The Territoriality Referendum

16 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2014 Last revised: 8 Oct 2014

See all articles by Marketa Trimble

Marketa Trimble

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law

Date Written: September 14, 2014

Abstract

Many Internet users have encountered geoblocking tools – tools that prevent users from accessing certain content on the Internet based on the location from which the users are connecting to the Internet. Because at least some users want to access such content, they turn to tools that enable them to evade geoblocking, to appear on the Internet as if they were located in another location, and to access the content that is available in this other location. So far these activities appear to be under the radar of intellectual property (“IP”) owners, perhaps because geoblocking evasion by users for the purposes of accessing IP-protected content can be viewed much like non-infringing de minimis importation in small numbers for non-commercial use (TRIPS, Art. 60).

This article points out that there are signs of substantial user desire to access content that is not available in the user’s location; this desire is evidenced, for example, by the recent proliferation of the numbers of and commercial success of space-shifting services that have advertised and/or have been used to access territorially-restricted television content from any place in the world (e.g., ManekiTV, Slingbox). It is possible that with more territorial restrictions imposed on content on the Internet and with courts finding at least some of the space-shifting services infringing (e.g., TVCatchup, Aereo) users will turn to geoblocking evasion even more than they have already. The article discusses the effects that such increased geoblocking evasion might have on the territoriality of IP rights – or the effects on at least some of the implications of the territoriality.

Keywords: territoriality, geolocation, geoblocking, geo-blocking, Internet, space-shifting, Aereo, copyright, intellectual property, geographical, territorial, cybertravel, television, anonymization, exit node, IP address

Suggested Citation

Trimble, Marketa, The Territoriality Referendum (September 14, 2014). 6 WIPO J. (2014, Forthcoming), UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2496067

Marketa Trimble (Contact Author)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law ( email )

4505 South Maryland Parkway
Box 451003
Las Vegas, NV 89154
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
205
Abstract Views
1,843
Rank
316,002
PlumX Metrics