Handy way to watch stuff online with Netflix

[Purplecat]

I'm not sure whether it's possible to get Netflix in Cyprus. I know that a lot of countries that I travel to don't have access to it. It's a pay monthly service (about £6) and it has a LOT of series, documentaries and movies on it that you can watch online if you have a broadband connection, and obviously you can hook this up to your TV. It's a really cheap alternative to satellite and it's on demand, but of course, you don't have news on it at all.

I found a way to get it via a US military site giving advice to their overseas servicemen. They recommended using a service called Hide My Ass which can give you an IP address from the States or UK wherever you are in the world. US and UK Netflix have slightly different content, but when you subscribe, you can have access to both provided you are in that country. Hide My Ass can also give you a UK IP address, you just have to select where in the world you'd like it from the countries they have available. I just use UK and US IP addresses to watch it. And you can just turn it on and off from your desktop - i.e. you can just use your own IP address when you want.

They charge a small fee of about US $5 a month if you pay in advance, but it opens up a world of TV very cheaply. It's not in anyway illegal or underhand. Hide My Ass own their network of servers. It also means that you can browse the web without any search engines taking footprints of your own activity and interests, so it's supposed to be more web safe. Whatever that means.


Anyway, in case you're interested you can find Hide My Ass and Netflix via your search engine.

It's very easy to set up, and I've found it great when I have to travel. Hope it is useful to some of you.

[Vegaanders]

Hi!
I dont agree that its not in any way illegal. Just the use of Hide my ass or other anonymisers tells us that you want to look at content that the provider can only show in a specific country.
I always use an anonymiser service to be able to watch my swedish tv but I am aware that it is not really allowed.

I also see that swedish tv companies now block ip addresses from this services as soon as they are known to them

The funny thing is that its not a problem for you to look, its the tv company that "make the crime" by making it possible.

[Purplecat]

You're right, Vegaanders. It is illegal if it's used for illegal activities. If you'd use it for, say, torrenting or hacking. In fact there were recent prosecutions with the aid of HMA for illegal hacking

There was a recent BBC article on the famous Lulzsec hackers. There's also a page of info on the HMA website as to whether they're legal or not. You can type 'is Use HideMyAss is legal?' into your search engine (sorry, I can't post a url on here yet).

And you could put yourself into a similar position if you attempted to torrent or hack yourself. Also, using Twitter as part of the Arab Spring was aided by HMA, to the anger of the governments who'd blocked Twitter in their countries.

Netflix doesn't have the copyright permission to broadcast the shows on its list in some countries, hence the difference in the material you can see in the UK and US. Also, watching BBC and ITV on internet players is committing the same offence, technically. But fortunately, the governments aren't really worried about that. If you've paid your subscription to Netflix, then I guess you decide whether you're really stealing or not. Probably not like torrenting. And you don't download the movie or show to watch by copying it permanently onto your hard drive or software.

But yes, it is worth pointing this out. Thanks.

[bob_bob]

The netflix US site has a LOT more content than the UK site. Sign up to the UK site then pay a couple of quid a month to Unblock Us - smarter faster VPN which lets you access the US site using the user name you got in the UK.

[Vegaanders]

Originally Posted by Purplecat

You're right, Vegaanders. It is illegal if it's used for illegal activities. If you'd use it for, say, torrenting or hacking. In fact there were recent prosecutions with the aid of HMA for illegal hacking

There was a recent BBC article on the famous Lulzsec hackers. There's also a page of info on the HMA website as to whether they're legal or not. You can type 'is Use HideMyAss is legal?' into your search engine (sorry, I can't post a url on here yet).

And you could put yourself into a similar position if you attempted to torrent or hack yourself. Also, using Twitter as part of the Arab Spring was aided by HMA, to the anger of the governments who'd blocked Twitter in their countries.

Netflix doesn't have the copyright permission to broadcast the shows on its list in some countries, hence the difference in the material you can see in the UK and US. Also, watching BBC and ITV on internet players is committing the same offence, technically. But fortunately, the governments aren't really worried about that. If you've paid your subscription to Netflix, then I guess you decide whether you're really stealing or not. Probably not like torrenting. And you don't download the movie or show to watch by copying it permanently onto your hard drive or software.

But yes, it is worth pointing this out. Thanks.

Ofc I decide myself what to do. I always use VPN as I said, of 2 reasons. 1, I want to look at swedish tv, 2 I dont want to be traced everywhere.

But with the new EU directives this will be harder because of the new 6 month storage of telecom data. At least when you want a EU IP-address.

And again looking at tv in another country using a vpn proxy is not illegal, just to make it possible not blocking foreign IP-addresses.

I have a hunch that when no the big companies like BBC and others launch IP-tv they will spend a lot of money to prevent you from looking from outside UK on protected material.

But that we have to see