"No rights, not right!" is a catchy slogan, up there with "You wouldn't steal a car", but Australian Films' argument might be more compelling if Australians weren't constantly treated as second-class citizens when it comes to online content. We're expected to pay more for the privilege of watching less, simply because we live in Australia rather than the US. Offering to actually pay for services like Netflix, even though everything on Netflix can be obtained for free elsewhere, would seem like a step in the right direction. The fact many Australians are happy to pay for Netflix seems to suggest that your average person is prepared to do the right thing and pay for content if you give them half a chance and offer them a fair deal.

If an industry refuses to take your money, yet you bend the rules so you can still give them your money, perhaps that's a sign that the industry needs to rethink its strategy. At this point Australian Films changed tack slightly, claiming that we were "punishing" the Australian film and TV business by handing our money over to foreign services when Australian services have paid for local rights. That argument sounds more sensible to me than simply claiming that geo-dodging is as bad as BitTorrenting.

My response to that argument is that when the content business stops punishing people simply for being Australian, Australians might stop taking their business elsewhere. Big business is quick to talk about globalisation when it comes to sourcing the cheapest parts and labour from around the world, but apparently it's not a two-way street. Australians are still expected to abide by artificial restrictions which let the content giants gouge us on price simply because we live on the wrong side of an imaginary line.

Sorry content providers, but market forces have spoken. Look at Quickflix, Australia's equivalent to Netflix. Quickflix's content library is improving as it works hard to strike better deals with the major content providers. If it doesn't offer us a better deal, it knows more Australians will hand over their money to Netflix instead. It's amazing what happens when consumers vote with their wallets, I believe the technical term for it is "competition". If it was up to Australian Films then content providers would continue to get away with screwing Australians and there'd be no pressure on them to give us a better deal. Nothing would ever change.

If content providers can't get their act together and offer Australians a fair deal, we'll take our business elsewhere. We're willing to pay for content rather than steal it, but we're not willing to get screwed over simply because they think they can get away it with.