Netflix restricts streaming from abroad

The linked-to Reddit post, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/netflix/comments/2qevqt/meta_netflix_is_starting_to_crack_down_on_dns_vpn/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;netflix&#x2F;comments&#x2F;2qevqt&#x2F;meta_netflix...</a>, makes it clear that it&#x27;s not a VPN restriction: people are configuring DNS servers to resolve Netflix names with US geographic resolution, but the new Netflix app is no longer using system DNS settings, it has Google DNS hardcoded in. Nothing about VPNs, per se.

It&#x27;s funny that copyright holders restrict people to legally watch their content and then complain that their content is being pirated.

This title is not completely accurate. If you read the article it specifically references users attempting to VPN and also using the Netflix Android app.<p>I am gonna go out on a limb and say the app is probably checking the GPS in order to achieve this.<p>Fortunately, GPS can be spoofed with the developer tools if someone wants to test my theory: <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2279647/how-to-emulate-gps-location-in-the-android-emulator/2279827#2279827" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;2279647&#x2F;how-to-emulate-gp...</a>

Curious -- how is this technically possible? Does Netflix simply maintain a blacklist of IP&#x27;s they know belong to certain VPN services? If you used a VPN that wasn&#x27;t popular enough to be &quot;on the radar&quot; (e.g. your corporate VPN based in the US) would Netflix have any way of blocking it?

Netflix told Engadget that there has been &quot;no change&quot; in the way it handles VPNs: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/03/netflix-clamps-down-on-vpns/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.engadget.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;03&#x2F;netflix-clamps-down-on-vp...</a><p>Possibly this is just a bug that people have misunderstood?

Hmm, shot by both sides. Now your ISP will throttle your Netflix stream to try and punish you for not buying video content from them, and Netflix will stop you from using a VPN to try and slip past your ISP?

I wish they could just let paying customers watch whatever they want.

Interesting. I use unblock-us (no affiliation) which I assumed just switched your dns to make it look like you were in another country.<p><a href="http://superuser.com/q/617266/6263" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;superuser.com&#x2F;q&#x2F;617266&#x2F;6263</a><p>Can someone educate me as to why people need to use a vpn to access Netflix instead of a service like the above?<p>Is it only for people in countries that Netflix doesn&#x27;t service?<p><i></i>EDIT<i></i>, yes I&#x27;m well aware of the different catalogs in different countries, that&#x27;s the point of using unblock-us:) That doesn&#x27;t answer the question I had asked:)

Aside from detecting your ip location they must be running some other proxy detecting schemes.<p>I live in Europe and have squid proxy server running on my Amazon instance located in Portland, Oregon (something like my private &quot;free proxy&quot;). It works ok in Firefox, but fails in Chrome, can&#x27;t really figure out why. I suspect chrome extension I use to easily manage proxies adds some custom header that is detected by Netflix. And it&#x27;s NOT some obvious header like &quot;via&quot; or &quot;x-forwarded-for&quot; which I disabled as a matter of course in squid conf. All &quot;locate my ip&quot; sites tell me I&#x27;m from US, but netflix tells me I&#x27;m from x (which is my homecountry).<p>Alternative to running http proxy such as squid is using ssh socks proxy(provided server you ssh to is located in US). This cannot be detected by any means IMO.

Assuming there is any validity to this story, I feel this is at least somewhat ironic considering Netflix&#x27;s position as posterboy for &quot;network neutrality.&quot; If one is neutral about the network, it should be of no concern whether the user is accessing Netflix via direct TCP&#x2F;UDP or an encrypted tunnel. Nor should it matter what the client&#x27;s IP address is.<p>I don&#x27;t mean to imply that Netflix is actually in favor of a truly neutral network—or even whether or not a truly neutral network can in practice exist—but rather to highlight how &quot;neutrality&quot; means different things to different people.

Wouldn&#x27;t it be easier for Netflix to ask for a valid US ID document to its customers to prevent this? Or would this be considered a violation of privacy somehow?<p>Filtering users by ip address should not be allowed IMHO. What if I am a legitimate user traveling in Europe or some other &quot;blocked&quot; country? Aren&#x27;t them violating my rights then?<p>Or even better, what if I am a legitimate user (e.g. an US citizen) using one of those VPN, on what legal grounds are they denying me the access to the service?<p>(I am sorry if these questions may look stupid to you, please don&#x27;t kill me :P)

Netflix (and partners) should take the lead and make its content accessible without any border restrictions. There is no technical reason for this restriction. It is purely for the purpose of getting more money. Is the problem purely a copyright issue, or is it something else? Eg, the government of the non-US country losing out of tax revenue from the non-US Netflix subscriptions.

I hope they don&#x27;t hit my VPN, I use it to get around ISP throttling.<p>Edit: since this is a DNS hack, looks like I&#x27;ll be OK.

That&#x27;s completely ridiculous. I guess people who are frequently abroad will simply go back to pirating.

Educate me. What&#x27;s stopping people from sending their DNS queries through the VPN as well?

This has not affected me yet - has it anyone else?

How is it possible to block vpn access?

just when we thought, &quot;Finally, here&#x27;s a content delivery system that isnt artificially limited by some stupid regional, device (DRM), screen-size or targeted release-date rules.&quot;

Why? Shut up and take my money! :-D