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During the NAFTA negotiations Bell Canada tried to make using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) illegal. While the treaty does not specifically have the term VPN in it, it does describe exactly what a VPN does. From the article:
Apparently, you can count Canadian telecom incumbent Bell among the companies hoping to ban VPN use. Anja Karadeglija, the editor of paywalled telecom news outlet the Wire Report, obtained documents this week highlighting how Bell had been pushing Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland for a VPN ban to be included in NAFTA negotiations. Why? It doesn't want users using VPNs to watch the US Netflix catalog:
"In its submission, Bell argued that Canadians accessing content from a US service with a VPN "unjustly enriches the US service, which has not paid for the Canadian rights" but nonetheless makes that content available to Canadians. Bell's media arm reportedly spends millions on content for it streaming service, Crave TV, which allows Canadians to stream content from American networks such as HBO and Showtime."
[...] How exactly you're supposed to determine that somebody is using a VPN to not watch Bell's own television services isn't really explained, and the fact that enforcement would likely be technically impossible appears to have been an afterthought. As Canadian Law Professor Michael Geist was quick to note, trying to ban VPNs just as they're reaching critical mass as a partial solution to raging North American privacy scandals suggests Bell may not exactly have its finger on the pulse of common sense on this particular subject.
Evil has a new name.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ilsa on Monday February 04 2019, @05:14PM (6 children)
I'm actually kind of dissappointed that they weren't successful.
I would have loved to see the shitstorm that would have happened when the millions of businesses across Canada were suddenly unable to use VPN services to connect remote employees or even other businesses. I bet the banks would be just delighted.
Of course, even though they didn't succeed, I still think there should be a call-in/mail-in campaign where people point out just how fucking stupid they are.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hyperturtle on Monday February 04 2019, @06:27PM (4 children)
I have done work with a firm that pays Bell Canada to manage firewalls that have multiple redundant VPNs as backup connectivity from branch offices. It isn't hard; that is why that task was outsourced. They monitor the link and make sure the VPN is available in case the primary non-internet links go down. It is really big business for Bell Canada; they have numerous customers of this management service.
If the NAFTA request to ban VPNs succeeded, I would have to expect that the rules were for *residential* VPN use--unless they were willing to give up such revenue streams like VPN deployment and management for businesses. Even their employees VPN'd in remotely to check on the VPNs. And in some cases, after VPNing in, they had to VPN in from a centralized box into a network unreachable from the employee VPN to reach the other VPNs for troubleshooting.
If they banned all that without carving an exception for themselves, it would have been really atrocious should they made the effort to enforce their new requirements. I expect it must have been strictly consumer related.
Remember, Canada's media companies managed to legally extract fees out of every blank diskette, dat tape, vhs cassette, blank DVD, etc, because it's assumed people would pirate, so everyone and their priest who made backups of the church bulletins had to pay the tax to ensure the media companies received their entitlements. I'd have to think they came to the conclusion that simply adding USB sticks isn't going to stem the tide of people streaming content from another source and getting away with it.
This VPN blocking effort is probably just another attempt to do the same--the loss of the revenue from blank diskette fees must have really had them feeling the pinch over the past few years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @08:51PM (3 children)
It has nothing to do with VPNs. It has everything to do with the people not wanting the shit available in Canada because of "content rules" and then people choosing and succeeding in getting content around the "content rules". Of course Bell wants a piece but can't blame "content rules" so they just want American business to cut off Canadians. They want a law to go after "lost revenue" they desperately need.
Bell is one of the companies that jacks prices 5% per year, well above inflation, while stifling competition and bitching they need more money. Should be broken up and sold.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Monday February 04 2019, @09:14PM
It also has to companies dividing their IP licensing on national borders. I'm in Canada. I contribute to my locel PBS station. It offers programming over the internet. But I'm not allowed to access all of it from here because they only have license to broadcast to the US. What I can pick up with an antenna is OK, even via the local cable service.
Since US TV went all digital, the local PBS station has split its channel into four channels, only one of which the local cable service provides.
Ugly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @10:03PM
They probably made a deal with the American Baby Bells - everybody gets a cut and
monopolycollusioncapitalism wins!(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday February 05 2019, @04:24PM
Oh the VPNS allow people to appear to originate outside of a geoblocked zone based on IP address registration, allowing them to bypass restrictions. Remember region locks on DVDs? They do the same thing for DRM stuff online for videos and music. Bell CA doesn't want that 5% that figured out a way around it to be able to do so.
The VPNs are just a tool. Taking away a tool while they are using it probably would have been an unintended consequence due to a lack of internal discussion among business units. I can't really say it's unheard of that a business shoots itself in the foot while stating their test firing was a success.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:05AM
Look what happened in China. Users evolved.