Without reliable streaming access, a VPN could lose a good chunk of its userbase. Streaming sites make up a generous portion of all VPN traffic, and many users get a VPN specifically for streaming. Foreign film and TV fans also know that a VPN can unlock international streaming content with ease. It’s now common knowledge among travelers that you don’t need to give up streaming while abroad if you use a VPN. If VPNs are trouble for Netflix, the inverse is doubly true. To protect itself, therefore, Netflix has no choice but to block VPNs. If too many viewers are able to go against the distributor’s demands, Netflix could lose its licenses and possibly get sued. Since VPN users can appear to come from any country they desire, they can easily access content that would otherwise be unavailable. It may also restrict content for strategic reasons, using Netflix to gain exposure in some areas while collecting full profits from others.Ī VPN, however, renders these restrictions moot. The distributor may only own the copyright in one country and thus be legally unable to license it in other regions. There are many possible reasons for these restrictions. They also set geo-restrictions that limit the regions that Netflix can stream the content to. The copyright holders usually set an expiration date for the license, limiting the amount of time Netflix can offer the content. These content licenses have many stipulations to ensure that both sides get a fair deal. But everything else is temporarily licensed to Netflix by the distributors who own the copyrights. The exception is the original content produced by Netflix itself that can be offered without restriction because Netflix owns it. Netflix doesn’t own the copyright to most of its content. It all has to do with content licensing: the process by which Netflix obtains the right to offer various movies and TV shows. The truth is much more benign, but no less frustrating. So why does Netflix go through all this effort to block VPNs? What’s the big deal about wanting to protect your privacy and stream at the same time? Does Netflix hate internet security or something? And when that happens, anyone using that IP will be met with an error message when trying to access Netflix. When Netflix sees many different accounts from around the world all using the same IP, it flags that IP as belonging to a VPN. At least some of those users will have accessed Netflix while connected to the VPN. Why? Because a VPN assigns the same IP address to many different users.Ĭonnect to a VPN server and chances are that you’ll be given an IP that’s already been used by hundreds or thousands of others. However, when it happens on a large scale, that indicates to Netflix that a VPN is being used. The latter situation is common enough that it’s ignored by Netflix most of the time. ![]() Conversely, if you’re on a network with many other people, the same IP address might be associated with multiple accounts. ![]() If you share your account with others, Netflix will see multiple IP addresses associated with it. ![]() That’s because you usually use just a couple of networks to stream – your home network and occasionally one at work, school, a friend’s house or a public place. Typically, Netflix would see one or two IP addresses associated with your account.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |