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Netflix Decides To Crack Down On VPN Users (netflix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix have announced they'll be taking further steps to ensure users are not circumventing geo-restrictions. David Fullagar, Vice President of Content Delivery and Architecture at Netflix says "Some members use proxies or "unblockers" to access titles available outside their territory. To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. This announcement comes just days after Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt said that a VPN blocking policy might be impossible to enforce."
This reminds me of the poor Tor users who are met with Cloudflare pages for a large part of the net.
Netflix will play cat and mouse with the unblocking services for 3 months, then give up and point to their initial statement - it is not possible to enforce.
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There was a blog-post from Netflix last year where they specifically said they are being pressured by content-providers to do this and they don't know how long they can hold out -- guess the point came where they couldn't hold out any longer. I don't blame Netflix for this, it doesn't matter to them what country you watch stuff from as long as you pay your monthly fee, but those greedy content-providers are at fault here.
The idea is: People in, say, sub-saharan Africa have less money and less disposable income, so they can price their product cheaper there and make up for it in volume. While people in, say, the US have a lot more disposable income and can withstand paying twice or three times as much as those in SSA.
The problem with this model is that Americans know that if the company is selling it cheaper elsewhere they're still definitely making a profit there, and price discrimination based on geography is bullshit. They're making money in Sub-saharan Africa charging $2, AND ALSO making MORE money in the US charging $12. It's totally bullshit for them to charge ME $12 when Mbutu only pays $2 while still turning a profit for the company. Why should I pay anything when the company is just trying to bilk me out of an EXTRA $10 when they're still making money on $2? Fuck them, I'm pirating and giving them $0 instead.
That kind of thing. The idea of geographic segregation only makes sense if there's actually barriers to delivery that are different between areas and ALSO an asymmetry of information. There is neither since the internet exists, so any geographical segregation is utter bullshit and laughable.
Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
If you aren't using VPN, this doesn't affect you at all.
Absolutely incorrect. What Netflix is talking about, is cross referencing the payment methods bill-to address, and using that to determine what country the customer lives in. The result will be, that when you log in, *your account* determines what content you get access to, not your IP address. Spoofing a bill-to address for payment is a great deal harder to do. Banks do not allow incorrect bill-to address' easily. Most people don't have the wherewithal to get an american billing address, and even if they could, it will cost them more in time and money than it is worth.
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
No, you see, because I don't have to play their game. They are powerless because I access through a VPN, and they are powerless if they go after Netflix because I switch to torrenting what I want (like I did before).
That's their problem. We were all torrenting because trying to buy the stuff was a nightmare. Give us an easy way to buy it and we will, we said. So they did, for a while, and all was well. Until they wanted the control back of how, where and who can watch what and when. So we start to say fuck you again and go back to piratebay and their ilk.
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