More Unblocking Companies Give Up Their Fight Against Netflix (techspot.com)

Earlier this year, Netflix announced it was going to block the VPN services that were circumventing the streaming service's geoblocking technology, and it seems in the months since many of the top VPN players have given up on finding ways to workaround Netflix's block tech. From a report on TechSpot (condensed): Australian company uFlix discovered that some of its users could no longer access Netflix. It said that a fix was coming soon, but, uFlix announced recently in a recent blog post that it has given up the fight. "As of today we are going to stop supporting Netflix as an unblocked channel. Unfortunately every time we set up a new network or find a workaround it is getting blocked within hours." Uflix isn't the only service to throw in the towel -- most of the other unblockers have quietly decided to stop trying to evade Netflix's geoblocks, as more customers complain they can no longer watch the streaming site. Popular VPN TorGuard had assured customers that the crackdown wouldn't affect them. But there is no mention of Netflix on TorGuard's website, and its shared Netflix server was taken offline four months ago.

Comments

Re: You gotta fight for your right to

[amiga3D]

I've found that most of the better stuff from Netflix is available by torrent. I guess people need to stop paying netflix and head off to the pirate bay. If they don't want your money then stop paying them.

Re:Welp, back to pirating

[green1]

Theft, in law, a general term covering a variety of specific types of stealing, including the crimes of larceny, robbery, and burglary. Theft is defined as the physical removal of an object that is capable of being stolen without the consent of the owner and with the intention of depriving the owner of it permanently.

theft | law | Britannica.com
https://www.britannica.com/top...

We have a word for copying something. "copying". We have a term for doing it without the legal permission to do so "copyright infringement". Theft is a very different crime which is in no way related to copyright infringement in any way.

Re: You gotta fight for your right to

[OakDragon]

I have decided that I'm not going to break a law... even if it's some kind of trivial, asinine law.. just to watch a Hollywood movie. They're not even worth it.

Re:So next year...

[UnknownSoldier]

Indeed.

Region Lock == Price Fixing

_Why_ does it matter _where_ I buy the movie from??

Re:Y'all know what you need to do

[tlhIngan]

Netflix keeps dumping third-party content in favor of its own self-produced stuff. So it's making less and less sense for people defending Netflix to keep playing that "it's not their fault, they have no choice" card.

If they can determine that quickly which people are using a vpn service, they can certainly choose to offer some limited set of stuff to those customers. Incidentally, it'd also be a good bellwether regarding whether any significant number of people actually care about the self-produced content (cue the Netflix employees browsing Slashdot in 3, 2, 1...).

Unlike Amazon, all the content Netflix produces is available everywhere that Netflix has service. So you don't need a VPN to access Netflix-produced content. At all.

And Netflix has service practically everywhere.

So the only reason you use a VPN is it access content on another Netflix in another country, as Netflix just checks where you're logging in from to determine your content. So if you travel to the US, you get to see the entire US catalog while you're there, even if you have a Canadian Netflix account.

So yes, it's the content provider's fault. In Canada, you cannot legally stream The Simpons, because Fox has given all North American streaming rights to FXX. Which doesn't serve Canada at all. So once it airs, it's one. None of the legal Canadian streaming services, free or otherwise, carry it. So if you miss the broadcast, tough luck, you have to pirate it.

Re: You gotta fight for your right to

[SirSlud]

Because the people that made the content signed a deal with a distributor in Canada saying that nobody in canada (including you) may view the content unless it's being broadcast or streamed by them. You really want to be blaming the people making the content for signing those deals.

Re: You gotta fight for your right to

[EvilSS]

Netflix could buy the rights for any show in any area. They just choose not to.

This isn't true at all. A lot of content has existing distribution deals in different regions, some of these may go back decades. Others are new deals but they can be in place before Netflix even has a chance to buy the content (bundled with broadcast rights to local TV networks, for example). I'm sure there is some content they could but chose not to buy the rights to in specific reasons, but it's definitely not "any show in any area".