Just when we’re all heaping praises on Netflix, our newest God of Entertainment, they just had to go out and ruin it for some of us who’ve been loyal customers for years — way before #NetflixandChill became a proper thing here.
In a post by Netflix’s VP of content delivery architecture David Fullagar, he announced doom and gloom for all users who utilise VPNs, proxies and unblocking apps to bypass country viewing restrictions.
“In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are,” said Fullagar, while assuring that the move won’t impact normies who aren’t using the tools and respecting the rules.
What this means is that Netflix members in Singapore will be firmly locked into the region’s viewing restrictions, and will only be able to access the paltry “curated content” available. That means no House of Cards, Arrested Development, Futurama and thousands of other shows and films, no matter how crafty you are with your IP addresses.
With Netflix now available almost everywhere in the world, Fullagar doesn’t want anyone using proxies anymore as they’re working on licensing content across the world to ensure viewing equity. He does admit however that they still have “a ways to go” before they can offer folks the same content everywhere.
“For now, given the historic practice of licensing content by geographic territories, the TV shows and movies we offer differ, to varying degrees, by territory,” he says. “In the meantime, we will continue to respect and enforce content licensing by geographic location.”
Ironically, this’ll only drive folks — cord cutters especially — back to illegal downloads for their latest fix of films and TV shows. The best way to combat piracy is to make them easier to watch, and regional content restrictions are only making it even shittier for both consumers and the industry.
