Gaining access to U.S. Netflix in Canada could soon become more difficult.
Thousands of Canadians, as well as people in other areas of the world, have been using VPN based proxy and DNS services to help mask their location and trick streaming services like Netflix into thinking they’re located in the United States. This allows Canadian Netflix users to access television shows and movies exclusively available through the U.S. version of the platform.
Recently reports have surfaced that users of popular VPN service, TorGuard, are receiving errors when trying to use the platform with Netflix. Several IP-ranges and DNS-based location unblockers have reportedly been targeted.
In an interview with Torrent Freak, TorGuard’s Ben Van der Pelt explained he feels this could be an indication Netflix is testing new IP blocking methods.
“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,” said Van Der Pelt in the interview.
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In terms of other recent developments, Netflix’s Android application now forces smartphones to use Google’s DNS address, making it much harder to use geoblocking apps (workarounds have already been figured out). The latest version of software for the Roku 3 also uses similar geolocking protection techniques and subscribers to other popular services like Unblock-Us and UnoDNS have experienced issues.
However, in a recent statement to Postmedia, Netflix denies this claim, although the company does mention using VPN and DNS services is a violation of Netflix’s terms of service.
“Virtually crossing borders to use Netflix is a violation of our terms of use because of content licensing restrictions. We employ industry standard measures to prevent this kind of use. There haven’t been any recent changes to the Netflix VPN policy or terms of use,” reads the statement from Netflix.
Despite this explaination, late last year entertainment industry sources in Australia complained to Netflix about “VPN-pirates” having a significant impact on their sales, with up to 200,000 Australians using geolocking programs to access Netflix in the region. Netflix isn’t officially available in Australia but will reportedly launch in the region in March 2015.
Torrent Freak also published a recent draft of a content protection agreement between Sony Pictures and Netflix specifically requires Netflix to verify the location users are residing in. Sony Pictures has reportedly performed research in order to identify the IP-ranges of geolocking services and then shared the results with Netflix.
While a clear violation of Netflix’s terms of service, the streaming platform likely doesn’t have an issue with users taking advantage of VPN and DNS-based proxy applications to access different regions of Netflix. The company still receives its monthly subscription fee and ignoring users who take advantage of these services could potentially attract more subscribers.
However, if Netflix is receiving pressure from studios to be more vigilant when it comes to blocking these platforms, access U.S. Netflix in Canada could soon become much more difficult.
A telephone poll that surveyed 2,002 Anglophone Canadians last spring by the Media Technology Monitor found approximately 32 per cent of the respondents were Netflix subscribers. It’s unclear how many Canadians take advantage of VPN and DNS services, but popular paid platforms like Unblock-Us have over 14,000 followers on Twitter and approximately 14,000 likes on Facebook.
With files from the Canadian Press
Source:: canada.com
