netflix to ban VPNs

[taylorton147]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/netflix-is-blocking-international-streamers-who-use-vpns-to-access-the-us-version-9956469.html

talk about going the wrong way, netflix brought down the number of illegal downloads of movies and tv shows alike with its service. instead of opening their entire library to anyone who pays for it and not just letting America have the majority of it, they decide to enforce their geographic libraries with an iron fist. Studios complaining it will hurt their business but this will only make people drop out of their subscriptions and go back to streaming and downloading new shows for free.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Studios complaining it will hurt their business but this will only make people drop out of their subscriptions and go back to streaming and downloading new shows for free.

That's what I did... Well, not the streaming and downloading for free, but I did drop out of Netflix after about a week since the library in my country is a ghost town. Hurray for the digital-only future where region locking is still a factor!

 

[Queen Michael]

Hm. I never used VPNs anyway. Not sure how this will affect their profits though.

 

[leberkaese]

This had to happen one day. But not a nice thing... To be honest, I don't know for how long I'll stay a Netflix customer after they start to lock people out of the US content.

I use a nice little secure Chrome plugin to watch stuff from the US and UK, in Germany we don't have that many shows on Netflix yet thanks to our outdated laws when it comes to streaming rights for movies. Also, Netflix arrived too late to the party here in Germany - there are other somewhat big streaming sites here and therefore the good shows are scattered everywhere among 5 or 6 streaming providers.

I'm pretty sure, now that Netflix is in most of the most important markets, they can block people from US content without losing millions of subscribers. And that's the reason they're doing this now. Let's see how many customers they'll lose - if they really do this and it's not just some coincidence.

 

[small]

i suspect its because they are about to open here in Australia and the government is pressuring them to clean up vpn access. hell in a submission to parliament about it, village roadshow described people who pay for vpn access to netflix in the same sentence as pedophiles

i noticed hola was picked up a few hours ago and they blocked me but i have another i use to get access to it. its frustrating i could quite easily go on line and look for things illegally but i choose to pay for them, and its not illegal to use a vpn.

all this to protect a 1950's style business model that is fighting tooth and nail to keep the status quo, even if they have to change laws and pressure governments to do it.

if brick and mortar video game retailers had the same clout steam would be US only and they would be calling for access in other countries to be stopped.

at best i will keep using a vpn at worse ill just cancel my subscription. they dont seem to want my money

 

[Albino Boo]

In shock news company acts to stop itself being sued into oblivion. Netflix only bought the rights to US only content in the US. The others streaming companies thats bought the rights in other areas can sue if Netflix does not take fair and reasonable steps to stop content being shown outside the region that Netflix has paid for.

 

[Armadox]

It's all or nothing with these sorts of things, and regardless of what Netflix wants they're still beholden to the movie industry, and the television and movie industry loves themselves some region locked streaming the same way they do dvd distribution. Getting BBC entertainment in America is like pulling teeth and they are very proud of their content if you look at DVD prices here.

You can buy region free dvd players, regardless of what the movie industry wants, it'll just be time before someone with enough clout pushes to do the same with streaming once they figure out the loophole needed to get away with it.