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EU's Long-Promised Digital Media Portability Rules Go Into Effect (wired.co.uk)
The EU's long-promised digital media portability rules have taken effect as of April 1st, letting residents access Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other paid digital media services in other member countries as if they were still at home. From a report: The European Commission's 'digital single market strategy,' which last year claimed victory over mobile roaming charges, has now lead to it passing the 'portability regulation,' which will allow users around the EU to use region locked services more freely while travelling abroad. Under currently active rules, what content is available in a certain territory is based on the specific local rights that a provider has secured. The new rules allow for what Phil Sherrell, head of international media, entertainment and sport for international law firm Bird and Bird, calls "copyright fiction," allowing the normal rules to be bent temporarily while a user is travelling.
The regulation was originally passed in June 2017, but the nine-month period given to rights holders and service providers to prepare is about to expire, and thereby making the rules enforceable. From today, content providers, whether their products are videos, music, games, live sport or e-books, will use their subscribers' details to validate their home country, and let them access all the usual content and services available in that location all around the Union.
The regulation was originally passed in June 2017, but the nine-month period given to rights holders and service providers to prepare is about to expire, and thereby making the rules enforceable. From today, content providers, whether their products are videos, music, games, live sport or e-books, will use their subscribers' details to validate their home country, and let them access all the usual content and services available in that location all around the Union.
I already do the same thing without needing EU regulations by using a VPN.
The funny part about this is, the implementation of this is far, far easier than trying to geolocate an IP and do VPN detection and all that. A law that actually mandates a simpler solution, how often does that happen?
If EU country X has banned particular content, does this new EU rule allow people from other countries to view that content while in country X?
One of the nice things about travelling in Europe was sampling the local Netflix content while in another country. I'm currently stationed in Germany and half way through a series I now pirated because my home account (I assume) won't show it when I head off to Germany again tomorrow.
I did notice that my Netflix account didn't have any French movies in it yesterday which I found odd.
I know it's well meaning, but not all of us asked for this. What we did ask for is the stupid geoblocking to be torn down completely once and for all.
The internet is supposed to route around the damage! So let's route around the goddamn damage! When netflix tries to block my location, I claim the right to use bittorrent. I paid for the content so fuck the "rights holders"! They are rent collecting thieves anyway...
So this means European accounts can no longer use VPNs to access content available in other regions? This makes Netflix worse for me, not better.
Say a movie is an adaptation of a book whose copyright has expired in life plus 50 years countries and publication plus 95 years countries but subsists in life plus 70 years countries. Thus the publisher has the right to make the movie available in the former but not the latter. The EU market is the latter since the mid-1990s. Is a publisher's refusal to offer access to the movie in countries where it has no right to do so considered "local regulation" or "geoblocking"?