The Day Netflix Blocked My VPN is the world's new most-hated show Netflix has announced it will clamp down on users who access it through virtual private networks (VPNs). Or as the company puts it, in a masterpiece of Orwellian PR-talk, “Evolving Proxy Detection as a Global Service”. David Fullagar, Netflix's veep of Content Delivery Architecture, explains that the company can't yet secure …
Isn't this something the EU have said they want to stop though, so people don't have to put up with Geo-blocking?
Yes, but that will be for the EU only.
Netflix is being pushed to this by the rights holders. It just has to come up with something that looks to be doing a good enough job. But to be honest trying to play whack-a-mole with commercial VPN proxy services, who have a financial incentive to stay one step ahead, looks pretty unwinnable. Digital content is eminently fungible and the internet has been well designed to work around blocks. At some point this is going to put an end to exclusive licences.
However, my biggest gripe with all the new streaming services is: why do I have to register to be able to see the catalogue?
If I used a VPN with an endpoint in Australia, how would they know I'm connecting from the US? Ping times? If so, that will be a problem for people on satellite internet. For VPN services they could just block them outright, but what if I owned a house in the US and overseas and had my wireless routers running OpenVPN to connect them? How exactly are they supposed to figure this out?
If they've solved this problem, maybe for an encore they can solve the problem of people sharing Netflix passwords, which other than limiting streams I'm not sure how they manage. That seems like a much bigger drag on Netflix's revenue than people who are watching content out of region by using a VPN.
I used to stream Hulu through OpenVPN running in a Linode VPS in a Newark, NJ data center to my home in central NJ with Verizon FiOS. Why? Because it magically stopped the insufferable buffering. I didn't care why, although I had my theories. Then Hulu whacked my mole. No more Hulu. No more payments to Hulu.
As I used to say to my satellite and then cable-TV providers: "It's just freakin' television!"
I wonder too.
If they begin blocking known VPN endpoints, that'll only be partially successful because I can still VPN to my brother's apartment in Manhattan. And existing commercial solutions will inevitably adapt too.
Locking the catalogue to the country the account is registered to would be the other option, but what happens when you then travel abroad?
There are other ways of detecting VPNs and proxies than playing whack-a-mole with IP addresses.
1) Many will strip out the user-agent string on a HTTP request, meaning that while some browsers can be set to do this themselves, most people won't bother and so the vast majority of stripped user-agent strings substantially indicate that request is coming from an anonymisation service.
2) It's trivial to geolocate IP addresses. An account registered in country A that accesses the service from an IP in country A then a few minutes later from country B, is an account that has either been shared with someone else (generally a ToS violation in itself) or has switched to using a proxy or VPN in country B.
3) VPNs and proxies tend to distribute each client's traffic randomly over their IP range. So if an account is logged in but making requests from multiple IP addresses in a given range over a short time frame, and if multiple accounts are also making requests from the same set of IP addresses at the same time, there's a good chance that that IP range belongs to a commercial VPN or proxy provider. ISPs, while they do rotate their customers over dynamic IP addresses, tend to cycle them at a much slower rate than VPNs and proxies.
Individually these traits don't necessarily indicate a proxy/VPN, but some half-decent analytics software that looks for cluster behaviours exhibiting several of these sorts of traits must be able to pinpoint VPNs and proxies with a high degree of accuracy and in real time - quickly enough that commercial VPN providers won't be able to evade it by switching IP ranges hoping to play whack-a-mole.
This has dire implications for freedom and censorship avoidance, because once it becomes widely possible to reliably block VPNs and proxies, thereby rendering them useless for general internet use, you can bet this detection technique will be abused to sniff out dissidents and whistleblowers, and enforce tracking, spying and profiling, not just to thwart copyright geo-dodgers.
The first harbinger of this dangerous trend was first evinced years ago, in 4chan's uncanny ability to detect and block anyone using a VPN or proxy even back in 2008; and the end it inevitably leads to is that blocking them will become pro-forma for every major website that seeks to monitor, track and monetise its traffic. Expect proxy-blocking to soon become the norm at all your favourite news, social media and tech sites, as well as media streamers.
There are other ways of detecting VPNs and proxies than playing whack-a-mole with IP addresses.
Some of these arguments don't really hold up. Geolocating isn't an issue, because (a) IPV4 addresses are scarce and are sold on, and it's not unusual to find IP addresses that trace to, for example, China where the block itself is registered in the US (though, granted, traceroute will do the job, but I believe that geolocation is normally done through registration and not tracing), and (b) the cheap proxy services are all in the US anyway. You can get a proxy in the US for less than a dollar a month per IP address, and this is where I'd start if I was connecting to Netflix.
On the user agent, I always put a plausible user agent in my (cURL) scraper, and I bet everyone else does. And a plausible referer, and cookies, and everything else.
I wouldn't expect a commerical proxy service to distribute my traffic over the IP addresses I've paid for. I connect to address X, and expect my outgoing traffic to come from address X. If you're right, then that provider doesn't understand anonymous proxying. I automatically test a proxy before using it live and this is easily detected.
But, at the end of day, I agree that you're vulnerable because you have to log in with a Netflix account, and all they have to do is log all the IP addresses on that account. Your best hope is to go through one clean/paid-for US proxy and hope that you don't have to change the address too often. Or you could get a life and stop watching Netflix.
I believe they just block the IP ranges of known VPNs. If you have your own OpenVPN/other connection, you are probably fine. They may block IP ranges of VM hosts as well if it becomes noisy enough.
From the looks of it, Netflix themselves don't really care. They're still getting your money. It's more that they have to be seen to be doing something.
believe they just block the IP ranges of known VPNs. If you have your own OpenVPN/other connection, you are probably fine. They may block IP ranges of VM hosts as well if it becomes noisy enough.
If you have a contact with decent DSL in the target country then a pair of Raspberry Pis and OpenVPN is cheap and almost trivially simple to setup, and it's difficult to detect.
* What language settings does your computer use? en-AU? en-GB? en?
* What are your date format preferences? mm/dd/yyyy? yyyy-mm-dd? dd/mm/yyyy?
* What time of day/timezone is your computer set to?
* Have you ever visited their site without going through a proxy from a different geolocated IP?
* What's the turnover of accounts on a given IP?
* What was the nationality of the payment source? BIN/IIN?
Actually it's the content owners doing this. Netflix are just a (quite big) reseller. If you want to complain it's no good talking to Netflix as they can't do anything until they are in a powerful monopoly position when they would be able to dictate terms. Local competition is ironically harming this process.
This.. Their arm is being twisted as well.
Mind, the general result of it will still be that the Industry will quickly lose whatever headway they made into shifting content piracy (no income, lot of hassle) to rented streams which offer a way tot dodge their artificial barricades ( generating income, far less hassle).
Ah well, same old...
Quite possibly Netflix are playing to their content suppliers, who obviously want to keep content in regional silos for as long as possible. If the game of whack a mole on the VPN route is not too fast, then Netflix only annoy a small customer base but outwardly show they are doing something about the "problem" to their suppliers.
This isn't the first time Netflix have said this.
The question is how big is the problem, does a VPN service really eat into other content providers revenue streams?
There's only one company that can tell you that and it's Netflix so until they actually talk about the scale of problem I see nothing happening for now.
I tend to agree with those who noted that Netflix probably is being pressured by those whose wares they sell on. If that is so, it probably is not relevant to ask after the magnitude of the problem. Copyright owners have shown repeatedly that "larger than zero" is enough to send them into a frenzy of lobbying and litigation that goes beyond all reason.
Bugger that, I move about quite a lot, but my Netflix is treated as where I pay the fee..... that is just not fair. Haven't tried for a week or so but it was working over VPN last time.
BTW, I am delighted that the Reg has commented on there, their, they're, etc. It irritates the hell out of me, but don't want to be seen as a fussy old bugger. Thanks Reg. However, as someone who lives ina lot of places where English is not the local language, it can be a problem. OTOH they don't teach spelling any more, do they?
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Netflix are not denying you access to stuff you've paid for. Here's what you signed up for.
4.3. You may view a movie or TV show through the Netflix service primarily within the country in which you have established your account and only in geographic locations where we offer our service and have licensed such movie or TV show. The content that may be available to watch will vary by geographic location and will change from time to time. The number of devices on which you may simultaneously watch depends on your chosen subscription plan and is specified on the "Your Account" page.
This, a million times this. Since I can't give you a million upvotes have a beer instead.
Here in Australia we've had high street retailers endlessly bitching and moaning about people here buying stuff online direct form China - but where do you think they get their overpriced tat manufactured?
They whine about not being able to compete because they have to charge GST and overseas sellers don't. But GST is only 10%, while their markup on Chinese prices is closer to 500-600%. GST has fuck-all to do with it.
Oh yeah, outsourcing is fine for Big Business but not for us.
Fucking hypocrites, all of them. We need a revolution to hale these greedy two-faced cunts to the gutter where they belong.
So if I am in the UK and the VPN server I am using is in the UK, Netflix are going to take it upon themselves to prevent me from accessing the service I have paid for until I drop the VPN built into my router? Bound to be away around this (pirate bay springs to mind but I don't mind paying for stuff, just bloody annoying when companies attack their customers like this).
"So if I am in the UK and the VPN server I am using is in the UK, Netflix are going to take it upon themselves to prevent me from accessing the service I have paid for until I drop the VPN built into my router"
Yes, because they need to assure themselves that you are meeting the terms of service. They are not attacking their customers; the rights to media are country specific and to comply, and protect their business, they need to know where users are.
It should be simple enough for Netflix to compare the billing address with the country the IP is in. If they match what is the problem? VPNs allow you to have an IP just about anywhere but it's a lot harder to get credit cards with billing addresses in various countries to match them.
It should be simple enough for Netflix to compare the billing address with the country the IP is in. If they match what is the problem?
Travelling? Foreign secondment for a few weeks / months?
There's many legitimate reasons why your current ip may not belong to the country you registered in.
I agree. When I go on holiday I am having to constantly explain why to my son why he can't watch octonaughts (different service, same problem). My billing details and the version of the site I am accessing are in the UK but while my IP is in France I’ll let them have a fig leaf of a defence for blocking. I don’t agree with it but I’ll concede they have to be seen to make the effort. But this will block me from accessing content paid for from UK accounts, accessing the UK version of the site while I am in the UK and using a UK based VPN. I should be able to access it every where but I can’t see that happening soon.
You have only paid to watch films for which Netflix has the rights in the territory in which you are physically located. To meet their obligations to the rights holders, Netflix has to know where you are. The billing address only tells them where you live. Punto, e basta.
"Bound to be away around this (pirate bay springs to mind but I don't mind paying for stuff, just bloody annoying when companies attack their customers like this)."
If you want to support the content creators then keep your Netflix subscription going, because part of that money goes to the creators anyway. But since you're paying for it you can now torrent the shows you want with a clean conscience, knowing you are still supporting the creators!
Imagine all the users worldwide that used services like Mediahint to watch Netflix US., got accustomed to that programming and then get blocked (rather their unblocking blocked). Their user experience will be nasty at best and the shows they wanted to watch will be gone. Not going to happen long term. This is likely a slap on the wrist and will wane away.
its not about their (Netflix's) revenue
its about content licensing
probably getting to the point where regional content owners (think Foxtel in Oz) are going to take on (sue) Netflix for 'knowingly supporting infringement' or some such lawyerish gobbledegook.
at the end of the day problem falls out of regional content licensing model
cant see that changing as the content providers (studios) love it
meanwhile back to pirate feeds for everyone else
I don't blame Netflix, even though if they were to do this, and if I were a customer, I would surely leave, as the AU catalog is largely bare or uninteresting compared to US/UK/CAN eyes only content.
The bigger problem here is geographic exclusive rights agreements which are the product of a time long gone when we still used spools of tape to timeshift. Much has happened since then but even now I don't think most big content creators get it.
If exclusive deals are gone, more people licence the content far cheeper - so more and more TV networks can maintain profitability in the age when falling ad revenues and increasing prices for exclusive content are making the industry marginal at best. First win - Terrestrial TV gets a reprive from its inevitable end.
Content creators get the same if not more money from the 'pile it high, sell it cheap' approach.
More importantly, the new players like Netflix / Amazon Prime 'et al' get to compete on original content they create, and the quality of their offering from an ease of use / customer service perspective, rather than who had more money to give Mr Murdoch, or compete with him for the rights to show the content.
Lastly, if reducing piracy is the goal, ubiquitous affordable access for all globally is the only option that will put a stop to people turning to torrents because content is either delayed excessively, exclusive to Pay TV or otherwise not available. Plus, its ad free!
Yeah, mine is found in the GeoLocation databases. But this might be a good catch for VPNs as they would be able to offer a unique IPv6 address for each customer and therefore, it should be harder to detect instead of the one single IPv4 address that V4 VPNs use.
Hollywood (lawyers) cry that people downloading are killing the industry. People try their hardest to pay for entertainment. Hollywood's answer: cut off people willing to pay and direct them back to downloads, where the whole file appears in minutes in HD and is yours to keep forever, plays on any device anywhere. When revenues dip they blame piracy. And to those who claim nobody is entitled to watch what they want when they want. The world is one place. Social media has shrunk the world, when something happens it happens everywhere today. People want to talk and be involved. It is no good joining a conversation 6 months late. Geoblocking is doomed to fail. It stopped me buying DVDs in the day and will stop me paying for streaming services. I'll use other means.
Install Kodi (XBMC) and a few appropriate plugins, and you've got yourself a media steaming device, full of the latest TV and Movies, all at 720p or 1080p (even some 4k channels now), none of it geo locked, and all for free (other than the device you need to install Kodi on).
I used to run XBMC on an old laptop with the VGA output plugged into the TV. I now have an Intel NUC (1st gen) via HDMI sat under the TV.
> if ISP is throttling, why is it not throttling connection to VPN???
That's a very good question. I don't understand it either. I just know if I VPNed somewhere -even if it's just from Orlando to Miami - then suddenly YouTube stopped stuttering/buffering and my network bandwidth went from 3-5MB/sec to to 10-15MB/sec. It wasn't protocol specific either, it worked for HTTP, FTP, and bittorrent, Then I changed ISPs.
I originally noticed this when I started VPNing to work and suddenly things like VoIP worked far better.
They could be throttling on traffic type, or by destination.
Both of which are, as far as I know, hidden by using a VPN. With VPN, the ISP just sees the connection to the VPN servers, they can't see what it's being used for or where the other end of the VPN is being connected to.
The rights to media are licensed by territory. Netflix might have rights to a film in the UK but not in France. If you are in France you are not allowed to watch those films on Netflix, even though you would in the UK. Just knowing where the bill-payer lives doesn't help, because he might be on holiday in France.
they do not get the right to say "you're accessing UK content from in the UK but we don't like the look of your IP address" though and block UK users who have paid just because they want to use a VPN, perfectly legally - and saying "you're in the UK, you're not allowed to show that content even though you've paid for it" was thrown out in the Sky Sports case, so the converse must be true or the law is indeed an ass?
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The problem is the content providers, of course. Netflix must yield to their anachronistic demands to secure the rights to stream their content. Content providers ought to be proud that some of us are willing to go to the trouble to VPN just to see their stuff. Oh, no, they think they can wring another few pennies out of people by selectively offering that stuff. The graveyard of history is littered with the remains of companies that failed to adapt to changes in technology. Maybe MGM, Sony and the rest should start making buggy whips, for example. Idiots.
The whole Unblock/VPN thing is an artificial solution to an artificial problem.
In the Old Days (TM), film prints cost a lot of money, so only so many could be printed for a given film. Hence Regions: Limited stock tiered through the regions.
With digital content, this model is irrelevant - so Movie Studios need to get their fat heads out of the La Brea tar pits and get with the times - once a physical movie has screened past the last region (6?) then just open to flat licensing.
The more they license, the more viewing fees they take, so they cannot really lose if they license the right way. It's not costing them anything to deliver - that's down to Netflix, Google, Amazon etc.
"once a physical movie has screened past the last region (6?) then just open to flat licensing."
But then they lose the huge fees charged to the PPV, sat and cable channels for the right to screen a "premier" over their local competitors, then later the fees paid by the FTA channels who also want an exclusive "premier" over *their* competitors, *for each region.country* before it's allowed to go into a free for all grab bag.
...from the content owners. As had been pointed out. Otherwise they couldn't give a crap and just want to make money delivering content.
So far they haven't done anything about me using VPN. But then again, I'm only using it for security reasons most of the time; I happen to live in the U.S. But I'm curious if they'd block me for simply using a known VPN address.
To be fair, content creators probably do maximise revenue right now by selling regional rights.
If you produce a hit series like Games of Thrones, then regional operators like Foxtel in Australia or SkyTV in NZ will bid up the prices for exclusive rights to the show.
Companies like SkyTV here in NZ get away with charging ~$60 per month (for basic set of channels and Soho) for people wanting to watch GoT legally, so can always outbid Netflix for the rights, as they only charge about $10 per month here in comparsion.
Total revenue from all the regions, with some paying way above the odds to prop up monopoly cable/satellite providers, must beat what Netflix offers as a global deal to content providers.
Interesting times though; Netflix is getting big enough that they could offer key content providers global offers that they can't turn down, as well as producing their own content as a counter to those who insist on regional rights.
Balancing act will be that if Netflix gets too big, then they will become a global monopoly and be able to screw down content providers too much.
I suspect in the long run, local distributors will lose out to global players like Netflix, Amazon and Apple/Google, but pirates and independant content providers selling individual episodes and niche series, will provide alternatives to too much locking.
they are trying to keep a balance between showing Hollywood studios they are doing seriously something about copyrights violation and banning VPN users from the Netflix network and but deep inside they will never ever lose all of Netflix 20% potential subscriber who actually pay for the service to watch movies and other videos.
Netflix is blocking the subscribers who use a VPN service, even for their security and all this due to the immense pressure from the Hollywood studios and other content providers of Netflix which really are copyright freaks and Netflix has no choice but to listen to them as these are the major content providers of Netflix. But after all Netflix is a business entity and like all other business entities, it is not going to lose all of its 20% of potential customers who uses a VPN service which can add up to a huge loss on its balance sheet. So Netflix currently is just maintaining a balanced face by blocking some of the VPN services, but I am so confident that it is never going to ban all the VPN services on its network as many of the reliable VPN services are still in the game and providing smooth and uninterrupted services to their customers on Netflix.
Somehow I have never understood the concept of intellectual property rights. On one hand, they make all these TV shows and movies and depend on us to give them good ratings on IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes etc. And then they make sure we end up spending money on EVERYTHING we want ot watch! Doesn't make sense does it? I'm glad I finally subscribed to Ivacy VPN at just the right time and got 87% off on this Black Friday. Couldn't handle all the drama and rhetoric.
The above step from NETFLIX banning users that are using VPN is a not a good step. Whats wrong in it? If people are using VPN to access a restricted region on the show of their show it will gradually increase the viewership in all. It could be used in so many ways many content could be pushed to people according to their needs. NETFLIX is missing this thing that it is already a huge brand around the globe, banning people from using VPN to access the regions won't do any good to them. There are numerous websites like https://www.bestvpn.co/ which provide vpns with amazing deals. Netflix can cash this also with VPN providers. It just need a different angle to look from. it would be win win situation for them.
The above step from NETFLIX banning users that are using VPN is a not a good step. Whats wrong in it? If people are using VPN to access a restricted region on the show of their show it will gradually increase the viewership in all. It could be used in so many ways many content could be pushed to people according to their needs. NETFLIX is missing this thing that it is already a huge brand around the globe, banning people from using VPN to access the regions won't do any good to them. There are numerous websites like https://www.bestvpn.co/ which provide vpns with amazing deals. Netflix can cash this also with VPN providers. It just need a different angle to look from. it would be win win situation for them.
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