Netflix has always seemed like an excessively pro-customer company. Since Netflix first launched its streaming product, it has been letting users share their login credentials with friends and family. In fact, it has on several occasions encouraged subscribers to share their logins. The company also turned a blind eye for years as customers from regions around the world spoofed their locations using virtual private network services, or VPNs, in order to access region-locked content not available in their countries.
To this day, Netflix still happily lets users share login credentials with friends and family — the company even introduced a profile feature so that content viewed by other users doesn’t impact the main subscriber’s viewing history or recommendations. Region spoofing, however, is a different story.
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When it comes to sharing login credentials, Netflix is the only company impacted by the practice. Region spoofing is an entirely different story though, because Netflix pays licensing fees by region. So, if Netflix only licenses a movie in the United States and users from outside of the US watch it, Netflix isn’t paying content owners for those views.
And you know what happens when “content owners” feel cheated.
Earlier this year, outside pressure finally led to Netflix clamping down on subscribers who use VPN services to spoof their location in order to access content that is only available in other regions. Needless to say, users were not happy. Some threatened to cancel their service, others complained and tried to explain that they only use VPN services to protect their privacy. In any case, a cat and mouse game began.
VPN companies didn’t want to lose business as a result of Netflix’s move, so they put workarounds in place. Then Netflix blocked the workarounds. Then they found new workarounds. Then Netflix blocked those workarounds, too. It seemed like this ordeal would go on forever, but now it appears as though several VPN providers are giving up. As CBC News reported, a number of providers have seemingly quit the game.
Australian VPN service UFlix stated plainly that it will no longer attempt to work around Netflix’s blocks. “Unfortunately every time we set up a new network or find a workaround, it is getting blocked within hours,” the company said in a blog post. Meanwhile, other providers including Unblock-Us and UnoTelly have also stopped releasing workarounds, though neither company has explicitly stated it is giving up.
Most users expected this cat and mouse game to go on forever, but it looks like Netflix may ultimately win the war. As a result, users will have to turn to more traditional means of stealing content unless they want to, you know, pay for it.
