HBO Blocks VPN Users and Pirates

[blaze756]

HBO Now

"Australians who use geo-blocking circumvention tools to sneak into the US-only HBO Now video streaming service, to watch popular TV shows such as Game of Thrones, are being told they will soon be cut off."

HBO cracks down on pirates.

"Long gone are the days when HBO seemingly paid little mind to piracy. Following the leak of the first four episodes of season 5 of Game of Thrones, TorrentFreak is reporting that HBO is now dead serious about thwarting individuals from illegally downloading the world’s most pirated show."

HBO Now is being blocked by HBO for VPN users, so those that actually want to pay for their Game of Thrones subscription and not pirate it can no longer do so, and HBO is cracking down on pirates after the 4 episode leaks just before the season premiered.

OP: http://m.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/hbo-now-cuts-off-australian-game-of-thrones-geododgers-20150418-1mnt5q.html

OP: http://bgr.com/2015/04/20/game-of-thrones-bittorrent-hbo-pirates/

[Tacitus]

Oh, well, back to the mighty Pirate Bay.

The ship shall never sink.

[snowComet]

repost?

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/350751-hbo-now-cutting-off-vpn-users-australians-ect/

[blaze756]

I modified it so it's only half a repost

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

Cool, that's why I created my own $5 VPN with a VPS.

Magic

[Dabombinable]

Cool, that's why I created my own $5 VPN with a VPS.

Magic

I'm lucky in that regard, I've got a killer VPN setup because of our government's meta data harvesting scheme.

[Sunako]

  You may be upset but HBO has every right to restrict access. They are out to try and make money

They sell their product to more then just the consumers at this point in time. The sell it to service 

providers as a middle man. If people can get "HBO NOW" by bypassing  systems that will

hurt the service providers and work its way up the chain to HBO. HBO would rather Protect the

business relation ship with the provider then sell to a very minor demographic of people that

currently know how to bypass the system.  If it were as easy to bypass as a TV and a remote

HBO would be all over selling directly to the consumer but its not. It take a little know how and 

their main demographic of 35-55 doesn't have the skills or patients to deal with learning a new

system such as a roku, pc, or chrome cast.  Once we see the logging into your "HBO NOW" account

as easy as hitting power then flipping to the channel you want we will see a change not before then.

[deviant88]

"Cracking down on pirates"....

Always funny when i see that,if you dont make your service avaible worldwide,as long as the internet is worldwide you will get pirates and you cant do shit about it.

[as96]

Fighting piracy by banning people who are actually trying to support you, good idea! 

[MrDynamicMan]

People:HBO, your shows are some of the most pirated, how are you going to stop this?

HBO:(enrhusiasticly) cut off the people who are going as far as using a vpn to pay for our service!

Me:*facepalm*

[Dabombinable]

People:HBO, your shows are some of the most pirated, how are you going to stop this?

HBO:(enrhusiasticly) cut off the people who are going as far as using a vpn to pay for our service!

Me:*facepalm*

And me: Fuck HBO

[pawan1993]

-snip-

 

Do they have every right to do this? Yes they do as they're the content owners. Is it ethical and morally correct to do this? Hell no. That's the issue here. The most affordable way to watch GoT here in Australia is wait for the iTunes release. If you want to watch it live then you'll have to fork out $30 a month for now with their promotion and then $45 afterwards. That's almost $30 more than what HBO Now costs.

 

Steam made it easy and affordable to purchase and play games whenever you want. Spotify and other great music streaming offerings did the same with the music industry. Netflix and other online services are trying to make it easier and more affordable to watch your favourite movies & shows but it's things like this that are pegging the industry back. All of the above services are improving their respective industries (granted the music industry is still quite a mess but it is still improving) but with decisions like this from HBO and other content creators it isn't going to encourage people to pay for their content but rather do the opposite. Like I said, HBO can do what they want since they own the content but whether it's the right thing to do in terms of being fair and reducing piracy is another story entirely.

[Nicktrance]

  You may be upset but HBO has every right to restrict access. They are out to try and make money

They sell their product to more then just the consumers at this point in time. The sell it to service 

providers as a middle man. If people can get "HBO NOW" by bypassing  systems that will

hurt the service providers and work its way up the chain to HBO. HBO would rather Protect the

business relation ship with the provider then sell to a very minor demographic of people that

currently know how to bypass the system.  If it were as easy to bypass as a TV and a remote

HBO would be all over selling directly to the consumer but its not. It take a little know how and 

their main demographic of 35-55 doesn't have the skills or patients to deal with learning a new

system such as a roku, pc, or chrome cast.  Once we see the logging into your "HBO NOW" account

as easy as hitting power then flipping to the channel you want we will see a change not before then.

 

True, but not serving those people would not provide any benefit to the service provider either as they'd then have to turn to piracy.

[spartaman64]

the number of pirates is going to increase 

[ADM-Ntek]

considering that last year alone the number of 18 ish male tv watchers has dropped by 30% they should probably reconsider pissing the steamers off. and those numbers are increasing and they know how to pirate since it is much easier. 

[xeromynd]

That's like saying

 

> "Hey, our bank is getting robbed a LOT!"

     > "Yeah and ALL the robbers drive Honda Civics"

> "Well, lets just not let anyone who drives a Honda Civic into the bank"

    > "Good idea! Sweeping generalizations FTW m8!"

 

I get that there isn't really a reliable way tell the good VPN users from the bad VPN users (afaik), just sucks :-/

[Misanthrope]

Yeah, good luck blocking pirates: It's easier to dodge rain.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Meanwhile I'll just download it and buy the Blu-Ray boxset when it becomes available here. 

 

Distribution is the problem, HBO, and you're only making it worse.  How stupid are those corporations really?

[dmegatool]

That's like saying

 

> "Hey, our bank is getting robbed a LOT!"

     > "Yeah and ALL the robbers drive Honda Civics"

> "Well, lets just not let anyone who drives a Honda Civic into the bank"

    > "Good idea! Sweeping generalizations FTW m8!"

 

I get that there isn't really a reliable way tell the good VPN users from the bad VPN users (afaik), just sucks :-/

The percentage of HBO users using VPN that are actually in the US is probably really small, read neglegible. Still, it kinda sucks when people outside the US wants to pay to legally view the shows. That sure won't pour water onto the torrenting fire... 

 

Yeah, good luck blocking pirates: It's easier to dodge rain.

Hey look at me under my umbrella, dodging rain ! Yeah I'm that smart... I work for HBO