Netflix is going after VPN-using "pirates" after studios complained
111 replies, posted
I don't see the point of having geological restrictions anyway when it comes to Netflix.
What do they gain from it, other than pissed off customers?
[QUOTE=Crazy;46854559]I don't see the point of having geological restrictions anyway when it comes to Netflix.
What do they gain from it, other than pissed off customers?[/QUOTE]
From what I understand they gain not breaking contracts thus not getting into deep shit.
[QUOTE=mix999;46852345]All this stuff about licencing and distribution is interesting, but it still doesn't seem efficient for the movie producers. What downsides would the movie industry experience if there were movies on a direct to consumer service like Steam? People pay a few dollars to own a movie on their account. Movie studio gets their money in a more direct manner and people get to enjoy their movies with less of a hassle. Do trade deals with local distributors really make that much money, or is it just that the people who control the industry are old and don't know that people use the internet in this way?[/QUOTE]
Pretty much every argument about (x) industry or company 'just not knowing the Internet' is nonsense. I see it get tossed around a lot about movie studios, the MPAA, and the FCC, when in reality those groups have been working closely with Internet regulation and development since before most people here were born. The Internet's kind of a big deal.
The problem is that online viewing still doesn't have the market saturation that conventional cable does. If a company decides they're going to release it everywhere in every country online, then they aren't playing by the rules of the cable companies. If they don't secure agreements with cable companies, they won't air on TV, and that drastically cuts down on the number of viewers.
The other problem is that streaming services pay very little to the rightsholders to air their content. When you pay for a cable subscription, you're not only paying an amount per month for the service generally in excess of Netflix fees, you're also forced to watch advertisements. Netflix operates on the model of providing a cheap digital service with low overhead costs, and while that's attractive to the customer it's not very favorable to the studio. Netflix deals are always secondary to cable contracts because that's where the money is.
[QUOTE=LordCrypto;46851844]"hello sony pictures/warner brothers/take your pick fuck you we're gonna show what we want in canada/norway/uzbekistan" -- netflix
"hello netflix all licenses for our content are revoked effective immediately, any continuation of this will be met with severe legal action" -- aforementioned studios
as soon as one studio responds, all the rest will pull titles from netflix, meaning netflix has nothing to show. a netflix with nothing to show is a netflix that doesn't make money, netflix that doesn't make money is a netflix that shuts down[/QUOTE]
i know that. but they made a statement before, they should do it again. I'm saying that if netflix just gives up then we're getting nowhere with this shit
[editline]4th January 2015[/editline]
i mean I can't blame them, no not at all. it's all their income, they can't simply jeopardize that. but i don't know.
Like catbarf said above, the studios have been doing this for a very long time and probably know what they're doing for their own good reasons. It just sucks for many customers
[QUOTE=catbarf;46854625]Pretty much every argument about (x) industry or company 'just not knowing the Internet' is nonsense. I see it get tossed around a lot about movie studios, the MPAA, and the FCC, when in reality those groups have been working closely with Internet regulation and development since before most people here were born. The Internet's kind of a big deal.
The problem is that online viewing still doesn't have the market saturation that conventional cable does. If a company decides they're going to release it everywhere in every country online, then they aren't playing by the rules of the cable companies. If they don't secure agreements with cable companies, they won't air on TV, and that drastically cuts down on the number of viewers.
The other problem is that streaming services pay very little to the rightsholders to air their content. When you pay for a cable subscription, you're not only paying an amount per month for the service generally in excess of Netflix fees, you're also forced to watch advertisements. Netflix operates on the model of providing a cheap digital service with low overhead costs, and while that's attractive to the customer it's not very favorable to the studio. Netflix deals are always secondary to cable contracts because that's where the money is.[/QUOTE]
Again you 100% right. There are no questions about it and obviously Netflix is not going to jeopardize the future of its licenses by not working closely together with the companies. But yet again it is not going to change the endpoint, people will stop their Netflix subs and turn to other means and everyone is going to lose.
Now I know "if this happens, everyone will lose" is not a good counter argument, hell it is not even a counter argument. It is simply how things will play out.
still on my free month of UK netflix, it's missing so much content
Regardless if Netflix has a choice in the matter, its still bad for them. If they cave to demands of content holders, they will have ALOT of pissed off consumers who will either turn to piracy, or simply give money to a competitor instead of Netflix. Or, Netflix sticks up for consumers and the content holders pull all of their content.
Its a catch 22 no matter what they do. Sadly, if Netflix has no content, then they have NO chance of making money. So obviously the content providers are more important in this context. This also means the consumer is going to get shafted.....yet again.
Netflix will not be blocking VPNs
[url]http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/03/netflix-clamps-down-on-vpns/[/url]
[quote]Update: Netflix tells us that there's been "no change" in the way it handles VPNs, so you shouldn't have to worry about the company getting tough any time soon. With that said, these blocking errors started showing up in the past few weeks, so it's not clear what would have prompted them.[/quote]
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;46855134]Regardless if Netflix has a choice in the matter, its still bad for them. If they cave to demands of content holders, they will have ALOT of pissed off consumers who will either turn to piracy, or simply give money to a competitor instead of Netflix. Or, Netflix sticks up for consumers and the content holders pull all of their content.
Its a catch 22 no matter what they do. Sadly, if Netflix has no content, then they have NO chance of making money. So obviously the content providers are more important in this context. This also means the consumer is going to get shafted.....yet again.[/QUOTE]
I don't understand how you feel the consumer is getting shafted.
To be clear- Netflix offers a service. The consumer can purchase this service if they desire. At no point was bypassing the region lock to watch the content offered elsewhere part of the service.
The american netflix has more bbc shos than the UK, I don't understand why they restrict some bbc shows
[QUOTE=garychencool;46851870]what's wrong wit the extension?[/QUOTE]
It uses other Hola users as proxies, so you could end up being the proxy for someone using it to "anonymously" look at CP or something. Probably won't happen, and if it does nothing is likely to come of it, but it would be embarrassing and inconvenient.
Beyond that, certain versions of the extension have injected ads on webpages which really ticked me off
[QUOTE=Zeke129;46857446]It uses other Hola users as proxies, so you could end up being the proxy for someone using it to "anonymously" look at CP or something. Probably won't happen, and if it does nothing is likely to come of it, but it would be embarrassing and inconvenient.[/QUOTE]
woah holy shit, so it's like P2P torrenting but with proxies? I help someone, I get help from someone
[QUOTE=Mooe94;46857457]woah holy shit, so it's like P2P torrenting but with proxies? I help someone, I get help from someone[/QUOTE]
That seems to be how it works. If you pay for Hola premium you can choose to never be used as a peer, but with the free version you have no way to opt-out.
Meh, just gonna use netflix until they block me and then stop paying. Best thing is that i have parents in the US that use my netflix
Hey remember when Game of Thrones became one of the most pirated series of the past few years because it wasn't available anywhere and the dvd sets were expensive as shit or outright didn't exist and HBO refused to give legal access to the series anywhere else but on their extremely expensive service which almost stopped the series because they were losing too much money on it until they finally decided to open up and bring more legal access to the series
Yeah
I can sort of understand the licensing difficulties with distributing media worldwide (though the music and game industries seem to have figured it out so it can't be all that hard).
But I still don't understand why they would actively take measures against VPNs. They could just turn a blind eye to the issue since it isn't harmful to them.
[QUOTE=Kljunas;46861046]I can sort of understand the licensing difficulties with distributing media worldwide (though the music and game industries seem to have figured it out so it can't be all that hard).
But I still don't understand why they would actively take measures against VPNs. They could just turn a blind eye to the issue since it isn't harmful to them.[/QUOTE]
Fine I'll bite. Say you run a company. Would you rather your company makes money or not make money. Or third option- your company does not make money but serves ppl who have found ways to not pay you.
[QUOTE=>VLN<;46849806]Why do other countries not get the same shows and movies that the USA does? Do the movie studios not want to make money?[/QUOTE]
Because everybody outside the US is always recording films and TV shows off of camcorders nonstop to sell them as bootlegs.
[QUOTE=Kljunas;46861046]I can sort of understand the licensing difficulties with distributing media worldwide (though the music and game industries seem to have figured it out so it can't be all that hard).
But I still don't understand why they would actively take measures against VPNs. They could just turn a blind eye to the issue since it isn't harmful to them.[/QUOTE]
because they're told to by companies that own the content netflix shows. Netflix would probably love to turn a blind eye, but if those copyright holders pull out, netflix is done.
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