[Kushan]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

It could be done largely automatically with a minion to review and click the button.

Any time multiple connections are coming from different Netflix IDs on the same IP can raise eyebrows. Those connections coming from a datacentre ups the confidence level some more and the odds of a false positive can be reduced as residential IP pools are easy enough to find.

Using trials or even brief subscriptions to the VPNs to obtain endpoints is another possibility.

None of this requires massive technical skill or expensive and for a company of Netflix's size a full time compliance minion verifying the reports the security team generate shouldn't be a big deal.

It hasn't been done because Netflix haven't felt the need to get serious about it, much as the BBC haven't gotten serious on people using VPNs to view iPlayer. If the people they purchase rights from lean on them enough they'll get it sorted.

EDIT: Think about it this way - block the 'big' boys and people jump ship. Suddenly a new bunch of IP addresses start connecting en masse with lots of different Netflix IDs and appear in the reports. Repeat with the new outlier. Keep on going.

If only it were that simple.

Any time multiple connections are coming from different Netflix IDs on the same IP can raise eyebrows.

I'm not sure this happens as much as you think it does. A lot of the existing bypasses don't even use a VPN but simply fiddle with the DNS. So for a start, you have to be careful you know which IP's originate from which countries - something that isn't always accurate, but sure that's doable.

Next, you're assuming that VPN's don't have a swathe of IP's to route. I know a few that have plenty to put their customers on. Even if they don't, that's short term at best as Netflix fully supports IPv6 and it would be trivial to tunnel traffic through that, even to clients that don't support it. Good luck filtering that by volume.

Those connections coming from a datacentre ups the confidence level some more and the odds of a false positive can be reduced as residential IP pools are easy enough to find.

How do you know it's coming from a datacentre? An IP doesn't give you any indication of where it's physically located and is not an identifier of anything other than a machine. This has gone through courts multiple times in multiple countries and they generally come to the same conclusions - IPs do not identify people.

It hasn't been done because Netflix haven't felt the need to get serious about it, much as the BBC haven't gotten serious on people using VPNs to view iPlayer. If the people they purchase rights from lean on them enough they'll get it sorted.

This much is true, Netflix doesn't care, but they're feeling pressure from the media companies who are stuck in the dark ages.

EDIT: Think about it this way - block the 'big' boys and people jump ship. Suddenly a new bunch of IP addresses start connecting en masse with lots of different Netflix IDs and appear in the reports. Repeat with the new outlier. Keep on going.

Again, see above. It wouldn't make business sense for a VPN to lose all those customers without doing something about it - and there's plenty they could do.

Like I said before, it's possible, but it's just not feasible.