HBO Cracks Down on Paying VPN “Pirates”
By Ernesto Van der Sar
Torrentfreak.com
April 20, 2015
https://torrentfreak.com/hbo-cracks-down-on-paying-vpn-pirates-150420/
HBO has started to crack down on paying customers who access the HBO Now
service from outside the United States. Subscribers from countries
including Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia who use VPNs and other
unblocking tools are now being threatened with account terminations.
hboIn an effort to gain more subscribers HBO launched its standalone
“HBO Now” service earlier this year.
The subscription allows Americans to access HBO’s content, including
Game of Thrones, without the need to have a television subscription.
With the offer HBO hopes to drive people away from pirate sites, but it
also created a new form of unauthorized use. As with Netflix and Hulu,
many people outside the U.S. signed up for the service through VPNs and
other geo-unblocking tools.
Although they are paying customers, using HBO Now from outside the U.S.
is not permitted under the company’s terms of use.
While Netflix is still fairly lax about geo-unblocking, HBO is now
cracking down on the practice. A few days ago thousands of VPN and proxy
“pirates” started to receive worrying email warnings.
“It has come to our attention that you may have signed up for and viewed
video content on the HBO NOW streaming service from outside of the
authorized service area (the United States, including D.C. and certain
US territories),” HBO writes.
“We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the HBO NOW
streaming service is only available to residents of the United States,
for use within the United States. Any other access is prohibited by our
Terms of Use.”
The emails in question target users all over the world, including
Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia. Unless they were flagged by
mistake, HBO will terminate the accounts of affected subscribers within
days and without the option of a refund.
HBO is cracking down on VPN and proxy pirates to protect the value of
their licensing deals. If millions of foreigners use the U.S. version,
local partners in these countries are going to complain.
However, since legal options are often lacking there’s little doubt that
many ‘unauthorized’ viewers will find less official ways to access the
shows they love to watch. This time, however, HBO will not get a dime.
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