快點連上VPN 假裝在外國

Rod Drury, an entrepreneur in Auckland, New Zealand, regularly visits the United States. Sometimes there are multiple visits a day.

新西蘭奧克蘭的創業者羅德·德魯裏(Rod Drury)經常去美國。有時候一天要去若干次。

“People here can’t get Netflix, so they get a VPN that gives them a U.S. I.P. address, and watch Netflix like they’re in America,” he said. “If I want something off iTunes, I buy U.S. cards online.”

“這裏的人看不到Netflix，所以要通過VPN得到一個美國的IP地址，僞裝成在美國的樣子來看Netflix，”他說。“要是想上iTunes買點什麼，我會去網上買美國卡。”

Decoding the jargon: Millions of people around the world now pay for virtual private computer networks — a security method that uses encryption to hide Internet traffic — and similar services to hook into a server in the United States. As far as the video and retail services can tell, Mr. Drury is one more American customer.

解釋一下這堆術語：全世界有成千上萬的人在花錢購買虛擬專用電腦網絡——一種通過加密來隱藏網絡數據往來的安全方法——以及類似的服務，爲的是連入美國的服務器。從視頻和零售服務商的角度看，德魯裏無非是又一個美國顧客。

If the Internet breaks down national boundaries, it may happen from the comfort of our couches. VPNs were originally thought of as a way for companies to guarantee security or dissidents to avoid the prying eyes of their governments. Now they are part of a larger movement for people to work and play anywhere on the planet, at all times.

如果說互聯網推倒了國界，那麼這一切可能是我們舒舒服服靠在沙發上時發生的。VPN原本是企業用來確保安全的一種手段，或者被異見人士用來躲避政府的監控。如今它已經屬於一場涉及面更廣的運動，被全世界的人在工作、玩樂中隨時用到。

And if the software can’t come to consumers, the customers use VPN to get to the software.

如果軟件不能爲消費者所用，顧客就通過VPN主動去使用該軟件。

“Unblock geo-restricted websites and web services like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Skype, and many more!” says the webpage of PureVPN, which charges $45 a year to turn you into a virtual American. You might prefer being Canadian, since Netflix Canada has a bigger selection of films.

“解除Netflix、Hulu、BBC iPlayer、Skype等等等等網站和網絡服務的區域封鎖！”PureVPN的網頁上寫着。該服務收取每年45美元（約合280元人民幣）的費用，把你變成一個虛擬美國人。也許你應該選擇當加拿大人，因爲Netflix加拿大站點的電影選擇更多。

Unblock-us, a service Mr. Drury uses that is similar to a VPN, charges $50 annually. It offers easy access to scores of movie, television and sports videos that collectively would probably be impossible to obtain in most countries.

德魯裏使用的Unblock-us是一種類似VPN的服務，年費50美元。通過它可以方便地獲取大量電影、電視和體育視頻。在絕大多數國家，同時獲取這麼多內容都是不太可能的。

Uzair Gadit, the co-founder and director of PureVPN, says his company provides services to people in 90 countries who want to go virtually overseas unhindered.

PureVPN的聯合創始人、董事烏扎爾·加迪特(Uzair Gadit)說，公司的客戶遍佈全世界90個國家，這些人都希望能自如地虛擬出國。

Online gamers use PureVPN to avoid service slowdowns with local Internet providers, as well as cyberattacks by rival gamers. Online retailers in many countries, Mr. Gadit says, need a stealthy way to collect prices from Amazon, eBay and others, to make sure they are competitive. Globally, he figures, perhaps 20 million consumers use VPNs and similar services to reach more than 300 channels that are geographically blocked in some way.

網絡遊戲玩家使用PureVPN來避免被本地互聯網供應商的低網速拖累，或是遭到對手的網絡攻擊。加迪特說，許多國家的網絡零售商需要通過隱蔽的方式來蒐集亞馬遜(Amazon)和eBay等網站的價格，以確保它們能給出有競爭力的價格。他估計全球有大約2000萬消費者在使用VPN或類似服務，以便獲取300餘種受區域限制的頻道。

“You might be amazed how much people want to watch stuff,” Mr. Gadit said. “We had 100 percent growth for each of the last three years, and we’re expecting that again this year. We hear Apple is creating a Netflix-like service — that’s great news for us.”

“你肯定猜不到人們有多想看這些東西，”加迪特說。“過去三年我們每年都有100%的增長，今年預計還是有這麼大的幅度。我們聽說蘋果(Apple)在製作一種類似Netflix的服務——對我們是重大利好消息。”

PureVPN is in Hong Kong, an odd place for a company that also keeps people invisible to state spies. “China only spies on its own people,” Mr. Gadit said. “Most of the world worries about the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand — they spy on everybody.”

PureVPN位於香港，對於一個同時還在幫助人們躲開政府監控的公司來說，這個選址是很奇怪的。“中國只監視自己的國民，”加迪特說。“大多數人擔心的是美國、英國，澳大利亞和新西蘭——它們什麼人都監視。”

Netflix’s terms of service forbid customers from circumventing regional barriers to its content, though the company is aware this is not universally respected. “There’s not a lot we can do to track that since VPNs by their very nature are set up to be difficult to spot,” Cliff Edwards, a Netflix spokesman, said in an email. Netflix also plans to offer service in New Zealand next month.

Netflix的服務條款禁止用戶規避其內容的區域壁壘，不過公司知道並非所有人都把這條規矩當回事。“我們也沒什麼辦法來搞追蹤，VPN本身的特性決定了它很難被發現，”Netflix發言人克里夫·愛德華茲(Cliff Edwards)在電子郵件中說。Netflix還計劃下月在新西蘭開展服務。

What drives this enthusiasm for VPNs, it could be argued, is the way media companies are not providing entertainment fast enough in a world where everyone can be hip to the newest movie and television show. New Zealand movie theaters are now showing “Dumb and Dumber To,” which was on screens in the United States in November.

可以說，在這樣一個大家都追逐最新影視節目的世界裏，媒體公司提供娛樂內容的速度卻不夠快，對VPN熱潮起到了推動作用。新西蘭的電影院現在放映的《阿呆與阿瓜2》(Dumb and Dumber To)，在美國是去年11月上映的。

“There is a mismatch between the perception that you get what you want over the Internet and distribution doesn’t matter anymore, and a copyright holder selling things by territory,” said Tim Wu, a professor of media and copyright at Columbia Law School.

“一方面你覺得從互聯網可以得到想要的一切，發行已經無關緊要，另一方面，版權持有人又在分區出售內容，兩者是對不上的，”哥倫比亞大學法學院(Columbia Law School)媒體與版權教授吳修銘(Tim Wu)說。

“The industry is depending on 95 percent of the population thinking the technology is too complex for them to use,” he said. “If there is a simple device that does this for consumers, entertainment’s easy assumption of territoriality will change.”

“這個產業指望的是95%的人認爲技術太複雜，不適合他們用，”他說。“如果有一種簡單的設備能幫消費者完成這些事，娛樂分區這種想當然的設定就要動搖了。”

While it is diverting to consider what these copyright-beating services mean to entertainment, the end of borders and regions because of global networks has significant implications for the workplace.

想到這些摧垮版權的服務將給娛樂帶來怎樣的改變，固然值得欣喜，但全球網絡對國界和地區的終結，在商務層面有着更加深遠的影響。

Mr. Drury is founder and chief executive of Xero, which makes cloud-based accounting software. He has customers in 150 countries, 2014 revenue of $100 million and 1,100 employees spread over four nations. A substantial amount of Xero’s revenue comes from accountants who make a living by doing the books of companies in countries on the other side of the world.

德魯裏是雲端財會軟件開發商Xero的創始人兼首席執行官。他的客戶遍佈150個國家，2014年的營收達1億美元，在四個國家擁有1100名員工。Xero的收入中，有相當一部分來自那些給地球另一端的公司做賬的會計員。

Xero built a basic accounting software model, then adapted it to a country’s local accounting quirks. It relies on back-end computing that does not need to be near the work.

Xero創建了一種基本的財會軟件模型，然後根據每個國家的財會偏好做出相應調整。這種服務依賴後端計算，並不需要在用戶身邊。

Elsewhere, individuals who toiled online via freelance sites like Elance and ODesk did $67 million worth of work outside their country of residence in January. That was an increase of more than 50 percent in two years. On the Indonesian island of Bali, a tropical paradise popular with foreigners, 100,000 online freelancers are registered with Elance and ODesk, which operate jointly.

在別的領域，許多個人通過Elance和ODesk等自由職業者的網站勤奮工作，僅在1月份就在他們所在國家以外的地方掙出了6700萬美元。這是在兩年內實現了超過50%的增長。在印度尼西亞的巴厘島，一個受外國遊客青睞的熱帶天堂，10萬網絡自由職業者在Elance和ODesk上註冊。這兩家網站是聯合運營的。

“Tech is globalizing everything, so anyone building just a regional strategy isn’t thinking big enough,” Mr. Drury said.

“科技將一切都全球化了，如果有誰還在制定一種地區性的策略，那就是目光短淺，”德魯裏說。