After Going Worldwide, Netflix Announces It Will Block VPN Connections

[Exterminator]

Content source

http://news.softpedia.com/news/after-going-worldwide-netflix-announces-it-will-block-vpn-connections-498939.shtml

Netflix announced it plans to block VPN connections in the upcoming feature, as part of its licensing deals it has set up in place with different content providers.

When Netflix launched in the US, Internet users started using US-based VPNs to be able to sign up and watch their favorite movies in their browser.

When Netflix started expanding to other countries, users continued to try and fool the streaming service into thinking that they were from another country, and get access to shows not yet available in their territory.

After a week ago Netflix announced its expansion to 130 new countries, most users had the unpleasant surprise to find that Netflix wasn't that awesome as US users made it look to be, having access to a very limited movie catalog, that in many places was inferior to what local national competitors were offering.

Current exclusive content delivery deals forced Netflix to take this decision
Because Netflix took its sweet time to expand to other countries, film and television studios already licensed their TV shows and movies to other streaming services available in those countries. Hell, even Netflix sold the rights for House of Cards, a show it produced, to other movie streaming services.

Now the company has found itself in the undesirable position of having to ban VPN users to be able to follow through on content delivery deals it signed years ago when a worldwide expansion was not yet a realistic goal.

"Given the historic practice of licensing content by geographic territories, the TV shows and movies we offer differ, to varying degrees, by territory. In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location," said David Fullagar, Netflix Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture.

Homogenizing the Netflix catalog may take a few years
To enforce this ban, Netflix will be hiring companies specialized in such services, as Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer said in an interview with The Globe and Mail four days ago: "[We] continue to rely on blacklists of VPN exit points maintained by companies that make it their job."

He also added that "once [VPN providers] are on the blacklist, it’s trivial for them to move to a new IP address and evade." Mr. Sarandos is hinting that his company will have to play a cat and mouse game with these VPN providers, one that it won't have to entertain for more than a few years, as exclusive content delivery deals expire and it can go on to purchase and deliver the same movie catalogs to all territories.

Besides VPNs, proxy servers will also be banned as well.

 

[frogboy]

Well that sucks as i just signed a few weeks ago, still working at the moment, not sure for how long though.

 

[CMLew]

Hmm.. wonder is there a way that can block block VPN connection?

 

[upnorth]

Hmm.. wonder is there a way that can block block VPN connection?

Just thought the same and perhaps there is but until that's found/fixed just as easy it was to subscribe on Netflix just as easy will it be to unsubscribe and I have no doubt that is exactly what could happen.

 

[upnorth]

Quote : " Netflix Inc. managed a global rollout of its service to 130 new countries last week without a single technical glitch, but it says it can’t do much more than it already is about VPN users circumventing its geographic blocks and frustrating its localized competitors. "

Source : Netflix says it’s ‘not obvious’ how to limit use of VPNs

 

[frogboy]

Quote : " Netflix Inc. managed a global rollout of its service to 130 new countries last week without a single technical glitch, but it says it can’t do much more than it already is about VPN users circumventing its geographic blocks and frustrating its localized competitors. "

Source : Netflix says it’s ‘not obvious’ how to limit use of VPNs

So there is some hope after all.

 

[Atlas147]

Will blocking VPNs do more harm than good as users might go to illegal sites such at torrents to get content not available in their country? Therefore even if they wanted to support the producers of the shows, they aren't able to because there is no legal way of doing it?

 

[DracusNarcrym]

Actually, most users that been using VPN to access Netflix from a disallowed country should have stopped by now, since most major countries have been covered in Netflix's country availability expansion and can freely access it.

The problem would lie in the case of users who used VPN for its actual purpose, i.e. for securing their web traffic, and not for circumventing regional restriction.

So users potentially protesting about Netflix blocking VPN services, which they were using them simply to circumvent those restrictions, is utterly ridiculous.
Unless of course those users reside in a country other than those 130 aforementioned countries.

 

[frogboy]

Actually, most users that been using VPN to access Netflix from a disallowed country should have stopped by now, since most major countries have been covered in Netflix's country availability expansion and can freely access it.

The problem would lie in the case of users who used VPN for its actual purpose, i.e. for securing their web traffic, and not for circumventing regional restriction.

So users potentially protesting about Netflix blocking VPN services, which they were using them simply to circumvent those restrictions, is utterly ridiculous.
Unless of course those users reside in a country other than those 130 aforementioned countries.

Well not exactly because down here we only get about a third of the content that is available in the US so it was very handy to be able to access the extra content. I know Netflix have said they plan to rectify this over the next 5 to 20 years but that will not help me out as i will most likely be dead by then.

 

[Azure]

Well not exactly because down here we only get about a third of the content that is available in the US so it was very handy to be able to access the extra content. I know Netflix have said they plan to rectify this over the next 5 to 20 years but that will not help me out as i will most likely be dead by then.

Lol. Many of those shows will be over by then. And if not, you will have to very careful to not get spoiled.

 

[DracusNarcrym]

Well not exactly because down here we only get about a third of the content that is available in the US so it was very handy to be able to access the extra content. I know Netflix have said they plan to rectify this over the next 5 to 20 years but that will not help me out as i will most likely be dead by then.

Heh, it seems Netflix misinformed us in that their service was made available almost globally.
Maybe I should have read the fine print, or maybe I should have expected this behavior coming from a media company that is largely governed by hideous international copyright laws.

 

[jamescv7]

Netflix is generous to expand worldwide however because of some movie contents that still limited on some regions tends to use VPN but as assurance that issue will be lift up not so long.

 

[upnorth]

So there is some hope after all.

Hope should never have left as the author simply was not showing everyone the whole picture. Netflix works great even in the arctic circle.