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New Zealand ISP Offers "Global Mode" So Users Can Circumvent Geo-Restrictions
An anonymous reader writes "Many content sites restrict access from different markets or have variable pricing for downloads in different markets. New Zealand-based ISP Slingshot is now offering a 'global mode' that lets customers hide their location. This means they can access overseas online services that would normally be restricted to specific markets."
Is it some proxy? Is it a weirdly labeled block of IPv4 addresses? Is it some DNS level trickery?
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Until they straighten out their misfeasance in the Kim Dotcom saga I have no business in NZ. AFAIK they are still an arm of the US DOJ.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
There's even a bit of marketing to help with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RenRILqwhJs
signature is pants
I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but you're on to something. If we're talking streaming of entertainment, the people using this service are not actually breaking copyright in the US or NZ. They are not making a copy. They are however very likely breaking the terms of use of the service (though the streaming site could be relying 100 % on IP-blocking, and not have it written in their terms of use). As we know from whatshisname who downloaded papers from MIT, terms of use violations can be a felony in the US. Half-measures like this global mode seem stupid to me. The content owner insist on a legalistic, to the letter interpretation of copyright. If you're going to infringe on their copyiright (or ToS, etc) anyway, why not do it for free and download a torrent? Anyway, the streaming services should just correct their IP->country mapping, unless the NZ ISP uses some kind of shared VPNish IP space.
My wife loves Sims. She bought Sims3 in the US before we moved out of the country. She later downloaded an expansion. The expansions are country coded. She had to return it, then buy it from a US server, lying about her address. It didn't do a location check on her IP, so she could download it, but she had to lie to access a computer service to buy it, so a felon she is, if anyone ever cared to prosecute that particular crime.
It's amazing how hard they made it to buy things. At least region coded players are gone (Even if the media is still player-coded), because there is no more PAL/NTSC with HDTV. I've never seen a TV, US or otherwise that couldn't play any HDMI source, even if not "proper" to the region. For all the ills of HDMI, I no longer have to look for PAL/NTSC when buying components to go with my mix of media. Though an Xbox will only play media of its region, even if my PAL Xbox works fine on my NTSC HDTV over HDMI, I must still buy PAL games. So any US-only release is out, and my Wii is US, so I have to buy mail-order from the US, ship it to a US address (none of the major media peddlers will sell out of the country), and have it re-shipped to get to me.
Games like World of Warcraft let you buy from anywhere and play like you are anywhere. Someone in the US can buy a Europe region game and play Europe servers.
Learn to love Alaska
There are no borders in the Internet. End of story.
There are no borders, anywhere - END OF STORY. ... except those invented by "man" for the purposes of control, so why would the internet be any different? Because it's cyber? ;-)
Anyway, I agree with the premise that there should be no borders on the 'net so just playing the devils advocate here. And I also truly believe that borders between countries now cause more problems than they solve, but that's just an ideal not the reality, unfortunately.
Peace,
Andy.