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Region-Locked Content Drives UK Users To Try a VPN (itproportal.com)

Posted by msmash on from the when-correlation-is-causation dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A new report has revealed that VPN usage in the UK has increased with almost one in six people now using a VPN alongside their internet connection. According to YouGov's 'Incognito Individual' report, 16 percent of British adults have used either a VPN or proxy server. This up-tick in users trying a VPN was often the direct result of trying access region-locked content or websites. Of those surveyed, 48 percent of respondents admitted to using a VPN or a proxy to access content they would otherwise be unable to view. VPNs are often used by security conscious individuals who are concerned with their privacy and not having their browsing data logged. YouGov's report found that 44 percent of VPN users utilised such a service for better security and that 37 percent did so for improved privacy.

57 comments

  1. Re by pele · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Businesses that rely on geo locks? Those businesses should die off.
    And secondly, there were no such things as geo locks on the internet 10, 20 or 30 years ago so why should there be now? As a matter of fact there were no businesses that rely on geo locks at all. What's this crap about?

    1. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Region locking is often because a worldwide distribution of content may be impractical in many cases. Acceptable content in movies, for example, is quite a bit different in the United States as opposed to Europe. A studio may well need to release two versions of a movie, one in North America, and one in Europe, so they comply with the laws of both places. Naturally this extends online, too, for businesses that operate in many countries. An American studio with offices in Europe has to ensure that they're not distributing content to Europe that doesn't comply with their laws. Generally speaking, speech is far more restricted in Europe than in the US, because leftist regimes there have tried to limit free thought and expression. If you want to get rid of region locking, make it easier to release content worldwide, and oppose leftist censorship.

      - snruter rotsac

    2. Re:Re by r2rknot · · Score: 1

      I do not think it is businesses driving this for purposes of somehow making money. As for the purposes of complying with regulation. If UK visitors have some special rule that must be applied to them or otherwise that company cannot do business in the UK. They will have to use some sort of geo lock to show a faithful effort at compliance.

      --
      "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
    3. Re:Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there were no such things as geo locks on the internet 10, 20 or 30 years ago so why should there be now?

      Timed releases - stupid, yes, but it's been their way since dvd regions.

      Copyright status - Not all content with a copyright in one country are valid in other regions.

    4. Re:Re by Baron_Yam · · Score: 4, Informative

      > As a matter of fact there were no businesses that rely on geo locks at all.

      Sure there were... they relied on the inconvenience of international delivery to allow for regionally-tiered pricing of physical media.

      You may blame the distributors, but in a lot of cases they're not the owners of the IP, and may only have a distribution deal covering a particular region, or they've landed the distribution contract on the basis of the ability to achieve maximum profit on a per-region basis.

      Ultimately, responsibility lies with a combination of the IP holders being greedy, but also with large wealth and cost of living disparities between different portions of the globe.

    5. Re: Re by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Then sell it to me in the US and let me worry about my local laws when I "import" the content.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:Re by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Aww, your business model fails when the internet touches it? Looks like your business model is shit.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re: Re by Falos · · Score: 2

      You're putting the burden on whoever's in easy reach. Same shit as yelling at the messenger. Yelling at customer service to change something they don't have authority to access.

      Meatspace operations are subject to those laws. Targeted operations are subjected to those laws.

      I have zero obligation to put DRM or locks on my content published to the open internet. The "offenders" are the ones who get policed about their local laws.

      Oh but it's hard to find out who's doing what? I don't care. You're the ones who wanted unenforceable laws about movie content or weird porn or whatever. You enforce them. Not me. Not google or cox or netflix or apple or windows or whoever.

    8. Re:Re by tepples · · Score: 2

      As a matter of fact there were no businesses that rely on geo locks at all.

      At the time, the home video business broke the world into NTSC vs. PAL vs. PAL-M vs. SECAM vs. MESECAM.

    9. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, I live in Europe (Poland) and while I do perceive German/French governments as "leftist", I enjoy much more freedom than those who live in USA.
      Movies here do not have to conform to puritan tastes of east-coast zealots (if there is one thing forbidden -> fascist/nazi symbols; that's one thing you can have in USA that you can't in Poland (unless it is put in certain context... which is debatable; but hey, it's easy to understand that we don't want PR of a group that tried to eredicate our entire nation));
      We do not have to deal with software patents (yet...);
      We have laws that try to protect me from too much coroporate greed (e.g. there are forbidden clasuses, a working anti-monopoli body, etc.), so in my backwater backward poor country with 1/nth of your GDP per capita I have better telephony and internet plans (because government regulation (unlike mythical "free market") of telecoms enables competition).

    10. Re:Re by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      What's this crap about?

      :-) I will assume the question is rhetorical...

      Needless to say (but I'll repeat it anyway), as long as we are chained to an ISP the situation cannot get any better.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    11. Re: Re by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

      A lot of geo locks involve the actual web content of the site such as software and Ebooks, to which some countries don't have the same patent or copyright laws as those like the U.S. or Japan does. The UK geo blocks people from their servers sometimes, but that's because they are a popular country (thanks to the Doctor) and don't have the bandwidth to support the traffic. But when you're too busy monitoring everyone, what do you expect? It's the same reason the FCC in the U.S. has been pushing so hard to allow companies to place governors on certain websites and content. However, they went ahead and voted to allow ISPs to sell traffic before bringing up any data caps. By allowing an ISP to sell your internet traffic, warrants are no longer needed for its records. They only have to pay for them.

    12. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ah, and we don't have to deal with the fear of offending some sexual/racial/intellectual minority. We do not have to prepare a proper mix of actors (oh, I wonder how many European Africans and European Asians (or should it be.... Continental Africans? Nilfgardian Africans? Rivian Asians? ....) there will be in the upcoming Netflix series...). We don't go through reeducation classes, because here we believe it is somehow obvious that rape is bad and we don't need additional training in the subject....

      So be careful who you call leftist...

      BTW -> region locks are very often about money. Different corporate entities have exclusive distribution rights within different regions. Pricing is sometimes different. It's your american beancounters, not our local "leftists".

    13. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of the time it's simply licensing arrangements seeking to find the maximum dollar about that can be charged per region.

    14. Re:Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not just businesses. In Germany for example a large number of geo locks are government-mandated: Youtube music videos, censored video games, 18+ games only being sold after 22:00, etc.

    15. Re:Re by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      As a matter of fact there were no businesses that rely on geo locks at all. What's this crap about?

      DVDs are 20 years old (for most of the world, 22 if you are Japanese as they had DVD two years before everyone else for some reason.) DVDs are region encoded.

      I have a vague memory that they weren't the pioneers, with some games consoles having region encoding even earlier, but I can't find a cite so...

      Before that though, there were limits that made crossing borders with electronic content more awkward anyway, especially with movies. As an example VHS tapes were usually tied to one frame rate, resolution, and color encoding system - they'd play in monochrome if you had something compatible with the first two, but if the first two differed they wouldn't play at all.

      It's never really been a utopia with electronic content flowing freely across borders, alas.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    16. Re:Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nintendo paved the way for region locking video games by altering the cartridge shapes / pin configurations for both the Famicom and Super Famicom, those games will work on NES / Super NES with a cart adapter. This spilled over to Sony and others and the rest is history...

      The fact that Nintendo chose to use "no region lock" as a selling point of the Switch was amusing, its arguably their fault the problem exists at all.

    17. Re: Re by lalleglad · · Score: 2

      I agree with most of your comparisons to the US, but I would like to point out, as I am from another EU country, that Poland together with Hungary have your own set of problems with regard to free speech and democracy.

    18. Re: Re by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      Then sell it to me in the US and let me worry about my local laws when I "import" the content.

      The Berne convention is a treaty that permits you to buy content for personal use abroad and import it.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    19. Re:Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DVDs are region encoded.

      Doesn't matter, because nobody buys region-coded DVD players anymore. We buy all-region players . . .

    20. Re: Re by thundercattt · · Score: 1

      What bothers me in Canada is Canadian shows on CBC... only available on US Netflix. That's why I use a VPN....I simply do not care about House of Cards no matter how much Netflix pushes it

    21. Re:Re by JamesKeane7745 · · Score: 1

      Awww - you think that every company should be ready to go global instantly? Despite the myriad of complications that suppliers throw at them to be able to do business in a new market? Looks like your concept of global trade is shit.

      I dont like it, in fact I hate it, but given one of the biggest uses of VPN is watch other market licenced content on netflix etc., I can totally understand the streaming companies decisions. Of course they have to region lock content. Otherwise they have no fucking content.

    22. Re: Re by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Then what the hell is the problem of the GP?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    23. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What bothers me in Canada is Canadian shows on CBC... only available on US Netflix. That's why I use a VPN....I simply do not care about House of Cards no matter how much Netflix pushes it

      I enjoyed House of Cards, but what I really wanted was Yes, Minister...

    24. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DIfferent anon here. The problem with democracy in Poland is an issue of anti-democracy left wing groups organizing marches which include post-communists who want to subvert and overturn the will of the people. Poland has a long history of democracy and liberty, we developed laws similar to the Magna Carta ahead of most European countries including Germany.

    25. Re: Re by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything costs more in Europe, that's why we are DVD region 2. China had their own for obvious reasons as well...

  2. A natural reaction to leftist censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The left is responsible for a lot of censorship, claiming that free thought (e.g., humans not causing global warming, telling the truth that the Qur'an calls for non-Muslims to be murdered, etc...) is not acceptable when it counters their ideology. The leftist government of the UK is a massive offender of censorship. Region locking is a way of enforcing government imposed censorship, by making it difficult to view content outside of its intended region. While price discrimination is often blamed, it is impractical for many content providers to release content worldwide when laws about acceptable content vary widely from one country to another. Get rid of leftist censorship and allow for free speech again. Then region locking won't be necessary and this won't be necessary. Evading region locking with VPN use is a natural response to leftist censorship.

    - snruter rotsac

    1. Re:A natural reaction to leftist censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is funny. The last time brits revolted, americastan was born.

    2. Re:A natural reaction to leftist censorship by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What the fuck are you talking about? Can you watch Tom&Jerry cartoons with the infamous blackface running gag (Tom looks into a teapot, Jerry blows up a cracker in it, boom, Tom looks like a N-word parody) on TV? I can. Show me one network in the US that would DARE to even come close to showing something like that.

      When was the last time you saw a nipple on US TV? And I'm not talking about "nipplegate", the big scandal that was more considered a scandal for being a scandal over here. Fuck, our ads have more naked skin than your pay-per-view-only-after-watershed movies.

      And don't start me on the goddamn bleeping in your TV shows.

      IF you want to look for censorship, you don't really need to look across the pond, yank.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:A natural reaction to leftist censorship by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I genuinely laughed out loud at that one. The "leftist government of the UK"?! Our current government is pretty far right of centre. In fact it's got more right of centre in the past few years as it tries to take over the position of far right parties like UKIP.

      And it is that hard right government that has been introducing more and more censorship, often in the name of protecting people from bad thoughts like porn and "extremist" writing. It also strongly supports copyright enforcement and consumer abuse, which is what leads to this kind of thing.

      The centre and left parties in the UK are actually promising to roll a lot of that stuff back.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:A natural reaction to leftist censorship by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I use a VPN to it appears I'm IN the UK so I can see BBC content on the interwebs

    5. Re:A natural reaction to leftist censorship by JamesKeane7745 · · Score: 1

      You are a complete lunatic. The UK is under the same barrage of bullshit as the US, in that people see that rubbish, believe it, and back the chinless elitist wankers in elections to save them from the strawman.

  3. Roll your own for self, friends, and family by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://github.com/jlund/streisand

    Streisand sets up a new server running L2TP/IPsec, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, a Tor bridge, and WireGuard. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists.

  4. Where might... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I find one of these services?

    Asking for a friend

  5. should by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

    Businesses that rely on geo locks? Those businesses SHOULD die off.

    I'm afraid those businesses haven't read RFC 2119.

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    1. Re:should by JamesKeane7745 · · Score: 1

      This may very well be my favourite comment of all time.

      Mainly because it also implies the poster understands that 'their may be valid reasons not to comply, the full implications should be understood.'

  6. not the whole truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they're using vpns and proxies, but they're using them to view porn. Source: I'm British and I use a VPN to view scat porn to get hard so I can make sweet love to my wife.

  7. Just Remember: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When you lick a butthoal you lick it for life!

    1. Re:Just Remember: by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      And you're licking every other butthole that butthole has licked. Or something.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  8. "The Net interprets censorship as damage ..." by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    "... and routes around it." - John Gilmore

    In this case "The Net" is a system including, not just the equipment, protocols, and administrators, but also the users. But it's another case where John's aphorism was dead-on.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:"The Net interprets censorship as damage ..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the game of rock paper scissors, your internet(ISP) is paper, my boat anchor is scissors. Wireless mesh will be the rock, someday...

  9. Bull by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most users use a VPN in the UK to access the porn, that the ISPs must block by law.

    It's a bit of a stretch to call the region-blocking.

    1. Re:Bull by TimothyHollins · · Score: 1

      Technically that would be cock-blocking.

    2. Re:Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There's also sport that isn't shown live on UK TV, (but is on NBCSN etc.) *Grumble* Saturday 3pm football matches *grumble*

    3. Re:Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wait, what?

      brexit
      'president' trump
      british watch *american* tv for soccer

      what the fuck is this world coming to?

      the apocalypse isn't coming... start running, because it's *here* NOW

    4. Re:Bull by zlives · · Score: 1

      in US i use VPN to comcast sniff block. i don't even connect outside US.
      just a fuck you to comcast.

    5. Re:Bull by rizole · · Score: 2
      I've never had problems accessing porn but have had problems accessing some media without having to find work arounds.

      Don't know of this porn block by law my ISP has that you talk about. There's a setting or check box I had to select to opt in if I recall correctly but then most ISP's used to have "family" filters you could opt into anyway. It's a minor difference in practice and I still get the same ol' filth down my tubes.

    6. Re:Bull by JamesKeane7745 · · Score: 2

      You think you cant get porn on the internet in the UK? Are you sure you are thinking of the UK, rather than Neptune?

  10. "Region locked content" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Yeah I'm sure that's the reason, nothing to do with ISPs recording your every click and mandatory porn blocks you Orwellian fucks.

    VPN rations have increased
    BDSM has always been illegal in Oceania

  11. The Peter Pan tax by tepples · · Score: 2

    Say there were a country whose law stated that anybody reproducing, importing, or exhibiting a copy of a film adaptation of Peter Pan in that country must pay a tax, and this tax made it unprofitable to offer the film for all-you-can-watch streaming. Would that mean the law is shit? Or would it mean that all-you-can-watch streaming in general is shit?

    It turns out that there is such a country, by the name of Great Britain. Its Copyrights, Designs, and Patents Act recognizes a right to a royalty payable to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSH) for derivatives of the stage play Peter and Wendy, as if the play were subject to a perpetual copyright with a compulsory licence.

  12. YMMV by kilodelta · · Score: 1

    Since when I VPN myself to a site within the U.S. Netflix freaks the hell out. So too Hulu.

  13. Play globally or gtfo by sixsixtysix · · Score: 2

    If some people get use the whole world to lower their costs via cheap labor, then the surely, people can use the whole world to find the cheapest/easiest to access content. It's 20-fucking-17. Play globally or gtfo.

    --
    ...
    1. Re:Play globally or gtfo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does that mean the day-laborer in Bangladesh should be forced to pay just as much as you pay?

    2. Re:Play globally or gtfo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. It also means that a labourer in Bangladesh should be *paid* just as much as you are paid.

  14. It's the problem with the UK rights market by JamesKeane7745 · · Score: 1

    As a Brit who spends most of his work week abroad, its not surprising.

    We make some of the most amazing TV, however because of that, the rights holders want to hold on to distribution as long as possible. When I'm away with work, it never stops amazing me just how much more of the content I'd want to watch at home is available on Netflix, Amazon et. al. abroad. Not just the shows available, but the latest series of those shows, often over a year before you can watch them in the UK on the same services.

    Maybe a lot of this (especially with movies) is to do with how much BSkyB has a hold over the UK TV industry, although ironically that means my biggest VPN usage is from abroad to watch Sky Go abroad!

  15. Here's me breaking into Jail... by seoras · · Score: 1

    ...while everyone else is breaking out.
    Because, living in exile, I miss the BBC. :)

  16. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion