If you’re wondering about a Netflix VPN ban, it’s likely because you’ve received an error on your Netflix homepage. Considering how Netflix has been cracking down on accounts using VPNs, you’re well within your right to wonder if you may end up losing your account.
TL;DR: Is There Any Way Around the VPN Bans?
There are several other questions you might be wondering as well. Read on to learn more on this topic and any other related questions, and why PureVPN is the best solution to Netflix’s ban on VPNs.
Does Netflix Actually Ban Accounts Using VPNs?
The term Netflix VPN ban can easily confuse a lot of potential viewers. So, right off the bat, no, Netflix isn’t going to ban your account if it detects you using a VPN. However, it will ban the IP address you were using to view a geo-restricted show or movie from another country’s library.
In other words, your account won’t be banned, but your VPN service itself may be blacklisted on Netflix. In essence, that’s what the ban is all about. However, in recent years there have been discussions of whether there should be some action against users that use VPNs on Netflix but for now, that is all they are, discussions.
Why Does a Netflix VPN Ban Exist At All?
Now that you know whether a Netflix VPN ban is real or not, you might naturally wonder why is Netflix banning VPNs in the first place? This is where the complications regarding licensing agreements come into the picture. Apart from Netflix’s own productions, most other shows and movies are obtained via licensing agreements.
Netflix pays for these licensing agreements to be able to stream them. Since each country has their own version of licensing agreements, they need to be negotiated for each country differently. Netflix may feel a particular market isn’t attractive enough to purchase the licensing agreements for that country, meaning a particular show or movie may not be available in that market. Therefore, it makes sense that it would want to restrict people from other countries accessing shows in different countries where it already has a licensing agreement.
Moreover, there’s a legal aspect to this too. Since Netflix has entered a licensing agreement with third parties, it is legally obligated to protect all trademarks and properties that they use. The Netflix VPN ban is an effective way for Netflix to ensure it protects all the properties in its catalog.
As mentioned earlier, that hasn’t ended the threats of your account getting banned for using a VPN. More and more networks are coming up with their own streaming services, and Netflix is hard-pressed to take a tough stance on such infringements to keep these third parties happy or risk having them take their content off Netflix’s libraries altogether.
Is Using a VPN with Netflix Legal?
Well, that’s a fairly tricky question. If you go to Netflix’s own terms of use, you’ll see that they explicitly state that they don’t want users to change their geographical locations, without mentioning VPNs.
“You may view a movie or TV show through the Netflix service primarily within the country in which you have established your account and only in geographic locations where we offer our service and have licensed such movie or TV show. The content that may be available to watch will vary by geographic location. Netflix will use technologies to verify your geographic location.”
Without mentioning VPNs, Netflix states that it verifies your geographical location. Moreover, it also doesn’t state that using VPNs or any mechanism to get around the geo-restrictions is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped the service from accelerating efforts to curb the use of VPNs. That has meant that fewer and fewer VPNs can continue to provide you with access to Netflix libraries from around the world.
One thing to keep in mind regarding the legality of using a VPN is the territorial aspect. While Netflix itself may not have categorized using a VPN as a legal offense, several countries have different legislations against the use of VPNs. This means that while Netflix itself may not launch any legal actions against you for using a VPN, a country’s own security services might…even if you’re using a VPN just to watch Netflix.
Netflix VPN Bans Have a History
Netflix began really clamping down on VPN use in 2016. This was around the time House of Cards season 4 was about to premiere. With Netflix only available in a select few countries until then, millions of viewers began streaming the service from all over the world via VPNs. Prior to this, Netflix didn’t have any specific safeguards in place to ensure something like this doesn’t happen.
Since then, Netflix has come up with several effective and complicated methods to ensure viewers using a VPN are as minimal as possible. The primary method remains GeoIP databases. Netflix has a collaboration with MaxMind, a company that collects information on IP addresses such as country, city, location, proxy, residential/commercial, etc.
MaxMinds then sells this info to streaming companies like Netflix, helping them determine which country you’re from. This helps in identifying if the IP address you’re using is a known VPN IP Address. Netflix then identifies and blocks all blocks of these IP Addresses. In some instances, Netflix has been known to go even further and ban entire organizations’ host proxies if one of their IP addresses has been marked as a VPN/proxy.
Is There Any Way Around the VPN Bans?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid a Netflix VPN ban. Once Netflix identifies your VPN’s IP address as a proxy, that particular IP address is practically useless. However, that doesn’t have to mean you have to abandon the idea of watching your favorite geo-restricted content altogether. The best way to deal with a Netflix VPN ban is to use a premium VPN service such as PureVPN.
PureVPN comes with 6,500+ servers in more than 140 countries. This comes with the bank-grade 256-bit AES encryption. All of these ensure that you can continue browsing Netflix libraries from around the world without any worries.
Moreover, PureVPN offers 10 multi-logins, allowing you to use the same account on 10 different devices at once, without any dip in quality or performance. And finally, the PureVPN Chrome extension is the perfect way for you to access any Netflix library from around the world right from the toolbar.
It is just as effective and twice as convenient.
PureVPN
June 20, 2023
10 months ago
