*Independent films are always exciting to watch. They offer a departure from the typical big-budget, overly produced films that are typical from Hollywood.
Talented actors outside of the typical celebrities get to enjoy the spotlight, and unique ideas and themes are presented to the viewing audience.
The type of indie films available on Netflix varies significantly based on the viewer’s region, which is frustrating for people who want to explore what these movies are like from other countries. There is a way to get around regionally restricted content, so it’s possible to achieve this goal.
Why Does Netflix Have Restricted Content
Netflix signs licensing agreements with the content creators that offer media for their streaming video platform. In some cases, the worldwide rights to the film are broken down on a country-by-country basis, which means that Netflix can only purchase the rights to certain regions. If the film already has its rights sold off in one country, Netflix is not able to legally show the content in that location. To access region restricted content in Netflix, a certain type of technology is necessary.
Other Types of Regional Restrictions
Media rights aren’t the only causes of regional restriction. Some parts of the world have strict control over the type of media that is permitted in those regions. The content that falls outside of these guidelines are blocked via a government agency or on an Internet Service Provider level. Countries have many reasons why they might block a particular type of content. For example, it could fall outside of obscenity laws in that country or not have the required localization to meet legal requirements for that region. In some cases, the country may be actively blocking content that goes against the propaganda that it has in place.
Using a VPN to Get Around Regional Restrictions
A virtual private network is a type of technology that can get around both types of regional restrictions, allowing the user to watch all of the indie films that they want. The VPN gets around these blocks by making the user look like they’re connecting from a completely different location. Since Netflix thinks that the user is connecting via a place that allows viewing that content, they make it available. This type of technology opens up a whole new world of indie films to people.
The basics of a VPN is that the service provider has hundreds or thousands of their own servers located in data centers throughout the world. When one of their users connects to the VPN service, they use a web service or an application that the person connects to at the start of their Internet browsing session. The VPN service takes this connection and moves it through one of the servers that they own. After it goes through their own server, it then gets forwarded to Netflix and other online resources.
As far as Netflix can tell, the person is connecting from the VPN server’s location, not their own. This is beneficial in many ways, with the most obvious one being that all of the Netflix indie film content for that area is unlocked. This is particularly useful when someone is traveling abroad and they want to look at the content that they have available in their home country, or to look at another country’s line up of indie films.
Getting Other Benefits from a VPN
VPN services are handy to have on hand in general for people who frequently use the Internet. They vastly improve someone’s privacy online through several measures. The first is that, when a person connects through the VPN server, their original location is not available to the web host at the other end of the connection. They don’t have to worry about someone finding out their unique IP address, which could reveal their location, as the IP address for the VPN service shows up instead.
All of the data that is sent through the VPN app or web service gets encrypted as well. If a hacker somehow managed to intercept this data stream, they still wouldn’t be able to get anything useful out of it. That’s due to the fact that encryption requires an encryption key to decipher. The VPN service is the one holding this key, not the hacker, and trying to brute force their way into understanding the data is practically impossible.
Some VPN services offer features that improve the overall web experience and make it safer. Ad and malware blocking is a common way that VPNs fight back against common problems on the Internet. Ad trackers can’t follow the user and record their activity wherever they go, and potential malware gets blocked before it even becomes a problem.
If someone frequently accesses a resource in another country, they could run into problems with latency and slow connection speeds. This becomes much less of a problem when the user connects through a server in that same country. The VPN allows the traffic to be routed efficiently and to often speed up access to that website or service.
How to Select VPN Providers
VPN providers are not created equally, and there are a lot of them on the market. Some of the most important things to consider when making a selection is whether they have data caps in place, how many countries their servers are located in, if they have a no-logging policy, their connection speeds, and if they have a responsive customer service team. Obviously, price also plays a role in the service selected. Free VPN services are available, but they often work poorly for Netflix streaming. Premium VPNs are more likely to support higher connection speeds and unlimited data, which are both essential for a buffering-free Netflix experience.
Many VPNs offer a free trial if they are a paid service, which allows the user to test them out and make sure that they work well for unlocking indie films. With a VPN at their side, they’re able to open up a whole new world of media.
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