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After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

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Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix funded production, so would have had strong leverage over MRC's relicensing. We can't see the contracts, but I'm fairly confident that Netflix would have had at least right of first refusal for rights for any region.

Leverage only goes so far. Since it was originally a BBC show ~20 years ago, chances are that country-specific rights were sold off long before Netflix got involved.

Why would the licensing of the old shows have anything to do with the licensing of the new shows?

MRC licensed the name and concept from the BBC. That license would definitely not be regionalized.

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#102
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you are justifying an illegal action of yours because it is easier than the legal route? Since when doing the right thing is and should always be easier... So, do you also not pay income tax because it is much easier to not do so? There are countless examples where being illegal is easier over legal, but as a society some of us understand that if the majority respect the law and order, we are much better off. I…

No, she doesn't understand why. Maybe you can enlighten us. She used to pay hard cash for access to Netflix (the US version), and watched US content legally. Now she's being prevented from that. If the content creator doesn't want to sell access to the content for you, then you have every right to access it through other means. They never had to cut off access to these non-US customers: they were paying good money fo…

"She used to pay hard cash for access to Netflix (the US version), and watched US content legally" ... she didn't, she paid "hard cash" for the the Canadian version of Netflix, and found a not legal workaround to watch US content. She can most certainly watch CSI from an authorized distributor in Canada if she pays the right content owners in Canada.

"If the content creator doesn't want to sell access to the content for you, then you have every right to access it through other means.", No you don't, how did you come up with this logic? No distributor deemed the selling price acceptable for them in Canada, if the creator wants the content in Canada he can sell it at a lower price. As a consumer, if you don't have an option to buy something, doesn't mean you should acquire it thru illegal means.

NAFTA was created to eliminate tariffs and protect intellectual property. Someone buys the right to distribute a show in Canada, this right should be protected.

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#103
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you are justifying an illegal action of yours because it is easier than the legal route? Since when doing the right thing is and should always be easier... So, do you also not pay income tax because it is much easier to not do so? There are countless examples where being illegal is easier over legal, but as a society some of us understand that if the majority respect the law and order, we are much better off. I…

No, she doesn't understand why. Maybe you can enlighten us. She used to pay hard cash for access to Netflix (the US version), and watched US content legally. Now she's being prevented from that. If the content creator doesn't want to sell access to the content for you, then you have every right to access it through other means. They never had to cut off access to these non-US customers: they were paying good money fo…

She used to pay hard cash for access to Netflix (the US version), and watched US content legally.

The article says "For about a year, Lorenz subscribed to Netflix Canada, but her family freely accessed the streaming service's shows from across the globe."

The change discussed is that a subscriber in one country is no longer allowed access to the catalog of another country when accessing from a proxy IP in that country. Whether she should be allowed set up and pay for a Netflix US account to watch US shows as a non-resident is a separate issue.

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#104

Wonder when the first person stands up and claim this is blatant racism/ discrimination. Because it literally is. 'oh you come from this country and you have netflix? -- oops then you cannot see because you are canadian/european/ whoever' Media copyrightrights per country, its 2016 its insane release your media globally or don't release it at all.

It sure is how it feels. Facebook trending: look at this awesome SNL clip the world is laughing and talking about! Click on it, oh sorry, you can't watch this in Canada, but hey, the rest of the world that matters can(read: the US), so yeah, good bye. Any content provider that blocks you out based on your location makes you feel discriminated against and it sucks!

I like how Netflix says that we are very vocal, but minor and 'inconsequential'. Well yeah, fuck you too!

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#105
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple: They sold exclusive rights in quite a few countries to TV networks before they expanded there.

Not disagreeing, but it still seems odd as the Netflix Original Content is the big carrot to get people hooked into their ecosystem.

"Netflix Original Content" doesn't really mean anything anyway. Better Call Saul is "Netflix Original Content" in every country but the United States, even though they had nothing to do with getting it made. They just bought the non-US rights: http://promo.xfm.co.uk/bettercallsaul/images/970x250_backup_...

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#106

I am an English person living in Switzerland. Netflix Switzerland is useless to me (no House of Cards, not enough focus on UK and USA content, etc.). Therefore I had a Netflix USA account, which I accessed via unblock-us. The clampdown by Netflix has been "successful" and I now can't access Netflix USA using unblock-us. This happened halfway through watching House of Cards. So my choice was either stop watching or do…

This blows my mind. How on earth does Netflix not have the rights to show their own show in Switzerland? I understand their hands are sometimes tied in getting content from the studios, but they own House of Cards... I'm so confused how they could end up in that situation...

IIRC Netflix purchased the streaming rights for House of Cards from a studio, but the studio sold rights to others for medias/locations Netflix wasn't in at the time. E.g. you can buy House of Cards on disc from Sony, or on various on-demand services. Or possibly for streaming, Netflix had those rights but sublicensed them before expanding (oops, if that's the case).

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#107
post #41

We're in Canada and have been cable cutters for almost five years now. We've gotten by on Netflix US and YouTube with the occasional pirated streaming site, but we're barely ever using Netflix anymore. We've turned to Kodi. We don't want to pirate, but it's hard to make a compelling argument against it when you get everything you want even easier than torrents. Add to that the abusive monopolies of Shaw and Bell, who…

What's wrong with Bell/Saw/Rogers having their own streaming services? I've found Bell's Crave TV to be pretty good, Shomi not as much.

To understand what's wrong with that, you need to go back over 100 years. Do a search on the legends and lore behind a device called the "Strowger switch."

This question is the very heart of network neutrality. You don't want your cable company running a competing streaming service.

Really, you don't.

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#109
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with unblock-us. Would a VPN service work, or have they figured out how to block those too? I would imagine that to do that, they'd have to keep lists of IP addresses associated with the VPN services they want to block.

They block anything they can detect as a VPN, which is a pain in the arse, because I don't want to browse at all without a VPN, so I can't use netflix at all any more.

How I solved this problem. Bought a $5 DO instance, which gets me a personal ip that is located in the states combined with OpenVPN I can watch Netflix and do many other things that are US only.

Re: After Netflix crackdown on border-hopping, Canadians ready to return to piracy

#110
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They block anything they can detect as a VPN, which is a pain in the arse, because I don't want to browse at all without a VPN, so I can't use netflix at all any more.

How I solved this problem. Bought a $5 DO instance, which gets me a personal ip that is located in the states combined with OpenVPN I can watch Netflix and do many other things that are US only.

Does this still work? I have a pptp server up on one of these for Netflix, and I'm getting negged. Should I just rotate the server onto a new IP?
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