Just last week Netflix announced plans to clamp down on VPNs and proxy tools. In what appears to be a move to please license holders the company has already started to impose new restrictions.
Some Netflix customers in Autralia who are using the uFlix VPN have noticed that their access to Netflix has been denied. Attempting to access Netflix using the tool results in an error message being displayed: "You seem to be using an unblocker or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again". But this is not the end of the story.
As noted by the Verge, uFlix is already aware of the problem, is monitoring the situation, and plans to find a way to get around the block. Writing on the company blog, the uFlix team said: "Some users are starting to have issues with Netflix blocking non-Australian content when going through uFlix. Though it is only affecting a few users at the moment, we expect this number to grow. We are working on a solution to get around these new measures and apologise for the inconvenience to those who are currently only getting Australian Netflix".
Other VPNs and proxies are likely to be targeted by Netflix in the coming weeks and months, but we're probably going to see companies fighting back in much the same way as uFlix. Ultimately, this could descend into a game of cat and mouse, with Netflix imposing a block which is quickly bypassed, replaced with another block, and so on, ad nauseum.
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