Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Netflix Geoblocking Loosened Under New EU Law (thestack.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the watching-House-of-Cards-everywhere dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "The European Parliament is now finalizing legislation which will allow EU residents to access their paid subscriptions for online media -- such as video streaming, games and music -- while visiting other EU countries," reports The Stack. Under the new rules, companies will not be able to arbitrarily block subscribers from accessing the content catalog of their home countries while visiting other parts of the European Union, with country of origin to be established by various possible methods besides IP address, including payment details, public tax information and 'checks on electronic identification'. The issue was brought to a head last year when Netflix began blocking the known IPs of VPN providers, often used by subscribers to access the catalogs of their home countries while travelling.

8 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. its funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    its funny how some of these companies attack trump but then go around geolocking all their shit, they arent cool with globalism depending on how affects their money

    they are fine with the cheap worker from fuckistan lowering my salary but if i use their online store to buy some digital shit in the fuckistan currency because its better for me, then i get banned

    thats why facebook, microsoft, amazon... can talk all they want, it wont matter, once you redpill enough people reality shows its ugly head: they are scum, simple as that

    all globalism is is a way to make money for big companies, and everyone supporting it is human feces

    1. Re:its funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What is wrong about buying something from a country where it is priced cheaper?

      Hasn't your mom explained basic capitalism to you?

      Maybe it's time for these multinational conglomerates to grow up and lie in the bed of their own making?

    2. Re:its funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe it's time for these multinational conglomerates to grow up and lie in the bed of their own making?

      Sure, as long as that includes meeting their tax obligations in their home country (cough...Apple, Google, Facebook...).

    3. Re:its funny by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      its funny how some of these companies attack trump but then go around geolocking all their shit,

      It is not Netflix; however. It is entertainment companies who license content differently in different jurisdictions either to maximize their profits, or to distribute their profits across multiple vacade organizations in order to minimize tax liability.

  2. flip it around by bhcompy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The issue was brought to a head last year when Netflix began blocking the known IPs of VPN providers, often used by subscribers to access the catalogs of their home countries while travelling.

    I guess that's one way to put it. I'd say most people use the VPNs to access content blocked in their home country, and it sounds like this order actually harms that since your country remains the same regardless of your physical location(or your VPNs physical location).

  3. Why only in EU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Like any other online service you should be able to access it wherever you choose to go online. This isn't some firewalled LAN it's the internet. These restrictions make absolutely no sense.

  4. Re:Look behind the curtain by mmell · · Score: 3, Insightful
    While providing one unified list of titles for all customers worldwide sounds simple, the fact is that many movies which are highly in demand in country A may well be illegal in country B. For example, Nextflix might well find themselves outright barred from doing business in Russia because of the availability of the movie Red Heat (an example only. I don't even know offhand if it's part of Netflix's offerings). Similarly, Mulan could get Netflix stopped at the Great Firewall of China. Any movie which portrays Islam in a bad light or Judaism in a positive way might well be a problem in much of the Middle East - and the reverse could well get Netflix locked out of Israel (I may be a Jew, but we're no saints!). Sooner or later, I suspect SNL reruns might be a problem for US audiences to watch.

    Those were the obvious examples. More exist. Netflix may not have all of the best content (personally, I love the stuff; then again, I'm only slightly newer than dirt), but not all of the world believes in freedom and free speech as much as we teach our schoolchildren we in the US do.

  5. Re:Look behind the curtain by klingens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While this is all correct: it doesn't matter at all.

    Netflix already has to do all this on top of the geoblocking they do in order to make Hollywood happy.
    So stopping one of the two reasons why they block different things in different countries is still a win. Only one blocking reason instead of two.