Netflix Blocking VPNs Annoying A Lot of People

[poofyhairguy]

For those of you who don't know, earlier this year Netflix started cracking down on international customers who use US-based VPNs to get access to the same content Americans get access to. Netflix has done this to make the content holders (including themselves) happy, but the end result is a lot of Netflix customers are angry and some are even resorting to piracy instead:

In Poland, even some Netflix originals are cut, tweets Grzegorz Mikos. He laments, for example, that there’s no House of Cards available on the Polish service, which launched earlier this year. “We have one-third of the USA content for 10 Euros. I waited so long and got this.”

“I’m using a VPN because I feel I should get access to the same catalog as the US customers, or any other country’s user,” he said in an email. “We pay the same amount and yet we get a fraction of the content available elsewhere.”

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/netflix-discontent-blocked-vpns-boiling/

What do yall think? Another case of consumer entitlement run amuck, or yet another example of why region restrictions for media don't work?

 

[Ns1]

Another case of consumer entitlement run amuck, or yet another example of why region restrictions for media don't work?

not mutually exclusive.

 

[master_shake_]

Region coding geofencing and whatever else should be banned.

Gabe Newell said it best "piracy is not a pricing problem, it's a service problem."

 

[Homerboy]

Streaming to Poland costs more.

 

[master_shake_]

this sums it all up

 

[Ns1]

Gabe Newell said it best "piracy is not a pricing problem, it's a service problem."

lol

 

[KeithP]

It works the other way as well. For instance if you are a Netflix customer in Denmark, you get streaming access to the first 6 seasons of Modern Family but US customers get no seasons.

And of course, US customers using VPNs with servers in foreign countries are also getting blocked.

-KeithP

 

[master_shake_]

lol

"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the U.S. release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty."

what's not true?

 

[Ns1]

what's not true?

tons of people download shit because it's free, and free > not free.


I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's probably > than the ~9 people who tried to buy GoT but were not able to because they got region locked out.


Anyway, I've been here 15 years, I know how this piracy thread is going to turn out.

 

[poofyhairguy]

this sums it all up

HBO Now dated that particular web comic.

I LOVE the phrase "cunthammer" though. I have used it ever since I first saw it.

 

[Ichinisan]

I heard they really aren't going all-out in their VPN-blocking efforts because they know it's pretty-much impossible to stop it all. Netflix is just doing it because they have to do something to satisfy contractual obligations to the owners of licensed content. They just want to be able to say their effort is > nothing.

 

[poofyhairguy]

not mutually exclusive.

Sure sure. I kinda get their point though, paying the same rate for worse selection sucks.

 

[Ns1]

Sure sure. I kinda get their point though, paying the same rate for worse selection sucks.

no arguments here.

 

[TwiceOver]

I thought it was the content providers that came down on Netflix. I mean really, you are going about doing something illegally and then bitch when that gets shut down? Crazy world out there.

 

[sdifox]

It was the rights owners in those other countries (including Canada) that pressured Netflix into doing this.

 

[Blackjack200]

The most depressing part of that article was the part where people used VPNs to watch CW, Fox, and NBC.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The most depressing part of that article was the part where people used VPNs to watch CW, Fox, and NBC.

It is like terrorists that wear blue jeans. Soft power baby.

 

[Bird222]

How are they doing it is what I want to know?

 

[BoberFett]

tons of people download shit because it's free, and free > not free.

Really? So when I pay for Hulu because I hear they have a show I want to watch, log in, sit down to enjoy the show and... SHIT. They don't have episode 1. That was a whole three months ago. Now the only episodes I can watch are 7, 8 and 9.

WTF? So even when you WANT to pay for things, these buttmonkeys make it damn near impossible. And they wonder why people pirate.

 

[Ns1]

Really? So when I pay for Hulu because I hear they have a show I want to watch, log in, sit down to enjoy the show and... SHIT. They don't have episode 1. That was a whole three months ago. Now the only episodes I can watch are 7, 8 and 9.

WTF? So even when you WANT to pay for things, these buttmonkeys make it damn near impossible. And they wonder why people pirate.

when I want something and can't have it, I generally don't go about stealing it to get it

and congrats! you're one of the 9!


...and that's about where this thread ends for me.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Really? So when I pay for Hulu because I hear they have a show I want to watch, log in, sit down to enjoy the show and... SHIT. They don't have episode 1. That was a whole three months ago. Now the only episodes I can watch are 7, 8 and 9.

That is a Hulu thing. Hulu is not meant to be a cord cutting miracle. It is backed by the major media companies to placate cord cutters by giving them just enough to shut up.

They want TV content to still have some timeliness, so maybe you actually watch the finale when it airs.

 

[BoberFett]

when I want something and can't have it, I generally don't go about stealing it to get it

and congrats! you're one of the 9!


...and that's about where this thread ends for me.

By stealing, you mean breaking into the company's datacenter and stealing the hard drives that contain all the source material?

Congrats, you're a bunghole. You don't have any rational arguments, so you leave the thread. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!

 

[Ns1]

By stealing, you mean breaking into the company's datacenter and stealing the hard drives that contain all the source material?

please, you know theft of content is illegal.

 

[BoberFett]

That is a Hulu thing. Hulu is not meant to be a cord cutting miracle. It is backed by the major media companies to placate cord cutters by giving them just enough to shut up.

They want TV content to still have some timeliness, so maybe you actually watch the finale when it airs.

And as I said, it's shit. Even when you try to pay for things, they want to make it as hard as possible. What other industry goes out of their way to make things hard for people to throw money at them? It's mind boggling.

 

[renz20003]

By stealing, you mean breaking into the company's datacenter and stealing the hard drives that contain all the source material?

Congrats, you're a bunghole. You don't have any rational arguments, so you leave the thread. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!

In this day and age 1's and 0's (data) are = to physical items... So yeah it's stealling

Edit

Usually I borrow a friends cable account to watch HBO I'm pretty sure it's legal