Keen TV watchers forced to lie

Forums › Online streaming services › Keen TV watchers forced to lie - from Stuff

lchiu7

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#142444 13-Mar-2014 12:20

The following article appeared recently from Stuff

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/9806850/Keen-TV-watchers-forced-to-lie

There was this comment in the article

"Orcon put up a how-to guide to getting Netflix in response to customer demand."

I must admit I couldn't find the guide on Orcon's site (just so I could take a look at what they were saying).

Is there any ISP out there now that provides a proxy service as part of their overall package?

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Behodar

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#1004840 13-Mar-2014 12:40

https://www.orcon.net.nz/ufb/blog/how_to_watch_us_netflix_here_in_nz

robjg63

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#1004845 13-Mar-2014 12:47

Slingshot announced this a while ago:
http://slingshot.co.nz/products/global-mode/about-global-mode/
No idea if/how well it works - think there was some GZ discussion on it - theoretically its a sort of region unblocker.

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lchiu7

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#1004948 13-Mar-2014 13:57

I must admit I thought I searched the Orcon site but I couldn't find the article.

Could be just blindness on my part.

Thanks

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

lxsw20

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#1004968 13-Mar-2014 14:18

robjg63: Slingshot announced this a while ago:
http://slingshot.co.nz/products/global-mode/about-global-mode/
No idea if/how well it works - think there was some GZ discussion on it - theoretically its a sort of region unblocker.

It works very well.

sidefx

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#1004977 13-Mar-2014 14:33

"Because of licence restrictions on the movies and TV shows on Netflix, we are required to employ industry standard technology to prevent cross-border use of Netflix."

I love this quote from a Netflix spokesman. "We don't want to, but we have to." Reading between the lines though, it sounds like both Netflix (and maybe the Movie\TV studios, though perhaps to a lesser degree) are quite glad it is easily circumvented, as it means extra revenue for them. I'd be curious though how much they do get from Sky TV and how it compares to potential revenue from an NZ version of Netflix if Sky disappeared or no longer had exclusive rights to the content?

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#1004980 13-Mar-2014 14:40

keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

eracode

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#1005023 13-Mar-2014 15:19

joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

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lchiu7

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#1005048 13-Mar-2014 15:53

sidefx: "Because of licence restrictions on the movies and TV shows on Netflix, we are required to employ industry standard technology to prevent cross-border use of Netflix."

I love this quote from a Netflix spokesman. "We don't want to, but we have to." Reading between the lines though, it sounds like both Netflix (and maybe the Movie\TV studios, though perhaps to a lesser degree) are quite glad it is easily circumvented, as it means extra revenue for them

Easy enough to do the maths on revenue for Netflix, a bit harder to find the data.

Assuming really optimistically that 5K people are doing it and I think that is quite high. Then the annual revenue for Netflix is 5000x$7.99x12= $479,400 which is not to be sneezed at.

And all for practically zero investment in infrastructure such as peering, local mirrors etc.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Ragnor

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#1005056 13-Mar-2014 16:03

eracode:
joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

Parallel importing is allowed here for physical goods, why not for digital?

sultanoswing

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#1005069 13-Mar-2014 16:38

Ragnor:
eracode:
joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

Parallel importing is allowed here for physical goods, why not for digital?

Youshop ≠ lie.

You're telling to retailer to ship it to an address in the USA or UK. No lie there.

Youshop then forwards it to NZ. No lie.

Youshop is simply a practical and entirely legal way to get around a vendor who won't ship to NZ (or outside of the US/UK) for whatever reason. Youshop will not import truly illegal goods / contraband such as firearms, drugs etc.

eracode

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#1005312 14-Mar-2014 02:17

sultanoswing:
Ragnor:
eracode:
joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

Parallel importing is allowed here for physical goods, why not for digital?

Youshop ≠ lie.

You're telling to retailer to ship it to an address in the USA or UK. No lie there.

Youshop then forwards it to NZ. No lie.

Youshop is simply a practical and entirely legal way to get around a vendor who won't ship to NZ (or outside of the US/UK) for whatever reason. Youshop will not import truly illegal goods / contraband such as firearms, drugs etc.

I know, I know. My comment about government endorsement was tongue in cheek - I love YouShop and have used it many times.

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Jase2985

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#1005318 14-Mar-2014 05:48

sultanoswing:
Ragnor:
eracode:
joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

Parallel importing is allowed here for physical goods, why not for digital?

Youshop ≠ lie.

You're telling to retailer to ship it to an address in the USA or UK. No lie there.

Youshop then forwards it to NZ. No lie.

Youshop is simply a practical and entirely legal way to get around a vendor who won't ship to NZ (or outside of the US/UK) for whatever reason. Youshop will not import truly illegal goods / contraband such as firearms, drugs etc.

but isnt that essentially what you are doing with netflix?

asking netflix to send your data to somewhere in the US then having it sent to NZ,

you are circumventing the restrictions that the company has imposed, ie not shipping to NZ or not allowing netflix outside of the US/other allowed companies

sen8or

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#1005328 14-Mar-2014 07:50

No, as I understand it, the data is sent direct from Netflix to you (when using dns service like unblock us) it doesn't go via their servers, could be different for vpns.

Giggs

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#1005738 14-Mar-2014 16:45

Ragnor:
eracode:
joker97: keen shoppers forced to lie? => youshop

... but the lie is endorsed by NZ Government as owner of the facilitating entity.

Parallel importing is allowed here for physical goods, why not for digital?

If you look at the Copyright Act parallel importation is widely allowed.

Lying or not, the real issue is can you do it legally?

Netflix has purchased from the copyright owner the a licence to rebroadcast various films and programmes. As a member of Netflix I can watch that licensed programming at home i.e. it is personal use. I am not copying it and I am not re-broadcasting it in public. It is no different to hiring a DVD from a DVD store watching it at home and returning it. So I do not believe I have infringed the copyright of the copyright owner.

The second issue is Netflix geoblocking its content.

The NZ Copyright Act actually covers "Technological Protection Measures" i.e. methods to prevent infringement of copyright and does not allow you to circumvent those. However that definition specifically excludes "a process,... to the extent that it controls geographic market segmentation by preventing the playback in New Zealand of a non-infringing copy of a work".

So as I am watching a non-infringing copy of a work in NZ I can circumvent the geoblockng control Netflix puts in place even if I have to "lie" (nice bit of media sensationalism that) to do it.

By the way the government has a track record in legalised lying. The criminal record clean slate law lets you answer "no" in certain circumstances when asked if you have a criminal record even though you have one.