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Australia DRM Media The Internet

Aussie ISP Bakes In Geo-dodging For Netflix, Hulu 40

Posted by Soulskill from the must-be-opposite-day dept.
New submitter ste7en7 writes: A new Australian ISP is integrating geo-blocking circumvention into its broadband service, allowing customers to access streaming services like Hulu, Netflix USA, BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime. When Yournet launches in August, customers will be able to sign up for broadband that allows users to instantly change the country they are supposedly surfing from.
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Aussie ISP Bakes In Geo-dodging For Netflix, Hulu More

Aussie ISP Bakes In Geo-dodging For Netflix, Hulu

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  • It's Australia, this will be made illegal in a couple of days time.

    Until then they're getting a lot of free publicity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bug1 ( 96678 )

      Only if Rupert notices them.

    • The moment I read this I thought "there is no way this can last"

      In a year's time, it definitely won't work. In a weeks time it might not even work.

      If it isn't legally prohibited and forced to shut down... then the streaming companies will be forced to find another method of blocking it. It just leaves a chance of breaking it for everyone.

    • The timing is awful, this was essentially just banned in New Zealand [zdnet.com].

      • An out of court settlement is not the same as banning.

        Hopefully many new numbered companies will jump in providing DNS services to ISPs worldwide. That seems to be their strategy.

        https://www.bypass.net.nz/glob... [bypass.net.nz]

        There are no laws governing DNS, just open standards. Media conglomerates have been trying to manipulate those for years. Time for the good guys to step in and do so as well and see how that plays out.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gomiam ( 587421 )

          There are no laws governing DNS, just open standards.

          You wish. Different countries block specific domains from access. Why do you think there are proxies for The Pirate Bay?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Actually, when HBO One banned all the Ausies recently (for trying to pay for GoT instead of pirating it, I guess), communications minister made public statements confirming that circumventing geo-blocking is perfectly legal.

    • They're going to ruin the fun for the rest of us. I think that Netflix is not doing much about this because there are proportionately not a lot of users do this, and it requires a bit of setup and technical know-how on the user side. If you start having ISPs bake it into the service so that all their customers use this feature, then you can bet that the content owners are going to start to apply quite a bit of pressure on Netflix to clamp down on this sort of activity.

      • I'm still not sure why netflix or the content IP owners would care who is paying the $10/mo for the subscription, where they live, etc. as long as... they get their $10/mo. It doesn't cost 'em any more money than a US based customer, they get the same pay, etc. Of course, I'm thinking logically and not like a lawyer, mba, or sociopathic executive...

        • The problem is that if the geographical limits are removed, then there's a global marketplace, which would mean the same price for all, and the majority of the world cannot afford the high prices, so it's sold discounted in many countries. This would allow everyone to get the cheapest price, and prevent the extra skimming from first world countries/wherever the cost of living is higher.
          Of course, as it's all run by computer and thus costs essentially the same to produce and provide no matter where in the w

    • Not necessarily.

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/technol... [stuff.co.nz]

    • It's Australia, this will be made illegal in a couple of days time.

      I was thinking weeks, but otherwise that was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the article.

  • Freedom! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03, 2015 @08:59AM (#50039019)

    Finally! Who's up for Netflix Yemen?

  • These guys will get their IPs banned first (no idea why VPN providers don't get their banned, but they'll probably be next). Then they release their IPs and get new ones. Those IPs will get banned, while the released ones will not get unbanned. Soon enough people in the UK will be unable to use iPlayer and the BBC customer services representatives will blame the users. Replace "BBC" and "iPlayer" with the your relevant data.

    Feet, branch, chainsaw.

    We've seen this happen with e-mail and spam blacklists somewh

    • The issue seems to lie in the fact that established olde-worlde distributors own the right to all content, and continue to gain ownership of new content, so therefore have too much input into the conversation.
      This war needs to be fought on two fronts, one the technical which seems more than capable of delivering, the other is to convince new producers not to sign over rights to anyone involved with the old 20th century distribution model. If there existed a distributor with a big enough war chest to buy

    • Those IPs will get banned, while the released ones will not get unbanned.

      Until they start blocking significant actual customers. That strategy will defeat itself eventually, with IPv4 anyway.

  • This isn't new. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ISP's in Singapore have been doing this for years! My ISP viewqwest certainly has been... And to all the people saying that IPs will get blocked etc, it hasn't happened to Singapore ISP's yet!

  • For all others, VPNs FTW!
    Rolling your own is not hard; for example:
    https://www.digitalocean.com/c... [digitalocean.com]

    If you're cheap and/or can't be bothered:
    https://www.bestvpn.com/blog/1... [bestvpn.com]

  • Prediction: The movie industry will strong-arm Netflix etc. to require every user whose actual residency isn't known through billing or other records to state, under penalty of perjury, what country they are in every time they sign in (or at least at regular intervals, say, weekly). For those whose billing addresses are known, I would expect the movie industry to insist that Netflix etc. make it a condition of the contract tha the person would not knowingly deceive Netflix into thinking the person was outs

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Falos ( 2905315 )
      This will help protect artist livelihoods.

      Believed no one ever.

      The thoughtproperty charade might just be civilization's greatest performance.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by davidwr ( 791652 )

        This will help protect artist livelihoods.

        Believed no one ever.

        The thoughtproperty charade might just be civilization's greatest performance.

        Fellow /. readers: Am I the only one that is having problems parsing this?

  • That's nice! Although, you're still better off with a VPN.

  • Will we ever get decent copyright law reform? Like, ever, anything sane? 10 years maximum and no shitty regional monopolies? Or are we just fucked with this Disney regime for evermore?

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