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New Zealand ISP's Anti-Geoblocking Service Makes Waves
angry tapir writes New Zealanders and Australians are often blocked from using cheap streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu and instead at the mercy of local content monopolies for popular shows such as Game of Thrones. However, a New Zealand ISP, Slingshot, has caused a stir by making a previously opt-in service called 'Global Mode' a default for its customers. The new service means that people in NZ don't need to bother with VPNs or setting up proxies if they want to sign up to Netflix — they can just visit the site. The service has also caused a stir in Australia where the high price for digital goods, such as movies from the iTunes store, is a constant source of irritation for consumers.
You're not missing anything if you don't see GoT. It's just tits and swords.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
it is the same as stealing money from old women at knifepoint.
The Internet should be global.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
Geo-blocking is a practice that needs to stop anyway, because it makes no sense. Take Steam as an example.
Up until two or three years ago, there were a good number of people who used proxies to buy content not from their region on Steam - this was particularly important for Germans (who are served the "low violence" version of games by default) and Australians/New Zealanders (who were far overcharged compared to the US/UK and could use a proxy to buy stuff from the US Steam store cheaper than they could in Aus/NZ). There was one problem with this system, though. Most publishers sold games on Steam's Russian store for far cheaper than they did on the US or UK stores - a friend of mine bought a 4-pack of copies of Dead Island (back when that was a new-ish game and the 4-pack was going for upwards of $60 on the US store) from Russia for like $20.
Then, Valve started cracking down on cross-region purchases, making it so that you could still add games from other regions but could not actually play them until your IP was detected as being in one of those regions. The problem was that it was applied so that more expensive regions had fewer restrictions - US-bought games can be played anywhere, as can AUS/NZ ones, but games purchased from Russia or a few other regions can't be played outside of those specific regions. This means that if you're from the US and go on vacation in Russia, you can play Counter-Strike GO while in Russia, but if you're Russian and go on vacation to the US you can't play CS:GO while in the US.
It's a ridiculous double-standard, and a counter to geo-blocking would remove a lot of it.
Geo-locking content has been declared illegal in New Zealand, thus the rights holders don't have any stand to sue.
When the geo-locking was declared illegal in connection with DVDs, nothing happened. Thus it will be the same again with the streaming services.
Then it will be back to bittorrent. It's best for all to tear down the walls.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
there is varying levels of taxation per country.
Which should be handled the same way a DVD purchase by a NZ resident visiting the USA is. The transaction occurred on US soil, subject to US taxes. If you carry that product into another tax jurisdiction, it's not the problem of the manufacturer or vendor.
complying with certain country specific rules (different ratings, having to provide dual language support in places like Quebec)
Again, its the responsibility (and choice) of the customer. If someone from Quebec purchases material in the USA without a French audio track, its their choice. Not the US vendor's problem.
Have gnu, will travel.