Netflix came to Kazakhstan few days ago. So far I used torrents, because there were no legal services with good enough offerings for me. I'm using Netherlands VPN almost always, because Kazakhstan bans many sites. So I subscribed to Netflix and I liked that service, I would definitely continue that subscription. But I switched off my VPN once and suddenly everything I watched just disappeared. It's blocked for me. So probably back to torrents for now. I really liked Netflix interface, it's the best experience I've ever seen. But interface doesn't worth a penny without content.
UK subscriber here.<p>When using a proxy to access US content I get about <i>double</i> the content. If I can't do this anymore, it's not worth the price and I will be gone.
Unfortunately, this means that I will have to reconsider my membership. Their service in Germany is just not comprehensive enough. I hope that this is just a short term problem until they a) renegotiated their licensing contracts and then stop the blocking again (more likely) or b) they actually get global licenses (less likely).<p>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.
This nationalization of the internet is ridiculous. Especially in the media business where you don't even have to torrent anymore. One-Click-Hosters or streams are all over the place. Popular shows can be found by googling.<p>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.<p>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.
The only "fair" thing they could do is have specific-country accounts. If you have a UK account then you get UK price and UK content <i>everywhere in the world</i>.<p>It would suck, because of course the US version is much better, but at least it would be fair.<p>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...<p>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...<p>Edited to add:<p>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:<p>1) Use a VPN and Netflix USA<p>2) Use a VPN and torrents<p>If they kill the first, what options to they leave?
For people concerned, I asked the Smartflix team if it will impact their service. Here is their answer:<p>"Hello! Yes, we are aware about the recent statement that Netflix has published, and needless to say we are upset about it!<p>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 a lot of people I know cancelling their subs. Also I wonder if this will result in a resurgence of torrents as people find other ways to watch their shows.
From a technical standpoint, how can they actually enforce this?<p>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!)
How do they spot proxies? Do they have lists of known proxy IPs? Or do they have a way to tell from the incoming connection? I wouldn't be very hard to fire up a VM in a cloud service to watch a movie, switch it off when done. The cost should be fairly marginal, and you would come from a new unique IP every time.
If this is indeed forced by content creators, I think it is counter productive. They will just give more incentive to Netflix (and Amazon and others) to create they own content, as third part content lose them money.<p>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.<p>And I'll probably keep watching the next seasons of all of them.<p>Outside of Netflix, I only follow the very best ones (IMO): Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad (that's over) and Walking Dead.<p>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.
So here's the thing -- vendors of DVDs used to constrain who could view (and when) the various cuts of their product based on where the viewers (or rather, purchasers) were located.<p>Someone [1] worked around this and subsequently the idea of region-locked DVD discs & players became a historical footnote.<p>Why is the same industry evidently repeating the same mistake?<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lech_Johansen" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lech_Johansen</a>
My question is: how can they tell (and block) if a user is streaming through VPN? Do they systematically block all major VPN provider domains? Anyone know how this is done?
The reality of it is, that they don't want to do this but they are being forced to. I suspect they'll put some measures in place but nothing ironclad.
My parents recently moved to Turkey, and I set them up with NordVPN (good service and easy to use for non-technical people). All they really wanted to watch was Star Trek: TNG anyway, which, even after the big availability push, is not available via Turkish Netflix. Without being able to do that, they will certainly cancel that subscription.
I recently resubscribed, but I had forgotten the lack of content without proxies and since I'm mostly just streaming to Chromecast from my phone I'm not sure I can even use a proxy anymore. I probably should unsubscribe either way. I haven't really watched anything new since I resubscribed
This seems weird, it'll just increase piracy and lose them money? The people who are using proxies etc. really aren't doing anything wrong are they and they are paying for the service presumably in the locale they are proxying to?
Assuming that this is going to work by just blocking known proxy IPs, I suppose it can be worked-around simply by setting up your own VPN server, which really isn't that difficult.
I am wondering how blocking VPN services/proxies will work in IPv6. Seems to me like the sheer amount of IPv6 addresses would make blocking by address completely impossible
I guess they "crack down" on their prices also then,<p>I mean I'd love to pay the same price from my eastern-european salary for the fraction of the US content,<p>if I would be bats#!t crazy.