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

Y'all know what you need to do

[kilfarsnar]

Contact Netflix and tell them you are cancelling your subscription due to this action on their part. That's really the only leverage you have over them. It is not in the customer's interest that they are doing this.

Re:Y'all know what you need to do

[Tukz]

And what do you expect them to do?

It's not Netflix' choice, it's their content providers requiring them to do this.

Re:Y'all know what you need to do

[houstonbofh]

If you needed the VPN to use it, you should not have been a customer in the first place... They are doing it because the agreements require them to.

Re:Y'all know what you need to do

[kilfarsnar]

And what do you expect them to do?

It's not Netflix' choice, it's their content providers requiring them to do this.

I'm not sure what I expect them to do. But the bottom line is cancelling one's service is the only real leverage one has over a company. You can complain, and they might listen. But at the end of the day if their product does not meet your needs, stop buying the product.

I know they have agreements with the content owners, but that is not my problem. I didn't negotiate those agreements. My problem (if I traveled outside the US much) is that I can't see the programs or movies that I want and paid for. If their licensing agreements become unprofitable because of lost business, Netflix will have to renegotiate or stop carrying that content. If they can absorb the loss of revenue but still maintain an acceptable profit, they will continue as usual. But all I can do is buy their service or not.

Re: Y'all know what you need to do

[Ost99]

This is probably one of the driving forces behind their shift towards original content.

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.

Great news! Piracy always works.

[xtal]

As a bonus, the VPN does a great job of neutering threats.

I pay Netflix because I hate the media companies. Netflix will win.

Netflix is not the enemy. The rent-seeking copyright holders are; so hit them where it hurts.

If they don't want my money.. the Torrents doth provide.

The verb?

[Megane]

many of the top VPN players have given up on finding ways to Netflix's block tech.

Maybe they could try to accidentally Netflix's block tech.

So next year...

[Mashiki]

So next year we'll be seeing the stats that piracy is increasing again since hollywood and so on decided that region locking was a really good idea. I know of quite a few people here in Canada who've simply cancelled their netflix subs, kept the VPN and now pirate everything like they did a few years ago.

Re:So next year...

[UnknownSoldier]

Indeed.

Region Lock == Price Fixing

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

Re:Welp, back to pirating

[stealth_finger]

Yup, because you're entitled to someone else's work.

Typical thief.

Thief - Someone who makes a copy of something that someone won't sell to them.

Is that how you're defining it now. Piracy has never, ever been thievery, at least since you stopped needing a boat and an eye patch anyway.

Plenty of people went to netflix from the piratebay because it had all the content they wanted for one price. Was easy, convenient and fair. Yet with every step they erode that deal, one could say it's getting worse all the time. It might be ok in America where you have all the good content but try look out side where they charge more and give less. Australia gets a particularly raw deal as I understand it.

Re: You gotta fight for your right to

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares whether or not it's up to Netflix? If the content's not legally available, it's certainly still available.

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:Welp, back to pirating

[green1]

Well why don't we call it "murder" or "rape" while we're at it? They are also illegal, if that's what we're doing, lumping all illegal acts in together?

Why don't we call it jaywalking instead? Also illegal. But doesn't fit the narrative the studio's want to portray of it being a heinous act.

The point is that by conflating one crime with another you push an obvious agenda to try to make it seem more serious than it is.

Words do matter. And you can't have an honest discussion about a subject while using dishonest or misleading terminology.

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:Welp, back to pirating

[green1]

No, "copyright infringement" doesn't "murky the waters" it describes EXACTLY What is happening. the only ones trying to "murky the waters" are those calling it Theft when it doesn't meet even the most basic definitions of such.

It's precisely because people know that theft is wrong, and understand WHY it is wrong (depriving someone of their property) that it is extremely dishonest to call copyright infringement theft. When talking to non-technical people, you don't need to come up with a completely unrelated example. Talk to them about photocopying books, they're all familiar with that, and it's exactly the same thing. Trying to pretend it's different is extremely dishonest.

I'm not getting in to value judgement of whether copyright infringement is right or wrong, but you can't have an honest discussion about it when you intentionally try to prey on people's feelings in regards to a completely different issue to cause them to feel that same way about this one.

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".