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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

#181
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might just be my experience dealing with Bell when we had ExpressVu before becoming cable cutters, and Shaw's Internet service when I was growing up. I also hate the things Bell has tried to do through the CRTC, like that whole Internet thing with smaller providers using its pipes. I guess it's a principal thing. EDIT: Another example... I used to always choose Famous Players for movies. I avoided Cineplex. Then C…

Yea, the CRTC is much better than what it was years ago. They are pushing for channel unbundling for example now.

Yeah, and look how well that turned out: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crtc-skinny-basic-pick-and-p...

(Spoiler: the unbundled packages cost more and have fewer shows)

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

#182
"We look forward to offering all of our content everywhere and to consumers being able to enjoy all of Netflix without using a proxy. That’s the goal we will keep pushing towards."

-- David Fullagar is Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture at Netflix.

https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/evolving-proxy-det...

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

#183
Same story here, but I have been living in Eastern Europe and then Australia and then back for a few years now, paying for unblock-us and Netflix US which I signed up for while in the US.

Ever since my first experience with Netflix powered by a Roku I have been praising how awesome it is, trying to get my friends to sign up for the service.

And then the geofencing crap happened but the service was suddenly available in our country, but with minus 90 percent of the content - a lot of my friends signed up and then cancelled their subscription.

I for one am seriously thinking about canceling both unblock-us and Netflix as I suddenly feel a 'localized' citizen with no way to legally we global anymore and it sucks.

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

#184

But violating the license terms by border hopping is piracy. Not saying I agree with geo restrictions, or any of the other silliness (I don't, and thankfully we're rapidly moving away from that sort of thing), but using VPNs or foreign credit cards to subscribe to a service that isn't available to you because the company selling it doesn't have a license to do so is still, technically, piracy.

Sure, but piracy where everyone gets paid.

No, piracy where the service provider you subscribe to gets paid, but the rightful license holders don't. Sometimes the license holder and the service provider are the same, in which case everyone gets paid.

But in most cases you aren't. Sure you pay netflix, but netflix just keeps the money. They definitely don't go find and pay the right people.

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

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is everyone assuming that greedy German companies aren't willing to sell? Is it also possible that Netflix isn't willing to pay the going rate or hasn't bothered to negotiate for the rights. Netflix launched globally without taking the time to negotiate content for most countries on earth. I'm not sure you can assume that Netflix is being diligent in trying to acquire content. Especially since even in the USA net…

>Why is everyone assuming that greedy German companies aren't willing to sell? The OP isn't talking about greedy German companies, he's complaining about greedy American companies who won't let Netflix in Germany show American content to German viewers. Greedy German companies are a different issue. This whole issue is mainly about greedy American companies, because if there's one thing that America produces that peo…

But it most of these situations some German company already bought the rights to the show. So the greedy American companies already got paid.

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

#186
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cannot be changed. You can download (watch) any proprietary content (if you can), but you cannot redistribute it to others.

Canada signed the TPP, which tadically changes things

Signed, not ratified, nor codified anything in law.

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

#187
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…

Regardless of whatever moral card you want to play here, the fact of the matter boils down to Gabe Newell's famous insight on the matter: Piracy is almost always a service problem[0]. People value their time. Make the experience easy for them, and people will pay. Make the experience shitty for them, and people will find the path of least resistance. People pay taxes because they have to. When it comes to entertainme…

I really don't think Gabe is right.

People pirate games that are on steam by the millions. Fall out 4 was pirated millions of times, but it's super easy to install on Steam. In fact it's a pain in the butt to install a pirated copy. Yet it's highly pirated.

Paying for convenience is an upper middle class / rich thing. For a lot of people, saving 60 bucks is all the motivation one needs to pirate.

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

#188
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People in other regions where this stuff isn't available have every right to copy it without paying. I think you've got this wrong. The people in other regions don't have "every right to copy it", they have "every right to not consume it". Don't like the rules? Don't play. It's their content, so they set the rules. That's kind of all there is to it. I absolutely agree that you can be pissed off about this and not l…

>The people in other regions don't have "every right to copy it", they have "every right to not consume it". Don't like the rules? Don't play. It's their content, so they set the rules. >But nothing gives you the "right" to force your way into someone else's party just because you weren't invited, or didn't like the ticket price. Completely wrong on both counts. If I'm not invited to someone else's party, but I want…

> I have every right to invent a device which allows me to create an artificial wormhole which then allows me to remotely observe this party (see the Arthur C. Clarke book "Light of Other Days"). The partygoers will have no idea I'm observing them and since they wouldn't sell me a ticket anyway, they won't see a difference in their revenues.

Voyeurism may or may not be a crime in your jurisdiction.

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

#189
post #52

What exactly does Netflix stand to gain from making it harder for its non-american subscribers to VPN the geoblocked content? Surely they must have predicted a substantial drop in subscription rates as soon as people realize they can't watch the good stuff. It just seems like international-marketshare suicide.

If netflix lets users from across the world access their US service, US content owners are going to demand payment based on netflix's global subscriber base. A title that was worth 1 million for streaming rights in America, might be worth 3-4 million worldwide. The US companies are going to demand the 3-4 million.

The amount of people who can figure out a VPN solution is probably not that substantial.

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

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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_...

Not in Australia. Better Call Saul is on a Netflix competitor called Stan.
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