Bad news, friends. Turns out Netflix was dead serious about their plan to kick Australian users of their US service to the kerb.
About a week ago the streaming behemoth revealed their plan to start holding all users to their terms and services, which *technically* renders the usage of VPNs and proxies in order to circumvent geoblocking a contractually dick move.
And that booting has begun, with some users finding they’ve been banished back to the mere Australian version of the service, with its wildly restricted library of content.
Melbourne company uFlix confirmed the move, noting that it appears Netflix are dipping their toes into new waters.
“The blocking is currently not aggressive and we believe (for the moment) they are only testing the new blocking methods on their customers. We suspect that they are blocking known IP ranges and gaining additional information from the user’s browser or mobile device and comparing it to the proxy and user IP addresses.”
Users affected have taken to the internet to make their feelings known about the issue, presenting a horrifying vision of things to come.
BEHOLD, THE NEW FACE OF FEAR.
Source: Imgur.
However, all is not completely lost. If Netflix steps up its geoblocking game, it’s only a matter of time before someone finds a better way around it. This, thankfully, is the nature of the internet: There’s no such thing as an un-pickable lock.
And companies like uFlix are already on the job.
“At the end of the day it’s simply a game of cat and mouse, and this is our job, so let’s play.”
Begun, the geoblock circumvention wars have.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.
Source: Brisbane Times.
