[HN Gopher] VPN providers in France ordered to block pirate spor...
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       VPN providers in France ordered to block pirate sports IPTV
        
       Author : gasull
       Score  : 105 points
       Date   : 2025-06-06 15:31 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (torrentfreak.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (torrentfreak.com)
        
       | FirmwareBurner wrote:
       | Thanks, I was looking for a list of pirated sports broadcasts.
        
       | kinow wrote:
       | I believe that's similar to what was done in Spain (for quite
       | some time).
       | 
       | https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2025/02/19/cloudflare-takes-...
       | 
       | (Article from 2025, but last year it was already happening here)
        
         | theturtletalks wrote:
         | La Liga has such pull in Spain, they literally cripple the
         | internet when games are going on so people can't pirate. This
         | is because the VPN companies refused to comply.
        
       | retrodaredevil wrote:
       | When these VPN providers comply with these court orders, do they
       | only implement blocking at the DNS level? Couldn't you still use
       | these VPNs, but use a DNS provider that isn't censored?
        
         | stuffoverflow wrote:
         | I assume it will be implemented on DNS level and yeah it is
         | possible to use a different DNS.
        
         | space_firmware wrote:
         | Most likely they will be forced to implement IP level firewall
         | rules. IE: Traffic from French users is not allowed to go to
         | <list of destination IPs>. This is one of the things the local
         | ISPs already have to do.
        
           | retrodaredevil wrote:
           | It seems that the list of destination IPs would then be
           | determined by whatever the domains listed resolve to (I
           | assume). Since it's trivial to update DNS records, I wonder
           | if they could lead to automated blocking of whatever IP those
           | domains point to.
           | 
           | With that in place, I wonder if that could ever be abused by
           | these pirate sites. Imagine temporarily pointing your pirate
           | site domain name at a valid IP address. When you do that, in
           | theory ISPs (and now VPNs) would automatically block
           | perfectly valid IPs.
           | 
           | This would only happen if the owners of the pirate site
           | domains actually try to do something malicious like that, but
           | I know there are instances in the past of ISPs blocking
           | cloudflare IPs (which is a separate issue, but the scenario I
           | just made up reminds me of it).
        
             | sidewndr46 wrote:
             | Couldn't a VPN provider just start updating their DNS
             | entries to respond with IPs of the French government around
             | the time the block goes into place? So the ISPs would be
             | forced to block access to the French government websites?
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | If they wanted to troll better they'd point them at the
               | websites of the official streaming service.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | Yeah, good point. That could work as well.
        
             | numpad0 wrote:
             | That's called domain fronting. CDNs already switch between
             | virtual hosts with headers on HTTP requests and HTTPS TLS
             | SNI, so this even passively happen sometimes.
             | 
             | Now, HTTP headers and SNI are both unencrypted, so
             | oppressive governments abuse these. Obvious fix is to
             | make'em encrypted by enforcing HTTPS everywhere and
             | upgrading SNI to ESNI with DoH-obtained per-server public
             | keys.
             | 
             | Some of offensive side fixes to the defensive side fix are:
             | blocking ESNI, blocking DoH, forcing use of MITM proxy,
             | just blaming strawman terrorist groups for having to block
             | affected IPs. etc.
        
           | GHanku wrote:
           | Won't many be behind cloudflare's IP?
        
       | fifteen1506 wrote:
       | People tend to assume workarounds will be found. They will -- no
       | doubt.
       | 
       | But in time, it will be as easy as installing Linux on a PS5.
       | 
       | I just hope unverified operating systems won't be blocked on
       | similar grounds.
        
         | AnthonyMouse wrote:
         | You're talking about two different things.
         | 
         | One is, you want to install Linux on your PS5. A PS5 is
         | basically just a PC, so what are you getting out of that when
         | you could much more easily just install Linux on a normal PC?
         | The incentive to find a way to do it is low. Meanwhile the PS5
         | is manufactured by a company that doesn't want you to do it, so
         | they make it take effort to do it.
         | 
         | The other is, people want to watch sports. Huge incentive. And
         | they can use any device or service they want, not just one made
         | by an adversarial company. Preventing this is basically having
         | an effective censorship apparatus. The internet is an effective
         | anti-censorship apparatus, because it connects everybody to
         | everybody, and any single path through the network is enough to
         | defeat censorship.
         | 
         | "We'll just block this path they're using over here" is like
         | installing a single fence post in the middle of the ocean. Or
         | worse than that, because that single fence post causes
         | collateral damage to random innocent people (e.g. blocking
         | Cloudflare IPs) which then gives those innocent third parties
         | the incentive to start developing better anti-censorship tech.
        
           | mrshadowgoose wrote:
           | > You're talking about two different things.
           | 
           | No, you've actually missed his point entirely.
           | 
           | He is alluding to the fact that over the last decade or so,
           | consumers have unwittingly slid down the slope of "not having
           | true control over personal electronic devices". Iphones are
           | already there, Android devices are a few years behind, as are
           | most desktop PCs.
           | 
           | Once there's critical mass, it would not be a stretch for
           | ISPs to only deliver internet to endpoints that have a secure
           | element that attests to the integrity of the internet-con
           | ected device. This will of course be done under the guise of
           | "fighting the spread of malware" and such.
           | 
           | Piracy effectively ends at that point.
        
             | AnthonyMouse wrote:
             | iPhones have always been able to access web pages. Web
             | pages run on general purpose computers, and basically have
             | to, because they're made of site-specific content and site-
             | specific code. To get rid of "piracy" you would not only
             | need to prevent users from having access to their own
             | _phones_ , you would need to make it impossible for anybody
             | to have their own web page.
             | 
             | That level of dystopia is the sort of thing that could
             | never last very long because enough people would rather
             | burn it to the ground while still inside of it than allow
             | it to continue to exist.
        
               | hinata08 wrote:
               | when you try to connect to some commercial streaming
               | websites in France, you already have to upload your ID,
               | film yourself with your camera, and enable biometrics, as
               | the government forced them to do that "to protect
               | children" (even as they're in the middle of a scandal
               | about silencing children when things went south in some
               | institutions up to 20 years ago).
               | 
               | last time I checked, China didn't force users to give in
               | their IDs and turn on webcams to authenticate themselves
               | on the internet. France does.
               | 
               | dystopia is never far away in France, and ppl always
               | agree
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | > dystopia is never far away in France, and ppl always
               | agree
               | 
               | Isn't the entire premise here that people are instead
               | using pirate services that presumably don't require you
               | to upload your ID and film yourself with a camera?
        
       | space_firmware wrote:
       | Really great that European courts have created all the legal
       | tools for authoritarian control of the internet in the future, to
       | prevent the scourge of watching sports streaming without paying.
       | 
       | Before this, it was much easier for ISPs / DNS providers / VPN
       | providers to push back against governments wanting to censor the
       | internet because the companies wouldn't have the tools installed
       | to do this kind of blocking. The companies can then argue it is a
       | burden to be forced to implement the tools. That is no longer the
       | case in Europe, and the use of these tools is likely to expand
       | outside the sports domain.
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | Copyright law has always been the most powerful force on the
         | Internet. Which is why its collision with AI companies who
         | pirate the whole Internet is very interesting.
        
           | ainiriand wrote:
           | Collusion one might say.
        
           | LunaSea wrote:
           | There won't be any collision. Some companies will get some
           | cash, the same way that Google paid to make Google Search the
           | default search engine and the issue will die down.
        
           | Imustaskforhelp wrote:
           | when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object
           | 
           | One must only imagine the outcome.
        
             | rusk wrote:
             | Copyright is long overdue a check but I don't think AI is
             | going to be what does it somehow. I can see an opportunity
             | for copyright holders to seek retrospective damages for AIs
             | that mimic their work.
        
             | ta1243 wrote:
             | The already rich get richer and more powerful
        
           | ranger_danger wrote:
           | If AI training is piracy then all art made by humans is also
           | piracy... we cannot create anything without drawing
           | inspiration from something else.
           | 
           | The question is exactly _how much_ is copied, and how obvious
           | it is.
        
             | rusk wrote:
             | No because fair use is for humans not machines
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | > If AI training is piracy then all art made by humans is
             | also piracy
             | 
             | That would only be true if human mental impressions were
             | "fixed media" and therefore (potentially infringing) copies
             | ubder copyright law the way data stored in electronic media
             | in the course of AI training is.
        
             | hulitu wrote:
             | > If AI training is piracy
             | 
             | If it is not, can I install a pirated Windows or Offiice
             | version ? (I use it to train "AI")
        
           | tim333 wrote:
           | Copyright law struggles against information wanting to be
           | free. You can get almost anything in contravention of it by
           | typing the odd magic word like libgen or pirate bay or
           | scihub. I imagine even if the French crack down on the big
           | VPNs there will be offshore ones that ignore the French
           | courts.
        
         | isodev wrote:
         | Is it just Europe though? Have you tried uploading something on
         | YouTube including a remote semblance of a melody from a song?
         | Or accessing porn in some parts of the US? And then there are
         | the App Stores and walled gardens regulating apps, content and
         | really every aspect of one's digital life.
        
       | Workaccount2 wrote:
       | How about making access to the games fairly priced and easily
       | accessible?
       | 
       | Streaming services have dramatically reduced piracy by making it
       | way easier and way cheaper than ever before to consume content.
       | 
       | I don't live in Europe, but if it is like US sports, you need to
       | jump through hoops, pay through the nose, and have 14 different
       | accounts to watch all the sports you want.
        
         | yousif_123123 wrote:
         | Also just more accessibility in terms of being able to pay for
         | it. As a viewer in Canada, there was no service whatsoever that
         | was showing the Real Madrid vs Barcelona Spanish cup final a
         | few months ago (Copa del Rey). I had to signup on a Spanish
         | state tv website and use a VPN to access it for free.
         | 
         | I would have gladly paid, but there was no opportunity.
         | 
         | Content fragmentation and some sports rights not being bought
         | and resold by anyone is also a big problem.
        
           | Beijinger wrote:
           | "Content fragmentation and some sports rights not being
           | bought and resold by anyone is also a big problem."
           | 
           | I dont watch soccer. But if you want to watch soccer with a
           | decent exposure (national league, Champions league etc.) in
           | some EU countries you pay easily 100 Euros. And for Europe,
           | this is a lot!
        
         | rpdillon wrote:
         | I still believe Gabe Newell was right when he said that piracy
         | is a service problem. This case doesn't seem to be any
         | different.
        
           | SpecialistK wrote:
           | It's entirely true. I've canceled all of my streaming
           | services because of the fragmentation and poor quality of the
           | apps compared to my own Plex server. A few years ago I was
           | happy to just pay $10 or $20 a month for nearly everything I
           | wanted to watch.
        
             | freedomben wrote:
             | Same (though s/plex/jellyfin/g). I was a long time
             | subscriber to CBS (now Paramount+) and many others, but
             | I've slowly cancelled them all as their quality is utter
             | shit, and now they've started rolling ads even at the high
             | paid tier. Using an unmodded Chromecast w/ Google TV on a
             | stock TV, I couldn't get Paramount+ to stream any of the
             | newer Star Trek without falling back into a horrifically
             | obnoxious constant shift in color tone that the internet
             | informed me is a "feature" of their DRM to sabotage the
             | quality if somebody is trying to record it. I was just
             | trying to watch it, after paying for the damn service!
             | Absolutely nothing in my setup was modded or sus in any
             | way. Guess what, I still ended up watching it, but after
             | cancelling their service and figuring out a way outside of
             | their system.
             | 
             | The only streaming service I have left now is Netflix,
             | which does work remarkably well, though how long they stay
             | "ad free" remains to be seen. The first time they show me
             | an ad, will also be the last time they show me an ad.
        
               | SpecialistK wrote:
               | I probably would have moved to Jellyfin if they had an
               | Xbox app available at the time (I see they re-launched it
               | a month and a half ago now...) but alas, the main thing
               | is that my media is mine to enjoy when and how I wish
               | without needing to jump through any DRM hoops or ads or
               | multiple services.
               | 
               | I still have Prime as a "bonus", though I wouldn't pay if
               | it was removed because I only use it for The Grand Tour.
               | Netflix was the first to go, as it was where I found the
               | removal of content most annoying. It also decided to
               | geoblock me on a 2019 trip to Japan: I had downloaded
               | some shows, on my Canadian wifi, to my unrooted phone
               | with a Canadian SIM card, with Canadian taxes paid on the
               | subscription, and it still blocked access as soon as I
               | was in Japan. That will never be an issue with self-
               | hosting.
               | 
               | Disney+ is the one I'd like to cancel next - it's my
               | partner's account and has just blocked her dad's access,
               | but there's a lot of content I would need to self-host.
               | I'm inspired to by a really annoying quirk of their app:
               | if you put on a show, then fall asleep, reopen the app
               | and the top choice will be "continue watching" which
               | takes you straight back to playing where the app paused
               | with the "are you still watching?" message. So to get
               | back to the episode list, you need to fast forward
               | through the entire episode and then choose "back to
               | episode listing" in the 15 seconds before it goes to the
               | next ep. Why the "continue watching" button doesn't just
               | bring up the episode list is a mystery to me.
        
         | epanchin wrote:
         | That's what it's like in the UK now. Legal streaming is much
         | more complicated than satellite back in the day.
         | 
         | As a consequence people have gone back to illegal streams where
         | you can find all the sports on one menu.
        
         | jaoane wrote:
         | Not defending them or what they are doing, but if you can't
         | afford to watch football you always have the option of not
         | watching it. I don't know why this is always framed as "make it
         | cheap or it's right to pirate it"
        
           | geodel wrote:
           | Exactly right.
           | 
           | Behind all these _reasonably priced_ or _easily accessible_
           | arguments for digital goods is the plain threat  "Give it to
           | me on my terms or else I simply take it for free"
        
           | redundantly wrote:
           | This goes well beyond just an affordability issue. They're
           | price gouging, forcing customers into one-off subscription
           | services that are deliberately hard to cancel and make it
           | difficult to get a refund, even when one is clearly
           | warranted.
           | 
           | They want people to pay to watch, and that's fair. But if
           | they make it too difficult, too expensive, or outright
           | exploitative, they should fully expect that people will find
           | ways to watch without paying them directly.
        
           | ta1243 wrote:
           | In the 90s I used to download star trek episodes in the UK
           | the night after US broadcast. They simply weren't available.
           | It's not a cost problem - when they were eventually released
           | in the UK I spent the modern equivalent of $20 per episode to
           | buy on VHS.
           | 
           | If you're unwilling to sell it, then someone else will.
        
             | donalhunt wrote:
             | Still happening in 2025. :/
             | 
             | One well-known US show started airing the current season in
             | the UK (on a streaming service) -- 7 weeks after it started
             | airing in the US.
        
         | teeray wrote:
         | > you need to jump through hoops, pay through the nose, and
         | have 14 different accounts to watch all the sports you want.
         | 
         | It's not even that. Just to watch the games for one sport and
         | one team requires this. "Remember, next week's game is
         | available exclusively on ShitStreamTV." Of course, ShitStreamTV
         | is a Brand New Streaming Network that you've never heard of and
         | need yet another subscription for. Then they can't actually
         | handle the traffic and crash halfway through the game. Trying
         | to get your $24.99 back? Impossible. "Terms of Service mumble
         | mumble blah blah."
        
         | cgh wrote:
         | Yes, NHL blackouts are a great example. You want to watch your
         | home team? Great, you have to subscribe to what they refer to
         | as your "RSN" (regional sports network, usually a regular tv
         | channel).
         | 
         | But the RSN doesn't show all the games across the league, nor
         | will it show playoff hockey. So you need to also subscribe to a
         | big streaming service like Sportsnet.
         | 
         | It gets worse: your RSN may not offer a streaming service. So
         | you need an old-fashioned cable package to get it. The cost
         | becomes ridiculous, just to watch hockey.
        
           | vel0city wrote:
           | I'm so glad Diamond Sports Group imploded from their
           | excessive debt load and now Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers
           | are available on Victory+ for free.
        
       | eloisant wrote:
       | They will have to confirm it in a Swiss court if they want
       | ProtonVPN to comply.
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | Now worries, the US will try again to force Switzerland to
         | change its copyright laws so we can no longer legally download
         | movies. /s
         | 
         | All this to protect some industry that is falling appart
         | because they can't produce decent films or music anymore.
         | Everything is calculated for profit and creativity is out the
         | door. Meanwhile the small actual talented creators aren't
         | protected and ripped off by the same industry that wants all
         | the protections.
        
         | GHanku wrote:
         | French leaders are lunatics though, they didn't file to Dubai
         | for Telegram...
        
       | mitkebes wrote:
       | Does double VPN get around these kind of blocks? My understanding
       | is the VPNs are expected to block the websites for french users,
       | but it sounds like people could use VPN #1 to appear as a non-
       | french user to VPN #2. VPN #2 can then allow the user to access
       | the blocked websites, because the law only applies to french
       | users.
        
         | AnthonyMouse wrote:
         | Is there some reason they wouldn't just use a VPN that isn't in
         | France and therefore isn't subject to laws in France? There
         | have to be VPNs in some other jurisdiction.
        
           | netsharc wrote:
           | I don't think e.g. NordVPN has any offices in France, but in
           | theory the French authorities could tell French ISPs to block
           | access to nordvpn.com (and all other Nord domains), though
           | I'm not sure if the law applies to "secondary services"
           | (instead of ordering ISPs to block domains that offer pirated
           | sports streams, they'd be told to block domains that offer a
           | service to circumvent the block).
           | 
           | I believe Russia is doing it like this, trying to connect to
           | a VPN provider's website will fail - interestingly NordVPN's
           | app uses SSO to login, so blocking their main site would
           | block the app's ability to log in.
        
             | AnthonyMouse wrote:
             | Every VPS provider is "a service to circumvent the block"
             | because you can configure one as a VPN in around 30
             | seconds, and these are all just legitimate foreign
             | companies many of which use Cloudflare or other shared IP
             | services for their own websites. Are you going to block AWS
             | and Azure and everything on them because US-region
             | instances don't implement French website blocks? You've
             | gone from blocking a couple of pirate sites to blocking
             | >95% of the internet.
        
               | netsharc wrote:
               | > Are you going to block AWS and Azure and everything on
               | them because US-region instances don't implement French
               | website blocks
               | 
               | *French shrug*
               | 
               | I guess their idea is to just make it obnoxious enough
               | for casual users. At the moment a French resident wanting
               | to watch these games without paying can just install VPN,
               | connect to it, and watch the pirate streams. If the VPN
               | providers are forced to comply, having a VPS is still a
               | viable option, but for a casual user it's complicated
               | enough that it might be enough to significantly reduce
               | the number of pirate-stream watchers.
               | 
               | Then again, because of Internet censorship in e.g. China,
               | Iran and Russia, there are several services designed for
               | a 1-click install of a personal VPN on a VPS...
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | > I guess their idea is to just make it obnoxious enough
               | for casual users.
               | 
               | This is always the excuse, but how does that ever work?
               | People want to be able to do it, technical people know
               | how to do it, non-technical people ask them to do it for
               | them. If the number of non-technical people is large, a
               | single one the technical people will make a one-click
               | installer to automate it so they don't have to keep doing
               | it manually for people, and then the inconvenience is
               | gone for everyone.
               | 
               | The companies peddling this stuff are desperate to
               | rationalize that it can do any good. A million games will
               | have DRM and their customers will _hate it_ and they 'll
               | collectively lose billions of dollars by inconveniencing
               | legitimate customers or have people pirating their stuff
               | out of spite when they would have actually bought it.
               | Then some game doesn't get cracked for a while because
               | it's a statistical anomaly or it's just not very popular
               | and nobody bothers and they get to congratulating
               | themselves without ever considering how many of the
               | people who didn't pirate that game actually bought it
               | instead of just pirating a different one, or if the
               | number of people who bought it is smaller than the number
               | of sales they lost through destruction of goodwill -- for
               | not only that game but also all the games that were
               | cracked right away.
               | 
               | And then they double down with this kind of website
               | blocking overreach where they're unapologetically causing
               | collateral damage to innocent people as if to demonstrate
               | just how little they care about anything but the dubious
               | pretense that it was worth it.
        
             | miki123211 wrote:
             | I think it's more likely they put pressure on Visa,
             | Mastercard and French banks. If their choice is severing
             | the relationship with Nord VPN versus the entirety of
             | France, they'll choose the former. Losing Visa access would
             | be very bad for Nord's business, so I think they'd rather
             | comply.
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | The VPN provider could obviously just accept
               | cryptocurrency from users in France, so is the theory
               | that France is going to threaten Visa with not accepting
               | Visa anywhere in France if Visa doesn't block foreign VPN
               | providers in foreign countries from accepting Visa from
               | foreign users? How would even that be effective, since
               | you would only need one VPN service to choose "stop
               | accepting Visa"?
        
           | eitally wrote:
           | Does this mean a VPN company that doesn't have a legal nexus
           | in France, or just a VPN provider that lets you use VPN
           | servers not in France? If the latter, I do that anyway to
           | watch region-locked cycling, frequently connecting to SBS in
           | Australia, but also sometimes different European countries
           | where streaming is (has been in the past) free.
        
         | viktorcode wrote:
         | Just use a VPN that's not on the list. It is also will be
         | useful to learn other ways to get around internet censorship
         | which people use in the countries like China and Russia
        
         | Szpadel wrote:
         | this isn't explicitly stated but from context I understand that
         | this is just DNS block.
         | 
         | so using vpn provider with some other DNS provider should be
         | enough
         | 
         | there is also tor that is free and cannot be controlled in this
         | way
        
       | MentatOnMelange wrote:
       | I'm not a big sports fan but I know several people who are. I
       | don't think there's another industry on earth whose customers are
       | so willing and eager to spend money as fans watching their teams.
       | And there's probably no industry on earth that tries as hard to
       | _prevent_ people from buying their services.
       | 
       | The link between piracy and hypothetical profits has never been
       | hard science, but when it comes to televized/streaming sports, a
       | lot of this pirating seems to happen because people aren't
       | allowed to watch it legally in their area.
       | 
       | This is a self-inflicted problem.
        
         | JohnMakin wrote:
         | Huge swaths of Los Angeles are completely unable to watch
         | Dodgers games on TV because of the way the cable companies have
         | packaged and delivered the content. You know, one of the most
         | valuable sports franchises in the world, makes total sense.
        
           | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
           | What do you mean, the cable companies block Dodger games from
           | being on cable? That doesn't make sense.
        
             | slashink wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(broadcasting)
        
               | add-sub-mul-div wrote:
               | If I'm understanding that right then the games are
               | available to watch legally, it's a problem self-inflicted
               | by the customers who choose not to get the service
               | they're available on. Because it's not their preferred
               | service.
        
               | JohnMakin wrote:
               | Are you aware that in many areas of Los Angeles, and I'm
               | sure other areas too, you often only have a single choice
               | of cable/phone/internet provider? So no, you couldn't be
               | further off.
        
               | toast0 wrote:
               | Yes, the games are available to watch legally, and you
               | have choices. You can choose to watch the game in person
               | (seats are available or they wouldn't have a local
               | blackout), or travel out of the area where you'll be able
               | to watch it on TV.
        
               | vel0city wrote:
               | Cable companies have monopolies. For a lot of people,
               | they couldn't even choose to pay for the cable operator
               | who owned the station. For a long time only 30% of the
               | market could even get the channel if they wanted to. Now
               | it's only slightly better because theoretically one can
               | stream it on DirecTV's stupid expensive streaming service
               | or get it on one satellite provider but not any of the
               | others.
        
             | tonyhart7 wrote:
             | it does make sense if certain companies pays certain money
             | that prevent other companies buying the same services
             | 
             | aka Exclusivity right
        
           | rascul wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_blackout.
           | ..
        
             | JohnMakin wrote:
             | It's not even just this - some areas only offer spectrum,
             | other areas cox, etc. And your provider may not get all or
             | any of the games.
        
         | bwb wrote:
         | This, I've given up so many times wanting to watch a soccer
         | game and found no way to do it. It is incredibly frustrating. I
         | don't understand how the current system works as it is
         | impossible to figure out how to watch games.
        
         | amarcheschi wrote:
         | The link between privacy and hypothetical profits has been
         | studied by the European commission (or parliament don't
         | remember rn). The study was hidden and revealed only later when
         | pirate mep Felix read digged in about it
        
         | calmbonsai wrote:
         | It never fails to astonish how poorly the larger sports leagues
         | cater to their biggest fans. Local blackouts are treating your
         | most loyal fanbase to the worst service. I shouldn't have to
         | VPN for anything. Sports has a global audience.
         | 
         | Every league should offer something akin to a season ticket
         | "firehose" (all games streamed live with hosted replays) like
         | MLS does on Apple TV or Gallagher rugby on the Rugby Network.
        
         | mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
         | Exactly. I'm in Norway, and here, to watch the English Premier
         | League legally, the price this latest season was over $70 per
         | month. Keeping in mind the fact that most people will maybe
         | watch one game(their team's game) a week, the prices are just
         | getting absurd. There's no way to buy single games, subscribing
         | to games for a single team, etc. To watch the 38 games your
         | team will play last season, the only available option was to
         | buy access to all 760 games. The company holding these rights
         | is struggling financially, layoffs and all. Because their
         | subscription numbers have plummeted
         | 
         | They've already crossed the threshold where this is no longer
         | profitable. The next licencing deal will likely be so
         | expensive, no Norwegian or Scandinavian company could possibly
         | be able to turn a profit from it.
         | 
         | Of course, the CEO of the company has been in the media talking
         | about how IPTV funds criminal networks and such nonsense*,
         | calling for bans, yadda yadda. They're not listening to the
         | market at all. Just using illegal streaming as a scapegoat. And
         | I've decided, as long as this is how it's gonna be, they're not
         | seeing a single dime of my money.
         | 
         | * I find the concept absurd. No matter where we spend our
         | money, some of it ends up with criminals and various other
         | despicable people, who will use it for evil. No one has the
         | ability to prevent this. There's no reasonable expectation in
         | current societal and economic structures for the consumer to
         | somehow keep track of all their money once it leaves their
         | wallet. This is no more the case for IPTV than it is when I buy
         | a burger from some hole in the wall, which unbeknownst to me is
         | a money laundering front. Or when I buy some chocolate and most
         | of the money ends up with some white rich guy and not the
         | children in Africa who harvested the cocoa. The whole argument
         | is so intellectually dishonest and morally pathetic it pisses
         | me off. And I don't even pay for IPTV.
        
       | Disposal8433 wrote:
       | I don't like watching sports on TV but it's hilarious that the
       | courts said that you are forbidden to go to _aliezstream.pro_ ,
       | and that _Mullvad_ is not on the forbidden list. You MUST NOT
       | combine both because it 's very naugthy!
       | 
       | Meanwhile Facebook stole all the books on the planet and it's not
       | forbidden at all. It's very hard for me to take them seriously.
        
       | Beijinger wrote:
       | People here are very fond of Mullhad VPN. I have mixed
       | experiences with NordVPN, especially under Linux.
       | 
       | If you look for something cheap, AirVPN hast a sale going on:
       | https://airvpn.org/ It works okay for me or my current needs.
       | 
       | https://expatcircle.com/cms/privacy/vpn-services/
        
         | tim333 wrote:
         | If you want a free vpn, veepn is pretty good.
        
           | Technetium wrote:
           | Can't ever trust a free VPN. If it's free, then you are the
           | product being sold!
        
             | tim333 wrote:
             | I'm not sure I trust any VPNs but for the stuff I use if
             | for I'm not really bothered - random US news sites saying
             | not available in Europe, the cafe blocking The Onion
             | because it's naughty etc.
        
         | tryauuum wrote:
         | VPNs are cool but governments are always stronger.
         | 
         | There's no good outcome if people don't fight for their
         | internet freedom. In Russia the providers block OpenVPN and
         | wireguard already. In China it's probably so much worse
        
         | aunty_helen wrote:
         | Interesting isn't it, everyone heres favourite vpn doesn't make
         | the list. The one vpn that seems to tick every box that you
         | could want, suspiciously absent.
        
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