Netflix cracks down on proxy streaming
bbc.com
bbc.com
At least with proxies/VPNs + Netflix you'd not trigger those kind of penalties.
When using a proxy to access US content I get about double the content. If I can't do this anymore, it's not worth the price and I will be gone.
South Korea apparently only has 672 titles.
It's akin to a college football bowl game sponsorship here in the US. There's the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl, Go Daddy Bowl, Buffalo Wild Wing's Citrus Bowl, etc. The companies aren't actually in control of the bowl games, but they get the branding that's associated with it for that year.
Calling it a Netflix Original tends to be a misnomer, although I don't think this is the case with all of their shows.
- The French and German Netflix have 3 times less content than the US
- The Italian one, almost 5 times less content.
- The Russian one, almost 8 times less.
(numbers taken from flixsearch.io, not sure how it's accurate)
There are vast difference in catalogue between the different countries.
Netflix don't benefit from blocking you. This move is driven by content license negotiations. Someone has told them to stop letting people outside of the US access that content, and given the fact that content acquisition is Netflix's biggest cost I can understand why they're listening.
The task of a vendor is to shield customers from all problems in the supply chain. If a vendor can't fulfill that task, customers may rightfully complain, or end their contract when possible.
By all means, cancel your subscription if it's no longer good value, no-one will argue that you have some implied obligation to give Netflix money.
You can complain all you want, but why waste your breath complaining to someone when, knowing the background, you know it's outside their powers to do anything about it?
I'm sure Netflix could get more/better content if they like, as evidenced by the US site. They just choose not to in most countries. Additionally, translated content for local audiences is often only regionally available. So if your family immigrated from another part of the would, Netflix will soon become less valuable. Torrenting or other options will become more valuable.
Given the fact that they offer this little information, I think we have the right to complain. For example, this post gives no clue about what the true hurdles are in getting better licensing deals, and in what timeframe they will be resolved.
[1] https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/evolving-proxy-det...
They don't have anywhere near enough original content to risk a major content provider getting offended, particularly given how much more competition they have now.
(Also, is tax included in the $15 figure?)
That does not of course undermine your basic point.
Their original content is getting more and more interesting but its just not enough to justify the price, IMHO. Maybe they should consider a package with only Netflix Originals for 50% off or something.
I have not tried to connect to Netflix from NL using an American proxy, so can't comment on that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Call_Saul#Development_h...
> Netflix was one of many interested distributors, but ultimately a deal was made between AMC and Breaking Bad production company Sony Pictures Television.
Follow up: Yes it has.
Netflix had nothing to do with creating Better Call Saul, and Netflix definitely was aware of it's plans to expand to Australia during the same timeframe as Better Call Saul being developed and sold to Stan.
Gives you a search which also tells you where the content is available. You will see, that Germany is hardly ever included. In my (subjective) view, Germany has one of the thinnest catalogs.
I just can't understand how we can still move backwards facing all this. I have the feeling that the content providers just hope for the inability of their customers to google.
But hey, I taught a guy who last year didn't even use YouTube to find his favorite US shows from Germany and how to download them in 1080p without any risk. So please...wake up.
Just because you have rights to something in one country, does not mean you have rights to that same thing in another country and so on.
Content providers are up against an amazing amount of bureaucracy, and only have limited resources to deal with these things.. especially considering we're talking about different laws and systems for virtually every country on the planet.
I'm certain Netflix would like to offer you as much content as they can, but they also have to respect existing law.
It would suck, because of course the US version is much better, but at least it would be fair.
I find it shocking that I can't access the content I'm paying them for if I'm traveling to a different country. I don't even know if it's legally sound...
That said, per-country licensing is simply stupid. However that's how the content industry works for historical reasons, and they are known to be 30 years behind in technological understanding...
Edited to add:
Ultimately, it's a war that the content providers can't win. In order to watch Star Trek via streaming from the UK, on line I have 3 options at the moment:
1) Use a VPN and Netflix USA
2) Use a VPN and torrents
If they kill the first, what options to they leave?
Star Trek on Neflix US: part of a 6£/m subscription;
Watching a complete series (TNG) on iTunes (renting): not available;
Watching a complete series (TNG) on iTunes (buying): 280£;
"Hello! Yes, we are aware about the recent statement that Netflix has published, and needless to say we are upset about it!
However this does not mean the end of Smartflix. We are constantly able to outsmart these systems, and we will continue to do so for as long as humanly possible - so fear not!"
I can see how they can do this for publically advertised proxies used by many people, but what about individuals with their own cloud servers hosting their own proxy or VPN? (i.e. me!)
For example, if you're locked to the US region and watch something that is only available in the US while visiting, say, the UK — would that break any of Netflix's license agreements?
Distributors don't care about this, they care about geographically determined licenses. And apparently they want to see that this is technically enforced to some degree.
Try to buy some apps in one country and download them again while in another.
Last time I read about this it wasn't possible to do so.
This was the issue I read about, just the example was from a guy in Europe that moved back to Canada.
"Tough"
If they did that all it'd is have one of our mates living in the US to make us an account and we'd never have to VPN again.
They'll never do this based on billing address because they don't care where you're FROM, they care where you ARE.
Yes, in theory, smart people can set up their own VPN and work around it. But they'd probably be happy if the average user can't access it. I doubt their goal is 100% coverage, they'd be happy with 90%.
1.They don't need to stop you on sight, nor cur your connection every time you connected through VPN. But if they can eventually detect your pattern, then disrupt it, which will lead to great inconvenience for you, and it will be sufficient to stop most of the users from using VPN.
2.They can surely use your billing information for this purpose, as it is case with Google Play.
3.Another thing to be remind of, a international user might not always use VPN for Netflix, likely they will switch back for their local content at some point. If such traffic switch happens, it is easy to detect for further action.
4.Again, it is quite complicated process I believe, and like all softwares, there are loopholes. But I believe their goal is to stop MOST common users from using VPN for cross-regional content easily, not ALL of them. This is quite achievable.
It is just my speculation, but as consider the same practice is actually enforced before, e.g. DVD region codes.
What's actually interesting is that they are now openly admitting that they have been turning a blind eye to this before when 1. it's relatively simple and 2. it has always been a requirement of the content rights holders.
Edit: Apparently I've been working on AWS VPCs so long I no longer remember how to spell VPN
And that's probably good enough. I imagine (but have zero proof) that they need to be seen to be taking reasonable efforts to stop out-of-region people from accessing their services, rather than having some system that absolutely blocks 100% of out-of-region accesses.
From NF's viewpoint however, nobody has their living room in Amazon or Azure, so any connections from cloud providers can be safely dropped also.
Perssonal view: the "Original Netflix Content" sign already give me a more value perception. Between a recycled TV show and a new one by Netflix, I always chose the new on by Netflix. So far I watched all of: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Making a Murderer, House of Cards, Narcos, Sense8, Bloodline, Orange is the new black, Master of None, Better Call Saul.
And I'll probably keep watching the next seasons of all of them.
Outside of Netflix, I only follow the very best ones (IMO): Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad (that's over) and Walking Dead.
What this means? I consume only the very best hits that these other content creators produce. For casual, day-to-day entertainment, that covers 90% of the time, I stay with Netflix.
edit: as I understood it, Netflix is the exclusive distributor for Brazil, that's the reason of the logo.
Someone [1] worked around this and subsequently the idea of region-locked DVD discs & players became a historical footnote.
Why is the same industry evidently repeating the same mistake?
The difference between the DVD region locking and the stream region locking is that the powers that be never stood a chance at locking down the DVDs. It's like the old saying about physical access to a machine - all bets are pretty much off at that point. The DVD region locking cases were more just a desperate attempt to get some legal teeth to hit people with rather than actually stop the issue. After all, once the DVDs are in the wild and the crack is live, you can't really stop people from removing the region lock, you can just sue them after the fact.
With streamed content, it's a different ball-game since the providers technically can control the delivery and experience all the way through the content. If Netflix et. al. can create a successful means of blocking VPN and proxy access, then you sure bet that the rights-holders are going to double-down on the region blocking. The rights-holders already are getting their cut from Netflix et. al., so it's not like they're losing a huge chunk of change, and if people up and up ditch the streaming sites, that falls more in line with what the rights-holders likely want anyways.
I really enjoy Prime's video selection, and from what I've seen with Netflix, it's nice. I'm in Russia right now and I really wish that I could watch the shows I've paid for access to on Prime. But I don't really hold any disillusionment as to where the fault lies here. The rights-holders made dozens upon dozens of distribution agreements about what can be shown where and by who, and Netflix and its kin are pretty much just stuck.
Hopefully they can show that their model is more profitable as a global library rather than regional libraries, and the content holders will loosen their grip. Maybe I'll win the lottery.
I mean I'd love to pay the same price from my eastern-european salary for the fraction of the US content,
if I would be bats#!t crazy.