Oh the struggles of paradise. Many of us miss our first world TV shows and having things on-demand. So what better way to fulfill this need than to use Netflix!
Netflix is great, but it has one problem. The suits in charge of rights and distribution of movies and TV shows don’t always agree that their content should
be available for purchase in Mexico. This makes it a bit harder to be legit and pay for what you want.
As a result, you can purchase Netflix, but when you log in, they see that you are coming from Mexico and give you the Mexico catalog. This is a very different group of shows and movies. Depending on what you like to watch, you might not see the difference. But for many they will quickly see that all of their favorite shows and movies are missing due to distribution limitations placed by those formerly mentioned suits.
One way around this limitation, that used to work (past tense), was to set up a VPN. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network (I know that probable doesn’t help). To simplify, when you use a VPN all of your traffic is encrypted and then pops out at a location in the United States (or whatever country you choose). From there it goes about its merry way advertising its location as some place in the U.S. This fools Netflix into thinking that you are in the United States so they give you the full U.S. catalog.
So what was that past tense comment all about? Well…the content owners know that people have been illegally watching their stuff by paying for it but residing in the WRONG country. Such a crime!! These owners have been putting pressure on Netflix for a while now to fix this and Netflix finally caved to the irrationality. Last month they began their effort to block all VPN providers to ensure only people who are in the U.S. can watch U.S. content.
If you watch with a VPN you might now get an error message from Netflix telling you to turn off your VPN to watch. Of course if you are in Mexico then you will get redirected to Netflix Mexico. Some VPN providers have vowed to fight back, but at this point it is “a game of cat and mouse” (quote is actually from a Netflix exec). The provider might get you working again for a few days or more, but then along comes Netflix blocking them again.
So what are you to do? Some people have had limited success with DNS trickery offered by other providers. These work by manipulating the queries your computer does when asking for Netflix, causing your computer to connect to U.S. Netflix servers. TVUnblock is one such provider that you can try out for free. Unblock.us is another such provider that you can try if TVUnblock doesn’t work; they offer a free week trial. Depending on your internet provider setup, the DNS trickery may or may not work. There have been reports of it not working with Playa Wireless or Wimex unless you have purchased a static external IP from them (if you don’t know what that is, you didn’t buy it). If all that fails, then you might need a tech nerd to set up your own VPN server in a datacenter somewhere in the States. It can be done pretty easily, but of course you would be reliant on them if any problems occur, rather than a dedicated support line.
While it is easy to get mad at Netflix, they aren’t really the bad guy here. They have long turned a blind eye and ignored content providers requests to crack down. But it finally came to a point where they had to cave. On the plus side, they are strongly negotiating to get all content licensed Globally. That would mean no matter what country you are in, if Netflix is offered then all content is available. Time will tell how long that will take.
Content providers need to embrace changes. When music was easy to download illegally online, people did it. But when iTunes came along all of a sudden music piracy dropped through the floor. Movies and TV shows are no different. If it is easier to “illegally” get Netflix U.S. or download pirated movies than it is to purchase them legitimately, then piracy will continue and they will get little or no revenue. I think somehow they believe someone in Mexico is going to copy their content and sell it on the black market, but what really is happening is that the lack of legally purchasable content CAUSES piracy. Sorry for ending in a rant.
Article courtesy of Yucantech.
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