Is it illegal to access regional locked content via VPN in Germany?
<p>I'm living in a Germany and I'm a huge fan of tv shows. When I watch some tv shows on ABC, CW, Hulu, Netflix I'm using a VPN to pretend I reside in USA, sometimes I use virtual prepaid card to mimic USA residency.</p>
<p>Why I'm not using local German streaming services? Lots of reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>Content is not available in english language (only german)</li>
<li>Content is not available at all</li>
<li>Content is drasctically overpriced. For example Good Doctor now is available on Hulu, but in Germany only choice is to buy it on Amazon, which takes 20 Euro for a season, which is not acceptable at all.</li>
<li>German services software is notorious for being buggy as hell, and in my experience it doesn't work well most of the time. SkyTicket for example, it just doesn't work with my Chromecast no matter what.</li>
</ul>
<p>My question: <strong>is it illegal to overpass content region locks using VPN and other technical tools?</strong> On one hand, it's not a clear piracy, because I'm still paying for content to right holders, just in another country. On the other hand, I'm getting content, which I have no legal execuse to get, and it could look like violating of copyright laws, which quite strict in Germany.</p>

<p>The only case where you <em>might</em> have a legal excuse is if you cannot get the same content in Germany at all by paying for it. If for example &quot;Good Doctor&quot; is indeed available in Germany for a price that you feel is too high, your two legal choices are to pay the high price for it, or not to watch it at all.</p>
<p>(No idea what the legal situation is today for content that you cannot get legally in Germany).</p>

copyright licensing germany