from the colonel-mustard-in-the-billiard-room-with-the-revolver dept.
Over at The Verge:
Many users rely on VPNs — virtual private networks — or custom DNS settings to stealthily access Netflix as though they were in other regions. But Netflix may have started closing some of those loopholes. Torrent Freak reports that, in the past few weeks, popular VPN services like TorGuard have started seeing a spike in errors when users try to access Netflix.
Netflix has responded to Engadget about the issue:
Update: Netflix tells us that there's been "no change" in the way it handles VPNs, so you shouldn't have to worry about the company getting tough any time soon. With that said, these blocking errors started showing up in the past few weeks, so it's not clear what would have prompted them.
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In recent weeks, Netflix has cracked down on VPN users attempting to bypass IP geolocation to access content not licensed in their countries. Netflix has also made the policy explicit. Now, TorrentFreak and Stars and Stripes report that Netflix will exempt overseas U.S military bases from the VPN blockade, although that isn't reassuring for off-base military members:
While Netflix is determined to take stronger action against VPN-pirates, the company also says that all U.S. military bases are exempt from blockades, Stars and Stripes reports. "Netflix always exempts U.S. military bases around the world. They will still be able to access the U.S. catalog," Netflix spokesperson Anne Marie Squeo said.
This is an interesting decision, since most military bases abroad are not considered U.S. soil. Also, we are not aware of a similar treatment for other overseas workers or military bases of non-U.S. countries. Still, for most soldiers this gesture is not enough, as they live off-base.
Jesse Fowler, a hospital corpsman stationed in Bahrain, says he's not disappointed with the local offering of Netflix but relies on a VPN to access some shows that are not available. "...I'm mad if I can't change where my Internet is so I can't watch my own shows," Fowler says.
This sentiment is shared by the Bahrain-stationed Navy counselor Eric Cutright. "My VPN hasn't been blocked. But if it does, I will be pissed. Netflix Bahrain is trash," he said.
TorrentFreak has kept a close eye on the recent developments and Netflix has indeed started to block more VPN providers. However, blocking all of them appears to be a difficult task, especially because several providers continue to add new IP-addresses. Ironically, many soldiers may switch to piracy again when Netflix is no longer an option, turning the clock back half a decade.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday January 05 2015, @04:10AM
I have a crystal ball, it says there will be more torrents.... :P
Or perhaps those magnetic things ;)
(Score: 2) by ticho on Monday January 05 2015, @04:45AM
Compasses? :)
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday January 05 2015, @11:10PM
Magnet links, probably, which are more easily shared than torrent files since they are just short clips of plaintext.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1) by beernutz on Monday January 05 2015, @04:28AM
Netflix has stated that nothing has changed on their end.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kaszz on Monday January 05 2015, @04:51AM
Comcast says they are the good guys .. :p
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @04:55AM
Didn't 'the other site' run the same story but their summary suggested it related to a change in DNS servers being used, in the android app at any rate (the story was a dupe, the DNS issue was only in one summary)?
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday January 05 2015, @06:34AM
Perhaps Netflix uses an external source for their list of VPN IP addresses and that list was updated?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @06:54PM
Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me.
However, if that is the case then saying "nothing has changed on our end" is one of those cases where they are stating a deliberately misleading truth that most people would consider a lie of omission -- we still have the same process, but now we turned it up to 11. Nobody outside of their engineering group cares about the details of the mechanism, they just care about the end result.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by acharax on Monday January 05 2015, @04:56AM
Has always been that should they ever succeed at crushing "piracy" they'd begin suing everyone that isn't already paying a monthly king's ransom for their products, out of mere suspicion that not consuming their vapid output indicates "piracy" must be at work (they've been assured profits by divine right, after all).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @04:58AM
They wish to DRM the HTML! [defectivebydesign.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @05:21AM
Go away Stallman.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @05:39AM
Go away Valenti.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 05 2015, @05:50AM
Go away, . . . . well, just go away. DRM will die, just like Aparteid. Fricking Afrikaaners!
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Tuesday January 06 2015, @02:07AM
You could choose to offer as much content to Canadians as you do to Americans, instead of half as much.
As of today: Netflix Canada: 4359 movies/shows Netflix USA: 8584 movies/shows
Or you could choose to charge Canadians half as much as Americans, because we're getting less.
If you choose to sell half the product at the full price you should expect that people will find new workarounds.
I don't for a moment believe that content companies would refuse to licence their content to countries other than the US. I think you just don't want to pay the asking price.
Thirty years ago you could get away with crap like this. Today it takes minutes to find out when you're getting shafted, [blogspot.com] and minutes more to find a way around it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 06 2015, @02:29AM
I thought canadian money was worth half as much. (Joke- please no rage.)