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Quickflix Wants Netflix To Drop Australian VPN Users
ashshy writes 200,000 Australian residents reportedly use Netflix today, tunneling their video traffic to the US, UK, and other Netflix markets via VPN connections. A proper Netflix Down Under service isn't expected to launch until 2015. Last week, Aussie video streaming company Quickflix told Netflix to stop this practice, so Australian viewers can return to Quickflix and other local alternatives. But Quickflix CEO Stephen Langsford didn't explain how Netflix could restrict Australian VPN users, beyond the IP geolocating and credit card billing address checks it already runs. Today, ZDNet's Josh Taylor ripped into the absurdity of Quickflix's demands. From the article: "If Netflix cuts those people off, they're going to know that it was at the behest of Foxtel and Quickflix, and would likely boycott those services instead of flocking to them. If nothing else, it would encourage those who have tried to do the right thing by subscribing and paying for content on Netflix to return to copyright infringement."
Waaaah! We're getting our arses kicked! Make the bad Netflix stop, mummy!
Sounds like a case of tall poppy envy to me.
Why is Netflix not available in Australia?
You'd think that such companies touting themselves as the masters of the new way of doing business would refrain from the very monopolistic manoeuvres they have been criticizing all along. You'd think...
So they want a competitor to cut off customers which they can't serve (or because they can't compete)?
If your service is good and it's what people want, you will survive. If it isn't, and people go elsewhere ... too damned bad. If I was dealing with a company, and their competitor made them stop providing me service, there is no way in hell I'd go with the competitor, since they effectively blocked me from getting the service I do want.
This just sounds like "waah, we can't compete with Netflix, so Netflix needs to stop serving the customers we haven't been able to attract". Screw that. Your "local alternative" may not be as good, and the consumer shouldn't be forced into using your crappy product just because you say so.
I'd be seriously pissed at Quickflix for being self entitles assholes. And I sure as hell wouldn't do business with them.
Why do companies feel they are entitled to our business? I'll do business with whomever I want.
These clowns sound like candidates for the B-ark.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
It says a lot about Quickflix's service when Netflix via VPN is an actual competitive problem for them.
If stupid was flammable we'd have already seen the flash and soon would come the boom.
If people are paying extra, and going to the hassle of signing up with netflix and dealing with the workarounds for paying and actually getting the service rather than just using your service, I think you're doing soemthing wrong.
And that never works well for some reason. Why would anyone think region restriction would be a thing to try now?
You only need a smart dns service.
Seriously though, if your local product can't compare to the cost of a Netflix subscription PLUS a smart dns / VPN subscription you're doing it wrong.
Sigger than your average
THIS is a streaming service.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Why would Netflix voluntarily give up its customers to a competitor?
Because it's the easy way, compared to the hard way of QF pressuring the movie studios to withdraw NF's streaming licenses altogether if NF doesn't improve enforcement of territory limits in the existing contracts with the movie studios.
...Quickflix told Netflix to stop this practice, so Australian viewers will be forced to return to Quickflix and other local alternatives.
Fixed that for them.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
What checks are those? Just the regular payment ones to prevent CC fraud?
As far as I know, Netflix doesn't particularly actively use the billing address to restrict services to a particular region - they use IPs for that. That's why for any country where Netflix launches a service that differs from the U.S. one (fewer titles, episodes released much later, etc.), you'll find tutorials popping up on how to get yourself a VPN service that has U.S. IP addresses and even VPN services advertising themselves (directly and indirectly) as being perfectly suited for the job. Hell, you'll find those tutorials for countries where Netflix hasn't even launched at all, and I'd imagine there's tips for U.S. users on getting a VPN to enjoy some foreign titles not available there, too.
Josh Taylor (ZDnet article author) basically has the right idea, but is targeting the wrong people. Yes, geo-restriction is "a form of old-world trade protectionism that is an anachronism", but rather than complain that Quickflix wants others to play by the rules that they're legally bound to, he should complain that Netflix is playing loose with those rules without letting them go entirely. Netflix should offer up the same content everywhere without the need to use a VPN, if they're effectively allowing it, knowingly and willingly, anyway.
This is all because in the 1990s the government allowed FOXTEL to goto the USA, and buy up exclusive licenses to all new and back catalogues from every major media company in America. They spent billions on it and at the time everyone thought they were overpaying.Turns out they very smartly bought themselves a monopoly position in media, one that has effectively locked out all Australian competitors (All the local media services are shit, from the PSN movies, to Xbox Live, to Quickflix.) and the government hasn't had the balls to call them out and break them up for it.
Unless their product isn't so much "bad" as hampered by local regulations that Netflix isn't subject to. Lots of things are cheaper/easier/better when the provider skirts all the regulations heaped on the industry. I'm all for protective regulations, but where entertainment is concerned almost all the rules are more about being sure pockets get lined than making sure customers are protected. In my mind, Netflix isn't doing anything wrong. The Australians who are cheating the system rather than working hard to fix it are more the problem, though I don't really blame them.
There are a few similar services starting up down here. I had a look at Quickflix because they have a client for my smartTV and TiVo but all they have to offer are old BBC shows which I already own on DVD and their movie selection is woeful even compared with what we can get on AppleTV. Worse, the compression is too high so what they do have looks terrible. If they had the vast array of stuff that Netflix has then they might have a chance but without it they're going nowhere. I don't subscribe to Netflix as I've taken the approach of buying or renting what I want to see but if it was legitimately offered here I would be interested.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
"beyond the IP geolocating and credit card billing address checks it already runs" What else can Netflix do? Anyone know? Also Reed seems to be implying Netflix is actually encouraging it. Does anyone know how?
When Netflix eventually deems fit to grace us with it's presence, it's offerings are going to be nowhere near the same as the US version. It's doubtful if it'll be the same price as well. They might crack down on VPN users to force them to move to the Australian version.
Netflix could play cat-and-mouse and block known VPN IPs until customers simply give up (and probably torrent the shows they want).
Most Aussies use the same couple of VPN services, they could easily fatigue the vast majority of illegitimate Aussie Netflix subscribers.
It takes minimal effort for netflix to do this, but they have no reason to until they launch in Australia.
With few suppliers the price goes up. You can see that with a lot of things in Australia, paticularly software with Microsoft, Apple, Adobe etc charging a lot extra because they can.
Travel+Holiday expenses+mac at US price (LessThan) same mac at AU price
It would provide unwanted competition to Rupert Murdoch.
Your second point is not correct or relevant since people are already using Netflix in Australia despite deliberate steps being made to stop them.
It's not like that at all, we have very lax media controls.
I know you gun nuts think it's gone all Thunderdome over here since we restricted automatic weapons, but could you please refrain from making up utter bullshit about us on every fucking topic under the sun?
Not a bad government - they did exactly what they were paid to do :(
One guess who owns AU foxtel, US fox news and is a big political donor.
If you can't beat them, outlaw them
There's really not much to see here if you exclude the "Premium" titles. It's a bit how lefties want to make people use public transportation: not by improving public transportation (increasing quality of life), but by making the car less attractive (decreasing overall quality of life). Quickflix CAN be a one or two bucks per month more expensive... but have 90% of what Netflix US has, and add to that a bunch of quality Aussie content, and they'll blow Netflix out of the water. But no, let's take the easy way out again (a/k/a Sit On Fat Well-paid Ass) and attack the alternative.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
No it was Apple, but Adobe is probably even worse.
Given Village Roadshow and Foxtel apparently have our AG in their pockets, and Rupert baby owns our PM, I'm sure that many many millions will be spent trying to block VPN's.
Quickflix's two big problems are most of it's movies are on DVD mailed out and they are caught in the let's overcharge the Aussies mentality of the content providers so their offering is tiny.
Foxtel are trying to pretend to lower prices at the moment but are more interested in getting the govt to try the great firewall of Aus and harsh penalties for accessing content that doesn't have the 50+% surcharge they love.
Oh for the days when Governments were of the people and for the people rather than of the highest bidder for the highest bidder.
Wolja Future Tombstone: Shit happened then I died
Utterly wrong. The ACCC found differently recently - follow your own link and you'll most likely see Apple stuff too, it certainly got into the papers. I don't know what they can do about it other than warn consumers that they are being ripped off. Apple, among many others (MS, Adobe, AutoDesk etc) are taking advantage of the supply chain in regions with little competition by price gouging.
It seems to be an increasing trend on this site - smug "corrections" based on either misunderstanding of the post that a person is replying to or deliberate "reality distortion" by fans upset that the object of their veneration is being addressed in less than glowing terms.