4 ms·

I can't help but wonder why Netflix cares this deeply. Are their contractual obligations that incredibly stringent?

by Salgat 5y ago

cletus 5y ago
Of course there are. Pretty much every stupid geo-restriction, restriction on downloads, restrictions on the number of downloads (why??), etc comes down to some stupid rights holder think this is something they want.
technofiend 5y ago
You have to remember the movie business has been dragged kicking and screaming into progressively larger and larger buckets of money since forever. VCRs? They'll kill the movie industry. DVDs? Same. Blueray, even worse since quality is so good no one will ever buy a movie again. Streaming services? Last one out of Hollywood please turn out the lights. Blah, blah, blah. The then head of the MPAA Jack Valenti literally compared the VCR to a serial killer named the Boston Strangler. "'I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.' Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal. He also called the VCR an "avalanche" and a "tidal wave", and said it would make the film industry "bleed and bleed and hemorrhage" As quoted on slashdot: https://news.slashdot.org/story/02/05/31/1622232/valentis-boston-strangler-testimony https://news.slashdot.org/story/02/05/31/1622232/valentis-bo... My point is yes there are incredibly strict covenants in place and I'm sure they're probably preventing more revenue than they're allegedly protecting.
- smilespray 5y ago
  Wherever Jack Valenti is now, I hope it's hot.
crazygringo 5y ago
Yes of course they are! Netflix signs licensing deals that are per-country, and the licenses require that Netflix actively enforce that media is steamed only to the country in question. You think Netflix is enforcing these restrictions because it wants to, or because it thinks it's fun to defeat VPN's? Of course not. All of this effort costs money that obviously Netflix wouldn't be paying if it weren't required to. It's doing so because it's contractually obligated to. So don't get mad at Netflix. They don't have a choice. They're just doing what their content providers require them to.
- aaron_m04 5y ago
  Do their contracts require detailed heuristics for detecting VPNs? Would it be breach of contract if they were a bit lazy in how they checked what the user's country was (simple IP to country lookup, for instance)?
  - DoingIsLearning 5y ago
    I suspect you won't get an answer because they are probably not contractually obliged to go to this length. I doubt these contracts would go into such a deeply tech savvy specification. However it is a pretty good scapegoat convenience to point your fingers to copyright lawyers. The thing is they probably realized that if they continued to do nothing, everyone and their dog would be connected through a Canadian ip which gives people the most content out of any country out there.
    - curiousgal 5y ago
      > everyone and their dog would be connected through a Canadian ip which gives people the most content out of any country out there. Honestly all I care about is the Columbian soap opera that only streams in Columbia and Argentina ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - cortesoft 5y ago
    Probably not, but remember Netflix is constantly having to negotiate new contracts with the content providers. If they don’t feel like Netflix is doing enough, they won’t negotiate another deal, or they will demand more money in return. Netflix will use their success at blocking VPNs as a negotiating tool.
    - DoingIsLearning 5y ago
      I honestly think they are using the copyright lawyers as a scapegoat. The have to do all sorts of Infrastructure tricks and optimizations to have the performance that they currently do. They most likely realized they had a non-insignificant number of vpn connections (that can change country in short notice) and this probably introduced a massive spanner in the works on their Infrastructure/Optimizations. I doubt the studios understand half of what Netflix has to do backend wise to appreciate any of it on a negotiation table.
Havoc 5y ago
More like pressure than contractual obligations

I can't help but wonder why Netflix cares this deeply. Are their contractual obligations that incredibly stringent?

by Salgat 5y ago

I can't help but wonder why Netflix cares this deeply. Are their contractual obligations that incredibly stringent?

Of course there are. Pretty much every stupid geo-restriction, restriction on downloads, restrictions on the number of downloads (why??), etc comes down to some stupid rights holder think this is something they want.

technofiend 5y ago

You have to remember the movie business has been dragged kicking and screaming into progressively larger and larger buckets of money since forever. VCRs? They'll kill the movie industry. DVDs? Same. Blueray, even worse since quality is so good no one will ever buy a movie again. Streaming services? Last one out of Hollywood please turn out the lights. Blah, blah, blah. The then head of the MPAA Jack Valenti literally compared the VCR to a serial killer named the Boston Strangler. "'I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.' Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal. He also called the VCR an "avalanche" and a "tidal wave", and said it would make the film industry "bleed and bleed and hemorrhage" As quoted on slashdot: https://news.slashdot.org/story/02/05/31/1622232/valentis-boston-strangler-testimony https://news.slashdot.org/story/02/05/31/1622232/valentis-bo... My point is yes there are incredibly strict covenants in place and I'm sure they're probably preventing more revenue than they're allegedly protecting.

smilespray 5y ago
Wherever Jack Valenti is now, I hope it's hot.

crazygringo 5y ago

Yes of course they are! Netflix signs licensing deals that are per-country, and the licenses require that Netflix actively enforce that media is steamed only to the country in question. You think Netflix is enforcing these restrictions because it wants to, or because it thinks it's fun to defeat VPN's? Of course not. All of this effort costs money that obviously Netflix wouldn't be paying if it weren't required to. It's doing so because it's contractually obligated to. So don't get mad at Netflix. They don't have a choice. They're just doing what their content providers require them to.

aaron_m04 5y ago
Do their contracts require detailed heuristics for detecting VPNs? Would it be breach of contract if they were a bit lazy in how they checked what the user's country was (simple IP to country lookup, for instance)?
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago
  I suspect you won't get an answer because they are probably not contractually obliged to go to this length. I doubt these contracts would go into such a deeply tech savvy specification. However it is a pretty good scapegoat convenience to point your fingers to copyright lawyers. The thing is they probably realized that if they continued to do nothing, everyone and their dog would be connected through a Canadian ip which gives people the most content out of any country out there.
  - curiousgal 5y ago
    > everyone and their dog would be connected through a Canadian ip which gives people the most content out of any country out there. Honestly all I care about is the Columbian soap opera that only streams in Columbia and Argentina ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- cortesoft 5y ago
  Probably not, but remember Netflix is constantly having to negotiate new contracts with the content providers. If they don’t feel like Netflix is doing enough, they won’t negotiate another deal, or they will demand more money in return. Netflix will use their success at blocking VPNs as a negotiating tool.
  - DoingIsLearning 5y ago
    I honestly think they are using the copyright lawyers as a scapegoat. The have to do all sorts of Infrastructure tricks and optimizations to have the performance that they currently do. They most likely realized they had a non-insignificant number of vpn connections (that can change country in short notice) and this probably introduced a massive spanner in the works on their Infrastructure/Optimizations. I doubt the studios understand half of what Netflix has to do backend wise to appreciate any of it on a negotiation table.

Havoc 5y ago

More like pressure than contractual obligations