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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: 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.