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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Professor Marketa Trimble Interviewed by the Los Angeles Times About VPNs and Geo-blocking

Marketa Trimble is a professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Professor Trimble was recently interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for an April 25 article titled “Dodgers fans find ways around local blackout” about the rising use of virtual private networks (VPNs) by fans to watch local baseball games that are normally subject to regional blackouts, also known as geo-blocking. 

The article reads: “Trimble was skeptical that subscribers would face any significant legal repercussions for using circumvention tools. However, VPN providers are more vulnerable because they could be accused of facilitating the spread of unlicensed entertainment. ‘VPN providers are very careful about what they say about their services now,’ Trimble said. ‘A few years ago, a lot of their websites would say “Look, you can watch anything in the world no matter what the limitations are.”’ Now many downplay that angle.”

In her research, Professor Trimble focuses on intellectual property and issues at the intersection of intellectual property and private international law/conflict of laws.