Have VPNs Become Hollywood’s Nemesis?

The sky seems to be darkening more and more for several firms offering vpn-solutions applying a no-logging policy the practices of their users.

Increasingly dragged before the courts by film studios for acts of piracy, these virtual private networks are also accused by the plaintiffs of promoting criminally reprehensible activities going as far as murder.

Hollywood studios are after VPNs, and not just for hacking their productions

It is better not to appear in a Hollywood studio as an employee of a firm offering a VPN solution. While the procedures between, on the one hand, the cinema industry, and on the other, the providers of virtual private networks, have multiplied since 2021, the tone is still going up a notch. Since March 2022, Kape Technologies, notably owner of ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet Access (PIA), has been the subject of a procedure brought by no less than 26 American film companies in Colorado (United States).

But, in addition to the traditional accusations targeting VPNs as privileged tools to hack the film productions of the companies in question, the latter also complain about certain marketing campaigns. According to Wiredseveral VPN providers claim to promote reprehensible behavior among their users thanks to the anonymity allowed by the use of the VPN.

To better understand the situation, some VPNs, especially the most successful paid services on the market, guarantee their customers a strict no-logs policy. In other words, this means that in addition to promoting anonymity by using a dummy IP address, these companies do not record the practices of their users and therefore cannot provide them to the police in investigative case.

The defendants argue that their priority remains the protection of the privacy of their users

The fact is that the consortium of plaintiffs does not go there with the back of the spoon: Emboldened by the promises of the defendants [NB: Kape Technologies] stipulating that their identities cannot be disclosed, the defendants’ end users use their VPN services not only to engage in widespread movie piracy, but also other outrageous criminal behaviors such as harassment, illegal piracy and murder “.

For their part, Kape Technologies’ VPN solutions respond that the subject of the complaint remains copyright infringement. Not enough to dampen the ardor of the complainants who focus in particular on the figure of Rick Falkvinge, former head of confidentiality at PIA. The latter, also a customer of ExpressVPN, admitted to having downloaded child pornography content (CSAM) and to being in favor of its legalization. Beyond the actual outcome of this trial, the question of the total anonymity of users of certain VPN suites and the application of a no-logging policy, once again comes to the fore. .

Source : Wired