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Video-streaming giant Netflix has said it is going to stop subscribers from using internet proxies to view content not available in their home countries.
Due to licensing agreements, Netflix content varies between countries - many users have a virtual private network (VPN) or other proxy to get round this.
The firm said it would increase efforts in the next few weeks to block the use of such proxies.
Netflix expanded streaming services to more than 130 countries last week.
But some countries have more content than others - for example, the Australian Netflix catalogue has only about 10% of the content available to its US subscribers.
David Fullagar, vice president of content delivery architecture, said in a blog post on Thursday that the US firm was in the process of licensing content around the world.
But he said it had a long way to go before it could offer viewers the same films and shows everywhere.
Oh well, back to BitTorrent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 16 2016, @05:46PM
If we actually have "free trade", thanks to all of those treaties, then isn't it a violation of those treaties to treat people differently based on their location?
The question is rhetorical. There is no "free trade". Each and every treaty is yet another method to rape the consumer, and reward the rapists.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:46PM
If we actually have "free trade", thanks to all of those treaties, then isn't it a violation of those treaties to treat people differently based on their location?
No. The purpose of "Free Trade" is more to combat protectionism. So for example, if you manufacture something in USA, you can export that into Canada or Mexico without paying duties. You'll have to work out how to deal with VATs, but there is no duties on border. Of course, there is exception to few items, but there is always exceptions.
There is very little worker or environmental protections when it comes to these deals and there is no reason why those should not be part of the deals anyway. Like saying that minimum wage must be no less than 50% of the minimum wage the highest minimum wage of any given nation. So for example, if minimum wage in Canada is $12, that Mexico or China has no less than $6 minimum wage too.
Anyway, better trade than what happened in the past - wars over resources.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:29PM
"combat protectionism . . . very little worker or environmental protections"
So, like I said, reward the rapists.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday January 16 2016, @11:42PM
I wish could mod up +100000. Free trade is like "Patriot act". The complete opposite of what it means.
The creepiest part of all of this is that news and media websites change what you read, depending on where you sit, and what technology you use. Let's not start on "editing"...
This is clearly the foundations of population control on a huge scale, even it is currently incompetent and only headline driven.
And on topic, I have Netflix it is only *just* about worth it. I cannot imagine being blocked and paying for it...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @05:54PM
"The firm said it would increase efforts in the next few weeks to block the use of such proxies"
this should rather read as:
netflix servers will stop answering requests originating from certain proxy or relay servers.
it is always funny to see information contained on some type of media blantly dummyfying users of said media.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:35PM
I read it as "Netflix is increasing subscription cancellations next week". I for one will cancel the moment I get blocked. The only reason I have Netflix is because it is (up to now) a legal, hassle free way to watch stuff I can't watch on local channels. The moment that changes, the value of Netflix service to me is zero. I don't need Netflix to provide me with the same shit I get on my local TV.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 17 2016, @06:26AM
I would suggest they limit out of country viewing to a certain number of hours per year
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:05PM
This should be fun. I wonder if neflix knows what portion of it's revenues are coming from these grey subscriptions (paid in US, but streaming out). I'm sure those subscriptions would quickly evaporate if those paying found that they could no longer watch their shows on this channel.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dunbal on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:37PM
if neflix knows what portion of it's revenues are coming from these grey subscriptions
Roughly half. Can't link the source because I don't have time, but I think I read it in Wired or something. Anyway already sold my Netflix stock. For a profit. Let's see if they still want my subscription.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:06PM
I stream video through proxies all the damn time. Nobody blocks me. You know why? Because I don't follow the crowd of stupid morons who use Nutfux, AND I don't follow the other crowd of fucking idiots who use ShitTorrent.
Same films, same shows. None of your fucking bullshit. If you still use ShitTorrent in 2016, you're fucking pathetic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:16PM
please elaborate why bitorrent is shit so i can join your swarming hate group.
on a side note: shit is undervalued unless ofc it has been rebranded as fertilizer ^_^
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:44PM
Three reasons ShitTorrent sucks:
(1) Overly complicated. Downloading many little chunks from multiple places is a stupid fucking idea, when you can simply stream one big chunk instead.
(2) Ridiculously slow. Downloading from jerks on slow fucking links is a stupid fucking idea, when you can simply stream from a content delivery network instead.
(3) Blatantly illegal. Uploading while you download is a stupid fucking idea, which literally exposes you to legal liability because you personally are infringing copyright.
You know BitTorrent is even older than YouTube, right? And even YouTube is over a decade old now? Have you noticed there are whole content delivery networks dedicated to video streaming these days? Have you noticed they're full of all that shit you want to watch? Get with the fucking times and join the 2010s, would you?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:25PM
Get with the fucking times and join the 2010s, would you?
Never! My brother showed me how to BitTorrent when I was a teen, and now that I'm over 30, I'm too old to change! Torrentz forever! Sticking it to The Man! The Old Man, like me!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:35PM
(1) You can set some clients to stream the file by downloading the initial chunks first. It is more reliable than streaming which has a single point of failure.
(2) There are plenty of slow streaming sites and fast torrents with many seeds.
(3) Nobody monitors the activity of every torrent. It's newer movies that get the most piracy monitoring. You can also use a private tracker.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Saturday January 16 2016, @08:15PM
(1) BitTorrent's overhead is very low: https://hal.inria.fr/inria-00000156/en [inria.fr] . And multiple small chunks improves reliability and re-retrieval when a chunk fails to transfer if a package drops or corruption occurs and the checksum fails.
(2) The speed is determined by the seeders. If you setup a dedicated server or server farm with a dedicated commercial internet connection to seed, you'd get the same speeds you would streaming.
(3) Unless you licensed the work, streaming is infringing copyright just the same.
BitTorrent is even older than YouTube...
It's "age" is a testimony to it's superiority despite the money driving the competition. The fact that Linux distributions, GOG, Steam and Microsoft (Windows 10's updates) all deploy using P2P protocols is because they tested centralized solutions and distributed solutions and P2P came out on top.
Streaming has it's place for the purpose of fulfilling instant gratification on slow, asymmetric internet connections. But with some broadband and most of fiber, you can already watch 1080p torrents live like you would streaming them. Really, the likes of Netflix are perfectly positioned to switch to distributed P2P protocols and can use one of any DRMs to secure any illusions of copyright protections the right holders demand to satisfy their 20th century notions of digital property.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday January 16 2016, @08:30PM
The first foray of the BBC into the online world, the disastrous iplayer 1, was a heavy windows client with DRM and bittorrent stye. It was replaced in 2008 with a HTTP/CDM model.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @08:52PM
Anon is an edgy troll replying to itself. Do not waste many brain cells on it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:17PM
So edgy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:47PM
Still riding that edgy-train from 2001. That's right. BitTorrent is old. Using the same old crap that everybody else uses, doesn't make you insightful at all.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 17 2016, @05:42AM
But you haven't lost your edge, scum.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:55PM
Anyone who doesn't use BitTorrent shall be modded down, because ALL the moderators use BitTorrent. Every single last one of them. It's like they all belong to same social crowd. And in their little circle of jerks, BitTorrent is the greatest thing ever. Because reasons from 15 YEARS AGO.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday January 17 2016, @12:01AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:26PM
It never ceases to amaze me. The elitism espoused by those proud to engage in theft of service in a way different than how the regular person has to get by with guis and icons that need clicking.
It sounds like you know what you are doing -- I bet if you weren't an asshole you could get a job that lets you buy physical DVDs or whatever and then you can timeshift or format change them to yours hearts desire, without having to resort to being a jerk about how you are so much better than the little people that eat the crap you manage to avoid consuming.
You're eating the same shit, you just have a different shovel.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:57PM
That's right. BitTorrent is too mainstream for elitist nerds. But then if you're not an elitist nerd, what are you doing on a news-for-nerds site? This isn't news-for-wannabe-poser-nerds-who-need-shiny-things-to-click-on. Get the hell out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Saturday January 16 2016, @09:36PM
The elitism espoused by those proud to engage in theft of service
If the publisher of a work willfully denies you access to said work because of the country you live in, is it really "theft"? Exactly how can they claim damages when their sales are $0? At one point it stops being about protecting the rights and revenue of those who produce a work, and it becomes a spoiled child refusing to share because they just don't feel like it. It's MY movie and I say you just can't fucking watch it because it's MINE! Copyright was never meant to give such power to any individual.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2016, @06:42PM
According to the Techdirt coverage [techdirt.com], first the Netflix exec said that playing whack-a-mole with VPN IPs is mostly ineffective:
"We do apply industry standard technologies to limit the use of proxies,” (Netflix chief product officer Neil) Hunt says. “Since the goal of the proxy guys is to hide the source it’s not obvious how to make that work well. It’s likely to always be a cat-and-mouse game. [We] continue to rely on blacklists of VPN exit points maintained by companies that make it their job. Once [VPN providers] are on the blacklist, it’s trivial for them to move to a new IP address and evade."
Since that is something the "rights-holders" refuse to acknowledge and it could hurt their licensing agreements, Netflix posted a "but we're sure it'll work this time!" post:
Some members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory. To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues to evolve and we are evolving with it. That means in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are. We are confident this change won’t impact members not using proxies.
Techdirt comments:
Now most of the media read this statement to mean Netflix is implementing some severe new assault on VPNs, but if you read the statement carefully all Netflix is saying is it's going to continue using the same tools they've always used. The same tools one of their key executives just got done publicly admitting don't actually work. It's simply not possible to really ban VPN use, but Netflix wants to make partners in its 190 service countries feel comfortable while it slowly but surely works toward eliminating geo-restrictive licensing entirely.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday January 16 2016, @07:50PM
Forget the probably fictional claim that Netflix (and by extension Hulu, Amazon, the BBC etc) will suddenly block all proxies, My guess is that the real meat of the article is this:
Netflix and their competitors know full well that a significant part of their income comes from viewers in unlicensed territories - especially China - and aren't likely to make any significant effort to block those people.
I'd be very surprised if Netflix et al weren't already sitting down with content companies and saying "We know we really can't block this, and you know we really can't block this. Let's figure out how to maximize everyone's profits at the same time."
The way will be to get rid of geographic restrictions, and just have one global market, with everyone accessing the same pool of content.
Netflix has proved one thing: people will pay a reasonable price if you can give them enough content that they want to watch. Once you get into hundreds of millions of users even the MPAA types will realize that there's money to be made.
In fact, I'll bet that the biggest campaigners against Netflix and global licencing agreements are the cable companies that are getting hammered, not the movie studios.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Common Joe on Sunday January 17 2016, @07:16AM
I just signed up with Netflix here in Germany.
Beforehand, I didn't see their movie selection and, through chatting with a representative, they wouldn't give me a list of either. So, we sign up 30 days free. To say their selection is abysmal is an understatement. I have many more "blockbusters" on my movie shelf than they do. No Star Trek. No Batman. No Galactica. They have Seasons 1 - 8 of the new Doctor Who, but none of the classics. I have a list of movies that I'd like to see that is over 200 items long because I haven't seen them yet. Most of them are well known. 95+% are not available. Our current plan is watch a couple of mediocre movies (because none of our most wanted movies to see are there) and then we'll cancel.
The number of rental stores are shrinking. The nearest one to me is 40 minutes away. And I sure as hell can't afford to buy every movie I want to see.
So, how do I see movies? I guess, I should stop telling people to get off my lawn and get with the times and torrent. I've noticed a few things in my research, though:
In my research, I found these interesting links:
I don't want to work to get an episode or movie. I just want to relax in front of the TV with my wife. After watching my choices dwindle for years, I'm so pissed, I'm about to give up the whole notion of movie watching.
Any advice or links that can help me torrent successfully would be appreciated. Or, if there is another choice besides torrenting, I'm all ears.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday January 19 2016, @05:49PM
https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/ [torrentfreak.com]
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0x663EB663D1E7F223