Are tricks like bypassing paywalls illegal?

[noname223]

I recently read a newspaper article. It was about how to trick streaming services in order to save money. Many tricks were using foreign offers with VPN. The idea is to buy it in another country (virtually) to save money. I could imagine the streaming services are not that happy when mainstream media reports about such loopholes. The ironic thing is I have learned some tricks to bypass newspaper subscriptions. There are websites and browser extensions for that.

I am not sure whether it is illegal to bypass a paywall in such a manner. It is for sure against the terms and conditions of such companies.

Would you have a guilty conscience for bypassing such paywalls? I am ambivalent on it. The question whether it is illegal bothers me way more. When I see how these newspapers report about welfare and lazy unemployed people I don't have much empathy for them. Though the legal consequences scare me.

I think in my country it is legal to circumvent geoblocking. Though whether the rest of these tricks are legal I am not sure about that.

 

[jodes2]

I wouldn't have a guilty conscience at all since I don't look at many articles and a subscription would be excessive for all the newspapers! Fuck em!

 

[MellowAvenue]

It isn't illegal but it may violate certain companies' terms and conditions. It'll probably never be illegal though because it'd be pretty difficult to actually govern given the nature of VPNs and how it could be someone on the other side of the globe committing the hypothetical crime.

 

[Someone123]

It sounds illegal to me, but do they enforce this?