unblocker popular with Kiwis
PayPal, the one-click online payment company, confirms it has stopped processing payments for a number of “unblocker” services.
Its move complements Netflix’s crackdown on unblockers but early indications are it’s equally ineffectual.
The Waitangi Day long weekend began with several New Zealand users of Unotelly – the $US5-a-month popular with locals who want to access Netflix US and other offshore services usually blocked to Kiwis – complaining monthly subscription payments serviced by PayPal would no longer go through.
PayPal comms manager Shanta Arul says her US-based company has pulled service from Unotelly and a number of other unblockers.
She sent NBR the following statement:
As a global payments company, we have to comply with laws set by governments and regulatory agencies. PayPal does not permit the use of its service for transactions that infringe copyrights or other proprietary rights. This policy extends to services that unlawfully facilitate infringement by intentionally enabling access to copyrighted television shows or movies in places where distribution of the content is not authorized by the copyright owners. In line with this policy, PayPal has recently discontinued service to certain businesses that actively promote their services as a means to circumvent copyright restrictions and violate intellectual property laws. We apologize for any disappointment this may cause our users.
Early last year, PayPal withdrew service from the Kim Dotcom-founded Mega, removing the site’s ability to collect revenue from premium subscriptions. Today, Mega has yet to find an alternative.
That was because the squeeze on Mega came from higher up the foodchain. US Senator Patrick Leahy wrote MasterCard and Visa a letter stridently criticising the fact they supplied payment services to file sharing sites like Mega, which in his opinion facilitate piracy (unlike Dotcom’s earlier site, Megaupload, Mega has not been charged with any wrongdoing).
It appears likely that MasterCard and Visa (who declined NBR’s opportunity to comment) in turn pressured PayPal, whose once-click payment service is tied to a customer’s credit card account. Mega has sought other online payment solutions but can’t find one backed by the Big Two credit cards that will deal with it.
The Canadian-based UnoTelly faces no such full-court press.
A tech support staffer tells NBR that while PayPal is no longer an option, users can pay directly using MasterCard or Visa, and it can be a card registered in any country. A link to make the switch from PayPay payments to direct credit card payments has gone live on UnoTelly's home page.
So it seems PayPal's move will only dent UnoTelly around the edges.
However, it remains to be seen if Visa and MasterCard will join the party, giving unblockers like UnoTelly more serious grief.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s “crackdown” on unblockers continues to seem more mouth than trousers. So far, only a handful of users has been affected, with the unblocker services they belong to quickly finding workarounds.
On the one hand, Netflix wants to be seen to be playing by the rules as it seeks to become a global player. On the other hand, it faces keen competition from others with worldwide ambitions, and it doesn’t want to lose the revenue that comes in through the door from those using unblockers to access, and pay for, the motherlode of content on Netflix US.
It remains to be seen whether Netflix will shortly wrap up its perfunctory posturing, or get more serious.
If PayPal wants to broaden its campaign, it will face the problem that while the likes of UnoTelly trumpet Netflix unblocking, there are – as Lightbox has noted – also a number of legitimate uses for virtual private network (VPN) technology. Services that take a more measured approach to how they sell VPN services will be harder to target.
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