Netflix has created different libraries for different territories due to international copyright and content licensing restrictions. To safeguard its copyright and licensing agreements, the streaming firm appears to have hired an external agency which is an expert in protecting international copyright and content licensing.
Seeking outside help
All of Netflix’s content is region-specific, be it original or acquired. For this reason, Canadian subscribers do not have access to Degrassi: Next Class. Similarly, viewers in Africa and Turkey are not able to see the hugely popular and successful original show Orange is the New Black.
However, the huge popularity of Netflix shows has led some web-savvy folks to overcome such obstacles. They either stream pirated content for free or use a virtual private network (VPN) service that enables them to trick Netflix into streaming shows and movies available in another country. Netflix’s U.S. library offers the widest selection, and VPN users can access it.
However, Netflix is in no mood to allow its customers to hop over virtual borders to access content available to people in other countries any longer. Also it wants to discourage scofflaws from streaming its original content free of charge. Therefore, it has decided to crack down on piracy and digital border hopping amid its ongoing global expansion.
Reports claim that Netflix has hired Vobile to fight the piracy issue it is facing, says The Star. This company helps protect the original content of firms on the web.
A connection between Vobile and Netflix
Lumen, which is a Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society project studying online content take-down requests, claims that in the past four months, Vobile has filed more than 350 take-down notices against Google, asking the search giant to remove suspected URLs from its search results, the report says.
Google has stated in its transparency report that more than 96,000 URLs had been pinpointed in those requests, and many of them hosted streams to Netflix’s original shows and movies like House of Cards and Making a Murderer. The content on the sites Uploaded and Vodlocker was mostly targeted in those requests.
As of now, there has been no comments from Vobile or Netflix on this, but both Lumen and Google suggest a connection between Vobile and copyright owner Netflix.
