Netflix's Doomed Battle Against VPNs Begins (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Australian unblocking service uFlix recently announced that Netflix has begun implementing its plans to block users who take advantage of web proxies and VPNs to get around location restrictions on content. Shortly afterward, the service rolled out a fix to restore service, despite Netflix's efforts. The article makes the case that Netflix is probably just fine with this: "Netflix, ultimately, is caught between a rock and a hard place. The company has gone on record many times criticizing the way content licensing deals are negotiated globally. Of course, Netflix would love to be able offer a consistent library of content around the world. But it also has to stay on-side with those who hold the rights to the content, otherwise they may threaten to pull shows and movies altogether. The result is that Netflix is going through the motions of blocking VPNs, even though it understand perfectly well that these measures are doomed to fail."

Comments

You can't fix stupid

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

And by stupid I mean the licensing deals. We're in 2016 and there's still idiots out there who can't understand that people can't subscribe to 10+ services to watch everything they want.

That's why I'm staying with Netflix. Either they get the deals and also my money, or nobody gets it. This is entertainment, we can live without it.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

The current crop of media tycoons are too old to figure that out. They are stuck in a prior generation's way of managing content, and they are doing everything they can to keep the rest of the world trapped in it too, to their own detriment.

Eventually they will die off and be replaced by a new crop of tycoons who, though just as evil, have a better understanding of how data moves and breathes, and so they will get on board with a more reasonable (and ultimately more profitable) plan. Of course...by the time they get that worked out, THAT paradigm will be technologically outdated, so people will be having this exact same conversation.

Policy always lags a decade or two behind tech.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[Lumpy]

It's not idiots, It's scumbags that are the scourge of society.

Call them what they are, It's malice and greed, pure and simple.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't that different in my mind than Apple's preventing copying music directly off an iPod or their original iTunes protected music files. There were very simple workarounds (for the iPod you could access a hidden subfolder and copy off the files which were all renamed to a random string but otherwise contained the needed attributes to load correctly in iTunes on the destination computer, for the iTunes store protected tracks all you had to do was burn them to an audio CD and re-import them... although you'd have to manually re-enter the track info.)

It was useful to demonstrate to the content providers that basic steps had been taken to protect their interest but these weren't serious impediments to anyone who wanted to circumvent them.

Of course, in this era, in some places it's likely some kind of illegal computer hacking to access content outside it's licensed market if you do it via VPN.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[JaredOfEuropa]

Thankfully the Pirate Bay has none of those issues.

I rather liked the policy long held by Dutch legislators: "We don't like piracy, but until there's a reasonable legal alternative, we're not going to do anything about it". This held for a good while for downloadable music and still held for movies when this policy sadly was abandonded. And it seems that at least a few politicians are getting increasingly pissed off about DRM, regional licensing and region codes. I'd like to see the old policy revived and applied per work: if certain content is available in other countries but not here (at similar prices), it's ok to pirate it. Sadly international agreements probably preclude such a policy, and if TTIP is implemented, publishers could sue the Dutch government for this in secret court.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[invid]

I'm afraid of what the new crop of tycoons will do to manage content. I'm imagining the following nightmare scenario:

Mr. McMoneypants: I know there are people out there watching my intellectual property for free and it frosts my balls!

Prof. Techflunky: You know, if we monitored everything everyone watched then we could send them a small bill every-time they enjoyed your IP. We could make the fee small enough for them to afford it, but have a huge penalty if they refused.

Mr. McMoneypants: Is that even possible?

Prof. Techflunky: It's all just engineering. The first step is to eliminate anonymity from the internet. Since this will lessen hacking and terrorism I'm sure we can get the necessary government backing.

Mr. McMoneypants: Holy Christmas! As it just so happens I own a few politicians! Here's a billions dollars! Put together a team!

Prof. Techflunky: As you wish master.

Re:You can't fix stupid

[tlhIngan]

And by stupid I mean the licensing deals. We're in 2016 and there's still idiots out there who can't understand that people can't subscribe to 10+ services to watch everything they want.

Actually, they're intentionally doing it.

Because they don't want another Apple to happen.

Remember way back, over 10 years ago when Steve Jobs started eslling music online? And how iTunes grew to become THE source for music? And how Apple managed to bully the music industry? And how every attempt by the music industry to dethrone Apple failed?

Well, it took them a long time before they took the nuclear option - DRM free. To which they granted it to Amazon so Amazon could sell music for iPods, and actually compete.

And how because of this, the music industry regained control - neither Apple nor Amazon could dictate terms to them.

Well, the content industry observed, and realized that movies and TVs were in the same boat. They could give their content to one big player and let the smaller players wither away, creating a monopsony (monopoly, the other way - many sellers, one customer). Or they could try to distribute as far and wide as possible, as well as ensuring that not everyone gets all the content so there will be no big player who can dictate the terms and conditions.

Though if you really want stupid - you should ask why a show created by a provider like Amazon is not available where Amazon is available - I mean, Amazon created the show, so they have distribution rights. Why do they keep it within the US only? Everything Netflix produces is available on every Netflix site...

Just enough effort

[NotDrWho]

Netflix needs to make just enough effort to make the studios happy

The studios need to make just enough effort to make it a pain to circumvent, but not impossible (meaning that 99% of people won't bother).

The consumer needs to make just enough effort to see the material they want to see.

Not doomed

[110010001000]

It isn't doomed to fail. VPN blocking works. Sure, you can get around it, but for most people that is going to be a hassle. Just like Internet censorship, or fighting piracy. It isn't going to fail for most people.

Re:Not doomed

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Most people use a paid VPN service. Those services will be the ones to go around the problem.

Re:Not doomed

[Aaden42]

This type of VPN usage isn’t risky right now. You’re thinking of downloading bad stuff over VPN and trying to prevent nastygrams from your ISP. In that case, you’ve got a copyright owner or a LEO with subpoena power who can follow the paper trail back to you with minimal effort.

This is people paying for VPN’s for paid Netflix subs to stream content that’s not normally available in their market.

Is there law breaking going on? Probably, but thus far it’s not something that content providers have made the effort to send copyright cease & desist or whatever the local equivalent of DMCA letters for this type of stuff to end users. As for the VPN providers (where the money’s going), they’re arguably doing nothing wrong. They’re just moving packets from A to B, with ‘B’ being a frequently moving target, for Reasons.

Sure there’s a paper trail, things could get messy some day, but for the time being, paying for this service on your own credit card and accessing Netflix is a very low risk activity.

The VPN services getting paid have all kind$ of incentive$ to make sure they keep working with Netflix. It’s whack-a-mole with well funded & highly motivated moles. Not likely that any blocks will suceed for very long.

I’ve little doubt some law or top-secret treaty will attempt to add legal clout to close the loophole; but for now it’s not something that’s likely to get in you trouble. Enjoy it while it lasts...

Note to content providers:

[the_other_one]

Let me pay to have your product streamed into Canada. Otherwise I will just get the shows free by other means.

Re:no it isn't

[i.r.id10t]

In fact, take their credit card billing address and just use that for zone licensing and ignore their IP address. It's rather difficult to get a credit card with a billing address in a country you don't reside in and aren't a citizen of.

This.