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Netflix Executive Admits a VPN-Blocking Policy Might Be Impossible To Enforce (theglobeandmail.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix's chief product officer Neil Hunt has admitted that the company has 'no magic solution' to subscribers who use VPNs to access content not licensed for their geographical region, commenting that 'It's likely to always be a cat-and-mouse game'. Hunt notes that Netflix can only rely on lists of VPN IP addresses, and that these can easily be changed. However since Netflix subscribers pay for the service via geographically linked credit and debit cards, this article wonders if Netflix really believes that hundreds of thousands of their subscribers are permanently in migration or on holiday — and also that venerable old VPN IP addresses — ones so well-known that they are routinely challenged by services such as CloudFlare — never seem to have any trouble connecting to a Netflix account.
Netflix wants global license deals for the content, they have no self interest in blocking VPN users.
Netflix will do just enough to make sure they don't get content pulled by the content owners or jeopardize future content deals. If they can convince the content owners that the VPN problem cannot be solved, all the better for both Netflix and the users.
---- Sig. gone.
No, I'm sure Netflix doesn't care -- probably because they know they can't do anything about it, and because it's not really hurting their bottom line.
Of course, the media cartel will start pushing for even crazier locks to ensure nobody can ever see something without their express permission.
I doubt they'd ever pull it off, but I can imagine someone demanding hardware fobs with built in GPS or something equally draconian and idiotic. Or having such a system me required to be included in computers.
Because as far as they're concerned, they should have veto rights over every piece of technology on the planet.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
^^^ This. Plus the smart ones realize that that someone paying $8/month is the best they'll get: if they cut them off at the knees, we, I mean they, will just go back to being 100% pirate.
As a matter of fact, at some point in the last year or two, Netflix went to a "per screen" subscription model.
This implied (to me anyway) an acknowledgement of the fact that people share accounts with friends and family.
Instead of putting a damper on account sharing, they used the opportunity to offer different screen numbers at different price points.
They could have started banning accounts or locking to a particular IP or something, but they didn't take the heavy handed approach.
It was a really smart move and shows that they are flexible.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
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Media content industries who want to continue to live in the good ole days.
Media content providers who are so afraid of technology that they are unable and {gasp!} unwilling to leverage it for profit.
No, I'm sure Netflix doesn't care -- probably because they know they can't do anything about it, and because it's not really hurting their bottom line.
The Netflix CEO recently gave a speech as CIS where he said "sharing is good". They're happy with multiple people watching a screen, they're happy with parents sharing their password with kids (and the multi-screen option looks cheap to me), because they know people would rather have their own accounts, and likely will when they stop being broke students.
I think he gets it.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I pay for content when I can get it, honestly these services are MORE CONVENIENT than fiddling around with torrents / content streaming sites
Does the industry make more money by blocking content than not?? If so how???
Why even create a pirate economy? To sell DRM which is expensive and easily circumvented??
I don't understand it and I probably never will...
Pretty much this.
I wish media companies would hurry up and just get rid of this retarded problem.
The major issue with this system is advertising. Geographically related ads is a stupidly trivial thing to create dynamically in a data stream.
Person streaming from UK, splice UK-related ad streams instead of US, instead of French, instead of whatever. Simple.
The other issue is simply plain stupid tradition, ignorance and greed.
The more these companies try to push back at the ONLY way media is going to evolve, they will just make more pirates.
Online distribution is the superior gene (technically meme). It will go places TV can't.
Interactive TV will also become a larger part of that. It is partially getting there in some trials here and there, but the biggest indication of it right now is indirect interactivity through things like Twitter and Facebook inspiration.
There will still be a place for TV, it will simply evolve to streams that can be created by TV stations or even people.
You could subscribe to a Sci-fi stream, or maybe hard sci-fi, maybe only classic sci-fi.
This sort of system vastly improves on what can be done with TV, and cheaper.
There is no point trying to fight it because it would get you MORE money since people are actually watching things they are interested in!
If they kill it now, they will lose more and more people to piracy.
It will be their loss and then our loss as companies lose money and sales so stuff gets cancelled.
STOP TRYING TO KILL ONLINE.
Get rid of stupid geo-locked crap.
IP blocking doesn't work - because someone can watch Netflix at home using their home broadband, while someone else is using a mobile connection. Or maybe if they're all together, mom, dad, and the children are each on their own devices using their own data with 4 separate IPs.
That's why limiting IPs isn't feasible - there are very legitimate reasons to have multiple IPs even if everyone is in the same room!