Aussie ISP Bakes In Geo-dodging For Netflix, Hulu

New submitter ste7en7 writes: A new Australian ISP is integrating geo-blocking circumvention into its broadband service, allowing customers to access streaming services like Hulu, Netflix USA, BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. When Yournet launches in August, customers will be able to sign up for broadband that allows users to instantly change the country they are supposedly surfing from.

Comments

Metadata retention

[Anonymous Coward]

It'll still have to collect the metadata though

Re:Metadata retention

[Anonymous Coward]

While I'm not in anyway supporting them collecting metadata... Geoblocking is not - currently - illegal in Australia - they can collect all the metadata on it they like.

Re:Metadata retention

[Krojack]

Wanna bet Geoblocking will be illegal soon? I'm betting the media companies already have lobbyist with suitcases full of cash on planes to Australia.

I bet they're not.

[Joce640k]

It's Australia, this will be made illegal in a couple of days time.

Until then they're getting a lot of free publicity.

Re:I bet they're not.

[bug1]

Only if Rupert notices them.

Re:I bet they're not.

[Jeslijar]

The moment I read this I thought "there is no way this can last"

In a year's time, it definitely won't work. In a weeks time it might not even work.

If it isn't legally prohibited and forced to shut down... then the streaming companies will be forced to find another method of blocking it. It just leaves a chance of breaking it for everyone.

Re:I bet they're not.

[GigaplexNZ]

The timing is awful, this was essentially just banned in New Zealand.

Re:I bet they're not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, when HBO One banned all the Ausies recently (for trying to pay for GoT instead of pirating it, I guess), communications minister made public statements confirming that circumventing geo-blocking is perfectly legal.

Re:I bet they're not.

[TapeCutter]

Malcolm is no friend of the MAFIAA.

Re:I bet they're not.

[ultranova]

Malcolm is no friend of the MAFIAA.

Mafia has no friends, just enemies and slaves.

Re:I bet they're not.

[CastrTroy]

They're going to ruin the fun for the rest of us. I think that Netflix is not doing much about this because there are proportionately not a lot of users do this, and it requires a bit of setup and technical know-how on the user side. If you start having ISPs bake it into the service so that all their customers use this feature, then you can bet that the content owners are going to start to apply quite a bit of pressure on Netflix to clamp down on this sort of activity.

Re:I bet they're not.

[i.r.id10t]

I'm still not sure why netflix or the content IP owners would care who is paying the $10/mo for the subscription, where they live, etc. as long as... they get their $10/mo. It doesn't cost 'em any more money than a US based customer, they get the same pay, etc. Of course, I'm thinking logically and not like a lawyer, mba, or sociopathic executive...

Re:I bet they're not.

[im_thatoneguy]

Not necessarily.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technol...

Re:I bet they're not.

[Kernel Kurtz]

It's Australia, this will be made illegal in a couple of days time.

I was thinking weeks, but otherwise that was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the article.

Re:I bet they're not.

[Kernel Kurtz]

An out of court settlement is not the same as banning.

Hopefully many new numbered companies will jump in providing DNS services to ISPs worldwide. That seems to be their strategy.

https://www.bypass.net.nz/glob...

There are no laws governing DNS, just open standards. Media conglomerates have been trying to manipulate those for years. Time for the good guys to step in and do so as well and see how that plays out.

Re: I bet they're not.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not necessarily the same thing, but they're not just going to settle for no reason. Whatever stopped them this time will likely stop the next attempt. And DNS? Yeah, that's not going to do much for geo blocking.

Re:I bet they're not.

[Anonymous Coward]

It may be legal to circumvent region restrictions to access content not available to Australia, in Australia, however it is still often a breach of the terms of use or user agreements that you sign.

Re:I bet they're not.

[gomiam]

There are no laws governing DNS, just open standards.

You wish. Different countries block specific domains from access. Why do you think there are proxies for The Pirate Bay?

Re:I bet they're not.

[Dashiva Dan]

The problem is that if the geographical limits are removed, then there's a global marketplace, which would mean the same price for all, and the majority of the world cannot afford the high prices, so it's sold discounted in many countries. This would allow everyone to get the cheapest price, and prevent the extra skimming from first world countries/wherever the cost of living is higher.
Of course, as it's all run by computer and thus costs essentially the same to produce and provide no matter where in the world you are (essentially, of course some infrastructure costs/rentals may vary, but I'm no expert in those factors), So they'll still make whatever profit, but not as much of it.
Besides, it feels right that those who have a higher cost of living (and usually commensurate wages) should pay more, however that doesn't mesh with a worldwide distributed network that doesn't care about cost of living, but purely about about relaying 0's and 1's.

Freedom!

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally! Who's up for Netflix Yemen?

How to break the Internet

[iTrawl]

These guys will get their IPs banned first (no idea why VPN providers don't get their banned, but they'll probably be next). Then they release their IPs and get new ones. Those IPs will get banned, while the released ones will not get unbanned. Soon enough people in the UK will be unable to use iPlayer and the BBC customer services representatives will blame the users. Replace "BBC" and "iPlayer" with the your relevant data.

Feet, branch, chainsaw.

We've seen this happen with e-mail and spam blacklists somewhat.

Re:How to break the Internet

[ArcadeMan]

Legs, testicles, chainsaw

Re:How to break the Internet

[iTrawl]

That link is referrer-restricted. It says "view this on joe-ks.com". You probably meant to link this instead

Re:How to break the Internet

[fustakrakich]

That link is referrer-restricted.

Is there a way to circumvent that?

Re:How to break the Internet

[Anonymous Coward]

VPN providers do get their IPs banned from these services. It's a never ending battle to bring up new servers in an area once enough customers bitch.

Re:How to break the Internet

[iTrawl]

Of course. And it's not that hard either.

Re:How to break the Internet

[Jack Griffin]

The issue seems to lie in the fact that established olde-worlde distributors own the right to all content, and continue to gain ownership of new content, so therefore have too much input into the conversation.
This war needs to be fought on two fronts, one the technical which seems more than capable of delivering, the other is to convince new producers not to sign over rights to anyone involved with the old 20th century distribution model. If there existed a distributor with a big enough war chest to buy new TV shows, movies and music, they could then be legally distributed through channels like Global Mode. As more content is added it becomes a legitimate competition to the old way of doing things. More content, wider distribution, bigger audience. This effectively ends the old industry monopoly and any legal avenue for shutting such a service down. The only catch is lower profits for individual producers, but ultimately I believe would be healthier situation for the industry as a whole.
It would effectively be like Uber for media.

Re:How to break the Internet

[Kernel Kurtz]

Those IPs will get banned, while the released ones will not get unbanned.

Until they start blocking significant actual customers. That strategy will defeat itself eventually, with IPv4 anyway.

This isn't new.

[Anonymous Coward]

ISP's in Singapore have been doing this for years! My ISP viewqwest certainly has been... And to all the people saying that IPs will get blocked etc, it hasn't happened to Singapore ISP's yet!

This is nothing new

[Anonymous Coward]

This is common practice in Singapore. For example by Viewqwest's Freedom VPN: http://www.viewqwest.com/produ... It's completely transparent and is implemented by injecting a different ip address by the DNS (for the users subscribing to the service).

Good for non-tech people

[Bearhouse]

For all others, VPNs FTW!
Rolling your own is not hard; for example:
https://www.digitalocean.com/c...

If you're cheap and/or can't be bothered:
https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/1...

Unforseen side effects

[davidwr]

Prediction: The movie industry will strong-arm Netflix etc. to require every user whose actual residency isn't known through billing or other records to state, under penalty of perjury, what country they are in every time they sign in (or at least at regular intervals, say, weekly). For those whose billing addresses are known, I would expect the movie industry to insist that Netflix etc. make it a condition of the contract tha the person would not knowingly deceive Netflix into thinking the person was outside of his home country when he was physically inside his home country.

They will also require Netflix, etc. to look for suspicious behavior, such as "globe-trotting" by someone whose viewing patterns suggest a stable time zone, and either investigate this behavior themselves or (except where privacy laws prohibit it), give Netflix, etc. the option to provide the information to the content provider so they can do an investigation.

Since the customer swore under oath, if they are found to be lying, they can face not only having their Netflix access terminated and being sued by affected parties, they can theoretically face criminal charges.

I also expect content providers to lobby governments to make it easier for content providers to identify and stop people from lying about the country of origin for the purposes of financial fraud (which is, of course, what the content providers will paint it as).

Having said that, there are several good reasons besides intentionally trying to get a movie you "aren't allowed to have in your country" that you may appear to be "abroad." Three obvious ones are 1) you are using a corporate network whose firewall is in another country, 2) you are abroad and are using a VPN that is in your country of origin (or, more specifically, your personal VPN in your own home), and 3) you are near a border and are connected to a neighboring-country's cell tower.

For what it's worth, I won't like it if this comes to pass, but I predict it will.

Re:Unforseen side effects

[Falos]

This will help protect artist livelihoods.

Believed no one ever.

The thoughtproperty charade might just be civilization's greatest performance.

Re:Unforseen side effects

[davidwr]

This will help protect artist livelihoods.

Believed no one ever.

The thoughtproperty charade might just be civilization's greatest performance.

Fellow /. readers: Am I the only one that is having problems parsing this?

Re:Unforseen side effects

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes

Still Better Off with a VPN

[sudon't]

That's nice! Although, you're still better off with a VPN.

Re:Still Better Off with a VPN

[Anonymous Coward]

All Good, But netflix got that route on a short leash

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/netflix-vpn-cheat-accounts-be-terminated-users-threaten-piracy-if-they-cant-pay-content-1495223

Honest question

[jez9999]

Will we ever get decent copyright law reform? Like, ever, anything sane? 10 years maximum and no shitty regional monopolies? Or are we just fucked with this Disney regime for evermore?

They avoid taxes we avoid their blocks

[Anonymous Coward]

Fair is fair, Netflix et al avoid taxes through European tax havens specifically to deprive their home country of any income, so we avoid their geo restrictions.

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-n...