In a blog post, Netflix says it will vigorously block you from using internet proxies to view shows or movies you’re blocked from viewing in your home country.
Region-blocking makes sense to the Netflix lawyers who write up content licensing agreements with studios and networks, but it makes no sense to any of us who live (and watch internet video) in the real world. We just want to be able to watch the stuff we love, wherever and whoever we are.
VPNs have perfectly legitimate uses related to privacy and security. You don’t have to be an Evil Hacker or a Content Thief or any of that bullshit to want to use a proxy. People who rely on such methods for perfectly good reasons that have nothing to do with subverting region-blocking will now be forced to choose between, say, turning on Tor and turning on Netflix.
From the BBC’s coverage:
David Fullagar, vice president of content delivery architecture, said in a blog post on Thursday that the US firm was in the process of licensing content around the world.
But he said it had a long way to go before it could offer viewers the same films and shows everywhere.
“If all of our content were globally available, there wouldn’t be a reason for members to use proxies or ‘unblockers’ to fool our systems into thinking they’re in a different country than they’re actually in,” he said.“In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location.”
Lame. Read the whole official Netflix corporate blog post: “Evolving Proxy Detection as a Global Service”