Netflix meets its match in blocking wars

Australians seem the first to be targeted in Netflix’s move to stop customers accessing its content in the US and elsewhere.

Australians and New Zealanders seem the first to be targeted in Netflix’s move to stop customers accessing its content in the US and elsewhere.

Netflix has begun blocking customers who use the services of unblocking websites or a VPN (virtual private network) to disguise their location so that they can access Netflix’s much larger range of movies and TV shows in other countries.

The unblocking websites trick Netflix’s servers into thinking those customers are in the US or another country.

But Netflix faces being technically overpowered by online unblocking services that say they can thwart its attempt to prevent Australians accessing its US library of movies and TV series.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

• Citing copyright reasons, Netflix stops customers from accessing content outside the country they are currently in.

• But Netflix hasn’t enforced this strongly; an industry of “unblocking” sites has sprung up, offering Netflix customers a way to access movies and TV shows from other countries’ Netflix libraries;

• Australians wanting to access Netflix had to use an unblocking site or VPN (virtual private network) to access Netflix before it arrived here officially;

• Unblocking is still popular in Australia because the US Netflix collection is more content rich than the Australian one;

• Under pressure from movie houses, Netflix is now trying to close down the unblockers who are fighting back.

One of those unblockers, Melbourne-based uFlix.com.au, announced this morning that a fix was in place that’s designed to unravel Netflix’s attempt to thwart the unblocking service.

“The new fix is in place. Please test it out. If anyone gets proxy/vpn error issues, please submit a ticket immediately,” uFlix said in a post on Twitter. The fix was activated around 8am AEDT.

Hi everyone! The new fix is in place. Please test it out. If anyone gets proxy/vpn error issues, please submit a ticket immediately. Thanks!

— uFlix (@uFlixDNS) January 21, 2016

Today Toronto-based TVUnblock.com, which geo-unblocks Netflix access for customers from around the world, said only Australian and New Zealand users had received a notice from Netflix that access had been blocked. Co-founder Dave Brown said several hundred customers were affected.

“It looks like Netflix is rolling this protection mechanism out regionally. The first two regions we see affected is New Zealand and Australia . I haven’t seen any notices to people in the UK or Canada, so it looks like they’ve starting implementing this but not as an entire rollout for their entire customer base.

“But I fully expect other regions will start experiencing similar problems.”

But he also expects to win the battle against Netflix. “In the end, these companies that implement these kind of mechanisms don’t win in the long run because customers get more frustrated at them than they do people like us.”

Netflix threatened in blocking war

Australians wanting access to the more expansive US Netflix ­library typically pay $2 to $5 a month to an unblocking service that tricks Netflix’s software into thinking they are a US subscriber.

The game of cat and mouse has been going on for years. Before Netflix launched in Australia, 340,000 Australians accessed US Netflix in this way.

But facing continued pressure from US movie houses, Netflix announced this week that the game was over. “In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are,” said Netflix vice-president David Fullagar.

Yesterday, Netflix customers using an unblocking service ­appeared out-of-luck when they received what seemed to be a Netflix communication saying: “You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again.” Netflix would not comment.

But the unblocking services have been confident they can get around Netflix. Yesterday UFlix said a fix that nullified Netflix’s blocking attempts was ready and being tested. UFlix managing ­director Peter Dujan said he was “absolutely confident” that his service would technically outwit any blocking measure Netflix threw at it.

“Unless some sort of technology comes out that no one’s ever heard of before, pretty much anything implemented can be bypassed. As long as what we’re doing remains legal, there’s no issue,’’ Mr Dujan said.

UFlix had studied how Netflix was technically implementing blocking and was originally worried about it but “after last night’s findings we’re not concerned anymore. We’re 99.9 per cent sure we know exactly how they’re doing it,” he said.

Online unblocking service unblock-us.com indicated it too was unfazed by Netflix’s plan. “We are aware of the announcement and should our service be affected at any time, we will make adjustments,” a spokesman said. “Presently, there is nothing to be concerned about as everything is working properly.”

Mr Dujan said business for streaming video unblockers was booming. “There is such a demand for services like ours that another 20 can pop up and it won’t make a dent in our user base. Literally none of us are in competition with each other.”

Consumer advocate agency Choice said it was inevitable that streaming services would become global: “We’re staring at the death throes of this model of carving up among regions. The question is how long it takes to go to new business models,” Choice spokesman Matt Levey said.

He said that in the changing market, it would make sense for single-country video streaming services to form alliances across the world to offer content globally.

Mr Dujan said uFlix believed Netflix was identifying customers who used unblockers that redirected traffic to IP addresses not associated with their internet service providers.

“The most likely thing, because it’s the easiest thing to do, is just ban entire IP pools of data centres. If you access Netflix from home I know who the ISP (internet service provider) is at your house.”

He said Netflix would know who your regular ISP was. “But if a server accesses Netflix and it’s an IP address of, say, Rackspace, they know it is a server hosting company so they’re more than likely to ban the whole IP pool. So they could get rid of hundreds of thousands of IP addresses in one shot.”

Mr Dujan said he had seen this all before. “Hulu has been extremely aggressive in the past doing things like that — just banning entire IP pools.”

VPN companies that offered secure services had suffered as a result. “Even the customers of those companies over in America or in any other country who have a legitimate VPN for their own privacy and security are unable to access Hulu through their VPN.”