I'd image they'd just block access to anyone connecting from a Datacenter/Cloud Provider, using a dataset like this one https://github.com/client9/ipcat. I'm sure there are more complete paid for datasets out there - probably from someone like https://www.maxmind.com. That would likely block 95% or more of the VPN/proxies out there. It will probably be a bit of a whack a mole approach to the get the rest but you'll get pretty fed up signing up to some obscure and possibly slow/expensive vpn provider to find it blocked 2 days later.

What's actually interesting is that they are now openly admitting that they have been turning a blind eye to this before when 1. it's relatively simple and 2. it has always been a requirement of the content rights holders.

That will also catch a lot of legit users that use a VPN to avoid ISP snooping as well.

Edit: Apparently I've been working on AWS VPCs so long I no longer remember how to spell VPN

> That would likely block 95% or more of the VPN/proxies out there.

And that's probably good enough. I imagine (but have zero proof) that they need to be seen to be taking reasonable efforts to stop out-of-region people from accessing their services, rather than having some system that absolutely blocks 100% of out-of-region accesses.

Some thoughts:

1.They don't need to stop you on sight, nor cur your connection every time you connected through VPN. But if they can eventually detect your pattern, then disrupt it, which will lead to great inconvenience for you, and it will be sufficient to stop most of the users from using VPN.

2.They can surely use your billing information for this purpose, as it is case with Google Play.

3.Another thing to be remind of, a international user might not always use VPN for Netflix, likely they will switch back for their local content at some point. If such traffic switch happens, it is easy to detect for further action.

4.Again, it is quite complicated process I believe, and like all softwares, there are loopholes. But I believe their goal is to stop MOST common users from using VPN for cross-regional content easily, not ALL of them. This is quite achievable.

There are people who travel internationally. What happens then? Do they get mistreated due to the changing country where they happen to be watching? Currently they have their catalog limited and have to resort to a VPN to resolve the issue.

It is possible that Netflix will just let it be. I am not sure as how the terms and agreement going, but the copy-right holder might only provide access to their content within certain region, so if you are out of that region, you cannot access it, even you are member of Netflix.

It is just my speculation, but as consider the same practice is actually enforced before, e.g. DVD region codes.

With Prime, at least, that is exactly what happens. I travel frequently, and Prime just straight up tells me that the content is not available in my region. US citizen, set up the account and everything in the US, but the last time I left the country, it was pretty much watching Prime a few hours before the flight, land in Helsinki 7 hours later, Prime tells me "Sorry, content not available in your region"

Then Netflix should work on expanding their catalog in other countries.

Can't they just discriminate based on your billing address?

Thats the obvious solution, though how would that affect people using Netlfix while traveling?

For example, if you're locked to the US region and watch something that is only available in the US while visiting, say, the UK — would that break any of Netflix's license agreements?

Same thing with app stores.

Try to buy some apps in one country and download them again while in another.

Last time I read about this it wasn't possible to do so.

Not true (at least with Apple), my main Apple ID is Italian, but I live in the UK, and I use with no problem...

Can you delete an app bought in the italian app store while in Italy and then install the same app via the UK app store while in UK?

This was the issue I read about, just the example was from a guy in Europe that moved back to Canada.

That only applies if you change the country your account is linked to (since for some reason in 2016 most companies have yet not figured out people move...), but all you need is a valid payment method for the country you wish to use and you can use that account anywhere you want

Apple does not care one tiny bit where you are when making purchases. All you need is an account with a valid payment method in that country. Your account is linked to one country, regardless of where you are or what SIM card is in your phone.

This whole topic is probably not inititated by Netflix, but by the contracts they sign with the distributors.

Distributors don't care about this, they care about geographically determined licenses. And apparently they want to see that this is technically enforced to some degree.

Amazon streaming only works when you're in your home country, no matter where your billing address is. At least for Amazon UK. When I'm in America, I have to VPN back to the UK to download content for the flight back.

> how would that affect people using Netlfix while traveling?

"Tough"

No, it all still comes back to licensing. They offer different catalogs per country because they are not legally allowed to distribute certain content in certain places, because they don't have the rights. If they go "oh you live in the US, have some US content while on vacation in AU!", then they are actively distributing that content in AU. If they don't have rights to do that, it's illegal.

They'll never do this based on billing address because they don't care where you're FROM, they care where you ARE.

I wish they would do that. I have many friends who share accounts internationally (I'm one of them, I live in Denmark and my account is shared with a friend in the Netherlands and a couple who lives in Portugal) and this would mean that they no longer need a vpn to get content from catalogues better than their countries'. The Portuguese catalogue in particular is incredibly limited.

If they did that all it'd is have one of our mates living in the US to make us an account and we'd never have to VPN again.

Probably block the IP address of VPN services. Maybe even block IPs that are from hosting companies.

Yes, in theory, smart people can set up their own VPN and work around it. But they'd probably be happy if the average user can't access it. I doubt their goal is 100% coverage, they'd be happy with 90%.

1. Check where your billing info is located 2. Block VPS providers