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Is Netflix Taking Aim At Out Of Market VPN Users?

For a few years now, competitors in countries where Netflix isn't available (or is available and they've managed to restrict content through licensing agreements) have been complaining loudly that Netflix should ban those customers that have used VPNs to access out-of-market content. There were particularly vocal complaints from Netflix's competitors in Australia, after they faced a wave of VPN users before a rather belated Netflix launch in the market.

Now it appears that Netflix is heeding some of those calls, and has started imposing restrictions on some VPN viewers. The moves appear to be piecemeal trials; in some areas involving comparing time zones from GPS hardware or browsers to the time zones of the user's IP address. VPN service TorGuard notes that the company's Android app has also been forcing users to use Google DNS, making it harder to use DNS based location unblockers:

quote:
“This is a brand new development. A few weeks ago we received the first report from a handful of clients that Netflix blocked access due to VPN or proxy usage. This is the very first time I’ve ever heard Netflix displaying this type of error message to a VPN user,” TorGuard’s Ben Van der Pelt tells us...."I have a sneaking suspicion that Netflix may be testing these new IP blocking methods temporarily in certain markets. At this time the blocks do not seem aggressive and may only be targeted at IP ranges that exceed too many simultaneous logins."
TorGuard says they saw a surge in user complaints sometime in mid December, and has been cooking up an "easy solution" to get around such blocks.

UpdateNetflix states nothing has changed, and says their VPN policy remains the same -- though that doesn't necessarily mean they're not experimenting with geolocation restriction options.

Most recommended from 16 comments



buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

2 recommendations

buzz_4_20

Member

I'm Sure

This won't backfire like everything else and end up causing more people to pirate content.

Seriously... People are trying hard to pay for content and this isn't helping.