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Netflix Geoblocking Loosened Under New EU Law (thestack.com)
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.
Hasn't you mom told you that two wrongs don't make a right? Maybe it's time for you to grow up and face reality?
Yes, I'd much rather the article had said "when Netflix was pressured to block the known IPs of VPN providers". They've publicly stated that they'd much prefer to have a single, global catalog, which makes sense from their perspective. I hope at some point they're influential enough to put enough pressure to demand global licensing for movies and shows, or tell the content producers to hit the road. Unfortunately the studios are also at war with Netflix, forcing them to turn into a studio themselves, so I'm not certain that's going to be happening soon.
One could argue that both piracy and attempts to work around geo-blocking (using a VPN service typically) are both economic pressure on Hollywood studios as well, but I'm not sure they see it that way. Think about this when they complain about lost sales thanks to piracy, and remember how long these major industries resisted new technologies, historically speaking. Hollywood should be ecstatic that consumers are willing to pay subscription fees for digital content, but instead, they're clinging to the illusion that they can still charge premium access rates in the days of the internet+torrents. If the legal market charges too much, the black market will happily step in and correct the situation.
Also, just fyi, it's "eke", not "eek".
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I'd say most people use the VPNs to access content blocked in their home country
So netflix content is based on the location.
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).
So netflix content is not based on the location but on the account?
You'll need to make up your mind before you make the point. But I'll help you, the former is true. So when I access my netflix account right here, right now in the hotel I'm in not 30min drive from my home country, some of the content I get at home is inaccessible.