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2016-09-27, 11:18
(This post was last modified: 2016-09-27, 11:18 by Ned Scott.)
There was a very good article I was reading the other day about US copyright, and how most content companies don't understand that copyright law is not supposed to restrict usage, only copies. Things like geoblocking, device restrictions, and so on, are not actually protected by copyright in the US. Copyright says that once you have your copy, so long as you are not making another copy (which is a tricky definition for digital items) then you can do whatever you want with that copy. Even if you go to another country.
I don't know how true this is globally, but it's one of the reasons I hate geoblocking. If a person has legal access to content from one country, they should be able to access it from anywhere. Geoblocking is a lazy way to do things, IMO. The entire concept of local license negotiation is basically a money grab in 2016 (in the past it was necessary from a logistical standpoint, but that is no longer the case).
Of course, then the DMCA made a mess in the US of things with DRM, but that's another issue..
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Asphyx
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I disagree about Geoblocking having a legal basis...
It is nothing more than a marketing scam to get 1000s of companies to all bid against each other on the same content.
They know a company like Netflix will only pay X Amount for rights to stream so they limit where they can stream to so they can get some company in that other geolocation to pay them even more.
It has nothing to do with Broadcast which is an entirely separate license which is sold separately and regardless of if someone like Netflix paid for streaming rights to that location. Netflix paid for the rights to stream MovieX in the US but that sure doesn't stop NetworkY from broadcasting the same movie!
Geolocation is just an attempt to squeeze more water out of the IP Rock.
And now they want to stop VPNs from being legally used because it can screw up their money grab!
Stopping Piracy is one thing...But if they didn't show such greed there wouldn't be such a high piracy rate.
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da-anda
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don't get me wrong, I'm not pro geo blocking, I personally also think it sucks and has to go, but without spending too much thougts on it, I can imagine some legit use cases, like differing age restrictions in different countries? As a US citizen you ofc would like to watch with your US Netflix account wherever you are on the planet, but by doing so you might end up watching a show that's forbidden in a certain country. How to deal with this if not with geo blocking? Again, I don't like it, but I think there are at least a few valid reasons for it.
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Asphyx
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A better analogy is the Movie Theater analogy....
Each Movie Theater pays a fee to have exclusivity to play a Movie. (They also pay a percentage of sales but that doesn't apply here).
A Theater can only pay so much for that exclusivity before it loses money.
So the Content creators decide to create MULTIPLE EXCLUSIVITY ZONES that they can use to multiply the theater fees they get by the number of zones.
This made a ton of sense as a business model in Broadcasting where the broadcaster had a limited range of signal (Limited to Regional Access), and to distribute to more people more REGIONAL Distributors (geolocations) had to be sold Broadcasting rights to cover that region.
The problem is they are still applying that model to the Internet which does not have a limited range.
Unfortunately Netflix is not in a powerful enough position to insist on removing geoblocking since it needs movie stream rights to stay in business and are at the mercy of the Content Creators.
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Asphyx
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Better to just use VPNs and support those businesses who run them so the price can stay low enough to offset what you might have to pay for the 10 different services you need to get the same thing one USA Netflix account gets you.
When those other services stop buying rights because they have no subscribers then Netflix will have the power to say we are the only game in town and we are only willing to pay for World Rights.