Geo-blocking

Last updated

Geo-blocking, geoblocking or geolocking is technology that restricts access to Internet content based upon the user's geographical location. In a geo-blocking scheme, the user's location is determined using Internet geolocation techniques, such as checking the user's IP address against a blacklist or whitelist, GPS queries in the case of a mobile device, accounts, and measuring the end-to-end delay of a network connection to estimate the physical location of the user. [1] [2] The result of this check is used to determine whether the system will approve or deny access to the website or to particular content. The geolocation may also be used to modify the content provided, for example, the currency in which goods are quoted, the price or the range of goods that are available, besides other aspects.

Contents

The term is most commonly associated with its use to restrict access to premium multimedia content on the Internet, such as films and television shows, primarily for copyright and licensing reasons. There are other uses for geo-blocking, such as blocking malicious traffic or to enforce price discrimination, location-aware authentication, fraud prevention, and online gambling (where gambling laws vary by region).

Justification

The ownership of exclusive territorial rights to audiovisual works may differ between regions, requiring the providers of the content to disallow access for users outside of their designated region; for example, although an online service, HBO Now is only available to residents of the United States, and cannot be offered in other countries because its parent network HBO had already licensed exclusive rights to its programming to different broadcasters (such as in Canada, where HBO licensed its back-catalogue to Bell Media), who may offer their own, similar service specific to their own region and business model (such as Crave). [3] [4] For similar reasons, the library of content available on subscription video on demand services such as Netflix may also vary between regions, or the service may not even be available in the user's country at all. [5] [6]

Geo-blocking can be used for other purposes as well. Price discrimination by online stores can be enforced by geo-blocking, forcing users to buy products online from a foreign version of a site where prices may be unnecessarily higher than those of their domestic version (although the inverse is often the case). The "Australia Tax" has been cited as an example of this phenomenon, which has led to governmental pressure to restrict how geo-blocking can be used in this manner in the country. [7] [8]

Other noted uses include blocking access from countries that a particular website is not relevant to (especially if the majority of traffic from that country is malicious), [9] and voluntarily blocking access to content or services that are illegal under local laws. This can include online gambling, [10] and various international websites blocking access to users within the European Economic Area due to concerns of liability under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). [11] [12] [13]

Circumvention

Geo-blocking can be circumvented. When IP address-based geo-blocking is employed, virtual private network (VPN) and anonymizer services can be used to evade geo-blocks. A user can, for example, access a website using a U.S. IP address in order to access content or services that are not available from outside the country. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and BBC iPlayer are among the foreign video services widely used through these means by foreign users. [2] Its popularity among VPN users in the country prompted Netflix to officially establish an Australian version of its service in 2014. [14] In response to complaints over the quality of domestic coverage by NBC, along with a requirement for viewers be a subscriber to a participating pay television provider in order to access the online content, a large number of American viewers used VPN services to stream foreign online coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2014 Winter Olympics from British and Canadian broadcasters. Unlike NBC's coverage, this foreign coverage only used a geo-block and did not require a TV subscription. [15] People can also use a satellite phone, for example Thuraya, an Indian company, and Starlink, an American company; the signals go directly to the satellite and not through the country's network. [16] [17]

In 2009, Venezuela subsidized the launch of the communications satellite Venesat-1, in part to amplify Telesur's programming by enabling it to avoid geo-blocking efforts by DirectTV, an American company. [18]

In 2013, the New Zealand internet service provider Slingshot introduced a similar feature known as "global mode"; initially intended for travellers to enable access to local websites blocked in New Zealand, the service was re-launched in July 2014 as a feature to all Slingshot subscribers. The consumer-focused re-launch focused on its ability to provide access to U.S. online video services. [5] [14] [15] [19] Unlike manually-configured VPN services, Global Mode was implemented passively at the ISP level and was automatically activated based on a whitelist, without any further user intervention. [20]

Legality of circumvention for online video

The legality of circumventing geo-blocking to access foreign video services under local copyright laws is unclear and varies by country. [20] Members of the entertainment industry (including broadcasters and studios) have contended that the use of VPNs and similar services to evade geo-blocking by online video services is a violation of copyright laws, as the foreign service does not hold the rights to make its content available in the user's country—thus infringing and undermining the rights held by a local rights holder. [6] [19] [21] Accessing online video services from outside the country in which they operate is typically considered a violation of their respective terms of use; some services have implemented measures to block VPN users, despite there being legitimate uses for such proxy services, under the assumption that they are using them to evade geographic filtering. [6] [19] [22] [5] [4] [23]

Leaked e-mails from the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack revealed statements by Keith LeGoy, Sony Pictures Television's president of international distribution, describing the international usage of Netflix over VPN services as being "semi-sanctioned" piracy that helped to illicitly increase its market share, and criticizing the company for not taking further steps to prevent usage of the service outside of regions where they have licenses to their content, such as detecting ineligible users via their payment method. [6] [19] On 14 January 2016, Netflix announced its intent to strengthen measures to prevent subscribers from accessing regional versions of the service that they are not authorized to use. [24]

Australia

In Australia, a policy FAQ published by then Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull, states that users violating an "international commercial arrangement to protect copyright in different countries or regions" is not illegal under Australian copyright law. [19] However, an amendment to Australian copyright law allows courts to order the blocking of websites that primarily engage in "facilitating" copyright infringement—a definition which could include VPN services that market themselves specifically for the purpose of evading geo-blocking. [19] [25] Prior to the passing of this amendment in June 2015, Turnbull acknowledged that VPN services have "a wide range of legitimate uses, not least of which is the preservation of privacy—something which every citizen is entitled to secure for themselves—and [VPN providers] have no oversight, control or influence over their customers’ activities." [26]

European Union

On 6 May 2015, the European Union announced the adoption of its "Digital Single Market" strategy, which would amongst other changes, aim to end the use of "unjustified" geo-blocking between EU countries, arguing that "too many Europeans cannot use online services that are available in other EU countries, often without any justification; or they are re-routed to a local store with different prices. Such discrimination cannot exist in a Single Market." [27] [28] However, proposals issued by the European Commission on 25 May 2016 excluded the territorial licensing of copyrighted audiovisual works from this strategy. [29] [30]

On 1 April 2018, new digital media portability rules took effect, which requires paid digital media services to offer "roaming" within the EU. This means that, for example, a subscriber to Netflix in one EU country must still be able to access their home country's version of the service when travelling into other EU countries. [31] [32] [33]

The European Union has approved the Regulation on Measures to Combat Unjustified Geoblocking and Other Forms of Discrimination Based on Citizenship, Place of Residence or Location of a Person in the Internal Market, which entered into force on 3 December 2018. [34]

The geo-blocking regulation aims to provide more options for consumers and businesses in the EU internal market. It addresses the problem that (potential) customers cannot buy goods and services from sellers located in another Member State for reasons related to their citizenship, place of residence or location, and therefore discriminate against them when they try to get access to the best offers, prices or terms of sale compared to the nationals or residents of the member state of the sellers.

The new rules only apply if the other party is a consumer or a company that purchases services or products exclusively for end use (B2C, B2B). Geo-blocking regulation does not apply if products are sold to business customers for commercial purposes. The Geoblocking Ordinance does not completely prohibit geoblocking and geo-discrimination: it only prohibits certain forms.

Geo-blocking regulations prohibit geo-blocking and geo-discrimination in three situations:

  1. It is not permitted to deny website visitors access to it or automatically redirect them to another website depending on their location. Redirection is only allowed with the consent of the visitor. Similar rules apply to apps as well: they must be able to download and use them throughout the EU.
  2. The rules apply to the means of payment accepted on the site. A payment method cannot be refused because the customer or his / or her bank is located in another EU Member State or because the means of payment was issued in another EU Member State. Other payment terms and higher transaction costs are also prohibited.
  3. In certain situations, it is no longer allowed to apply other general conditions to foreign customers:
    1. when providing digital services such as cloud services and web hosting;
    2. when providing services in a physical location, such as renting cars or selling tickets for an event;
    3. When selling goods and offering, either deliver them to a specific area or collect them in a specific place (for example, a store).

The prohibition of direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of citizenship is a fundamental principle of EU law. In situations not covered by this Regulation, Article 20 (2) of the Services Directive (2006/123 / EC) may apply. According to this provision, sellers can only apply a difference of treatment based on nationality or place of residence if this is justified by objective criteria. In some cases, industry-specific legislation (such as transport or health) may also apply that addresses this issue. In addition, the Regulation does not affect the TFEU rules, including the non-discrimination rules. [35]

New Zealand

In April 2015, a group of media companies in New Zealand, including MediaWorks, Spark, Sky Network Television, and TVNZ, jointly sent cease and desist notices to several ISPs offering VPN services for the purpose of evading geo-blocking, demanding that they pledge to discontinue the operation of these services by 15 April 2015, and to inform their customers that such services are "unlawful". The companies accused the ISPs of facilitating copyright infringement by violating their exclusive territorial rights to content in the country, and misrepresenting the alleged legality of the services in promotional material. In particular, Spark argued that the use of VPNs to access foreign video on demand services was cannibalizing its own domestic service Lightbox. At least two smaller providers (Lightwire Limited and Unlimited Internet) announced that they would pull their VPN services in response to the legal concerns. However, CallPlus, the parent company of Slingshot and Orcon, objected to the claims, arguing that the Global Mode service was "completely legal", and accused the broadcasters of displaying protectionism. Later that month, it was reported that the broadcasters planned to go forward with legal action against CallPlus. [2] [19] [36]

On 24 June 2015, it was announced that the media companies reached an out-of-court settlement, in which ByPass Network Services, who operates the service, would discontinue it effective 1 September 2015.

See also

Related Research Articles

IP address blocking or IP banning is a configuration of a network service that blocks requests from hosts with certain IP addresses. IP address blocking is commonly used to protect against brute force attacks and to prevent access by a disruptive address. It can also be used to restrict access to or from a particular geographic area; for example, syndicating content to a specific region through the use of Internet geolocation.

A regional lockout is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced through physical means, through technological means such as detecting the user's IP address or using an identifying code, or through unintentional means introduced by devices only supporting certain regional technologies.

Internet censorship in Australia is enforced by both the country's criminal law as well as voluntarily enacted by internet service providers. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the power to enforce content restrictions on Internet content hosted within Australia, and maintain a blocklist of overseas websites which is then provided for use in filtering software. The restrictions focus primarily on child pornography, sexual violence, and other illegal activities, compiled as a result of a consumer complaints process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in India</span> Overview of Internet censorship in India

Internet censorship in India is done by both central and state governments. DNS filtering and educating service users in suggested usages is an active strategy and government policy to regulate and block access to Internet content on a large scale. Measures for removing content at the request of content creators through court orders have also become more common in recent years. Initiating a mass surveillance government project like Golden Shield Project is an alternative that has been discussed over the years by government bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slingshot (ISP)</span> New Zealand telecommunications company

Slingshot is the fourth largest telecommunications company in New Zealand. It has an approximately 16% market share of the New Zealand fixed telephone landline and residential broadband market. There are 300+ employees who all work in Auckland CBD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship</span> Legal control of the internet

Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains but exceptionally may extend to all Internet resources located outside the jurisdiction of the censoring state. Internet censorship may also put restrictions on what information can be made internet accessible. Organizations providing internet access – such as schools and libraries – may choose to preclude access to material that they consider undesirable, offensive, age-inappropriate or even illegal, and regard this as ethical behavior rather than censorship. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship of material they publish, for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, political views, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.

Internet censorship in the United Kingdom is conducted under a variety of laws, judicial processes, administrative regulations and voluntary arrangements. It is achieved by blocking access to sites as well as the use of laws that criminalise publication or possession of certain types of material. These include English defamation law, the Copyright law of the United Kingdom, regulations against incitement to terrorism and child pornography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship of YouTube</span> Censorship of the video sharing media site

Censorship of video-sharing platform YouTube occurs to varying degrees in many countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in Hong Kong</span> Fact about Hong Kong

In general, there is relatively little Internet censorship in Hong Kong beyond laws that criminalize the distribution of unlicensed copyrighted material and obscene images, particularly child pornography when compared to the rest of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VPN blocking</span>

VPN blocking is a technique used to block the encrypted protocol tunneling communications methods used by virtual private network (VPN) systems. Often used by large organizations such as national governments or corporations, it can act as a tool for computer security or Internet censorship by preventing the use of VPNs to bypass network firewall systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countries blocking access to The Pirate Bay</span>

This is a list on countries where at least one internet service provider (ISP) formerly or currently censors the popular file sharing website The Pirate Bay (TPB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network sovereignty</span> Effort to create boundaries on a network

In internet governance, network sovereignty, also called digital sovereignty or cyber sovereignty, is the effort of a governing entity, such as a state, to create boundaries on a network and then exert a form of control, often in the form of law enforcement over such boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popcorn Time</span> BitTorrent client and media player software

Popcorn Time is a multi-platform, free software BitTorrent client that includes an integrated media player. The application provides a piracy-based alternative to subscription-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Popcorn Time uses sequential downloading to stream video listed by several torrent websites, and third-party trackers can also be added manually. The legality of the software depends on the jurisdiction.

Hola is a freemium web and mobile application which provides a form of VPN service to its users through a peer-to-peer network. It also uses peer-to-peer caching. When a user accesses certain domains that are known to use geo-blocking, the Hola application redirects the request to go through the computers and Internet connections of other users in non-blocked areas, thereby circumventing the blocking. Users of the free service share a portion of their idle upload bandwidth to be used for serving cached data to other users. Paying users can choose to redirect all requests to peers but are themselves never used as peers.

GitHub has been the target of censorship from governments using methods ranging from local Internet service provider blocks, intermediary blocking using methods such as DNS hijacking and man-in-the-middle attacks, and denial-of-service attacks on GitHub's servers from countries including China, India, Iraq, Russia, and Turkey. In all of these cases, GitHub has been eventually unblocked after backlash from users and technology businesses or compliance from GitHub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RARBG</span> BitTorrent metasearch engine

RARBG was a website that provided torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. From 2014 to 2023, RARBG repeatedly appeared in TorrentFreak's yearly list of most visited torrent websites. It was ranked 4th as of January 2023. The website did not allow users to upload their own torrents.

Netflix is a subscription streaming service owned by the American company Netflix, Inc. Launched on August 29, 1997, it initially offered DVD rental and sale by mail, but the sales were eliminated within a year to focus on the DVD rental business. In 2007, the company began transitioning to its current subscription streaming model. Since its launch, the company was subject to numerous criticisms, the basis of which range from its business practices and workplace culture to issues with the service it provides, including content issues, lack of close captioning and pricing. This article provides an overview of key criticisms the company has faced.

Net neutrality is the principle that governments should mandate Internet service providers to treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication. For instance, under these principles, internet service providers are unable to intentionally block, slow down or charge money for specific websites and online content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship and surveillance in Oceania</span> Overview about the Internet censorship and surveillance in Oceania

This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in Oceania provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in Oceania.

A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geoblocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks.

References

  1. ↑ Abdou, AbdelRahman; Matrawy, Ashraf; van Oorschot, Paul (June 2015). "CPV: Delay-based Location Verification for the Internet" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing. 14 (2): 130–144. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.696.691 . doi:10.1109/TDSC.2015.2451614. S2CID   16821731. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Global mode spat: We've got the legal paperwork". TelcoReview. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "HBO Now users outside US to be 'cut off'". 21 April 2015. Archived from the original on 30 October 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  4. 1 2 "HBO is cracking down on Canadians accessing streaming service HBO Now". Financial Post. 22 April 2015. Archived from the original on 14 June 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Netflix VPN access locked down for overseas users". CNET. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Sony Pictures mad at Netflix's failure to block overseas VPN users". Ars Technica. 10 December 2014. Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "The 'Australia tax' is real, geo-blocking to stop". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "IT pricing: DBCDE tells inquiry geoblocking legislation problematic". Computerworld Australia. Archived from the original on 22 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "How to block traffic from other countries in Linux". ITWorld. 27 December 2013. Archived from the original on 30 April 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  10. ↑ Glanz, James; Williams, Jacqueline (13 November 2015). "DraftKings Leaves Door Unlocked for Barred Fantasy Sports Players". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  11. ↑ Hern, Alex; Waterson, Jim (24 May 2018). "Sites block users, shut down activities and flood inboxes as GDPR rules loom". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  12. ↑ "Blocking 500 Million Users Is Easier Than Complying With Europe's New Rules". Bloomberg L.P. 25 May 2018. Archived from the original on 25 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  13. ↑ "U.S. News Outlets Block European Readers Over New Privacy Rules". The New York Times. 25 May 2018. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  14. 1 2 "New Zealand ISP's 'Global Mode' gives users access to Netflix and more". CNET. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  15. 1 2 Szklarski, Cassandra (10 February 2014). "Some U.S. viewers turn to CBC amid complaints about NBC's Olympic coverage". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  16. ↑ https://www.thuraya.com/ [ bare URL ]
  17. ↑ https://www.starlink.com/ [ bare URL ]
  18. ↑ Davis, Stuart (2023). Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Haymarket Books. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-64259-812-4. OCLC   1345216431.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "New Zealand ISPs may be sued for letting users bypass geoblocks". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  20. 1 2 "In New Zealand, a legal battle looms over streaming TV". Computerworld AU. IDG. Archived from the original on 24 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  21. ↑ "Bell Media president says using VPNs to skirt copyright rules is stealing". CBC News. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  22. ↑ "Hulu attempts to block international viewers who use VPNs". Engadget. 26 April 2014. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  23. ↑ "BBC blocks international iPlayer viewers ahead of US launch". Wired UK. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  24. ↑ "Netflix says it will do more to stop customers from bypassing country restrictions". The Verge. 14 January 2016. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  25. ↑ "Site blocking laws could drag VPNs into the anti-piracy net". Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  26. ↑ "Australia passes controversial anti-piracy web censorship law". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "Europe Will Abolish Geo-Blocking and Other Copyright Restrictions". TorrentFreak. 6 May 2015. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  28. ↑ "EU announces plans to banish geo-blocking, modernize copyright law". Ars Technica. 27 March 2015. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  29. ↑ "Europe's Geoblocking Decision: What You Need to Know". Bloomberg. 25 May 2016. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  30. ↑ "Netflix, Amazon given quotas for EU-produced video, face new tax". Ars Technica. 25 May 2016. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  31. ↑ Priday, Richard. "You can now use your Netflix subscription anywhere in the EU". Wired.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  32. ↑ "EU plans to let you stream your movies, TV and sport abroad". CNET. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  33. ↑ "European travelers can now watch Netflix like they're at home". Engadget. Archived from the original on 1 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  34. ↑ "Geo-blocking regulation - Questions and Answers | Shaping Europe's digital future". digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu. 20 September 2018. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  35. ↑ Mirolyubova, Svetlana. "THE PROBLEM OF GEOBLOCKING AND GEODISCRIMINATION IN THE CONTEXT OF CREATING A SINGLE DIGITAL MARKET". Law and Economics. 2020 № 10: 17–21. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  36. ↑ "Global Mode "completely legal" as CallPlus dismisses industry backlash". Computerworld NZ. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.