The reasons why geo-blocking must be stopped

Introduction and EU proposals

Despite the global nature of the internet, we are all victims of geography. Netflix US has content before Netflix UK, the BBC iPlayer and Hulu are available only to those in the UK and US respectively, and internet shopping is hugely restricted. Welcome to geo-blocking, which makes the internet regional, and the free market anything but.

What is geo-blocking?

"Geo-blocking is simply the act of restricting access to websites and downloading applications based on the user's location," says Henry Thomas, Senior Web Developer for Postcode Anywhere, a company with over 10,000 international customers that offers web services and software to lookup UK and international addresses. "It could also include displaying different services and prices depending on someone's location."

It's why it is very difficult to buy an iPhone from Apple's website in Spain, stream a movie available on Netflix in Sweden from the UK, and why adverts are targeted at users depending on where they live. Consequently, no-one ever gets told the cheapest price, only the cheapest local price – cue Google's shopping pages, which are available only by territory, not worldwide.

Why is geo-blocking bad?

We are now living in a global village that's supposed to resemble a level playing field – a single digital market would empower businesses and boost growth in the global economy. "Consumers should be able to purchase products anywhere at any time, which is exactly what they are demanding," says Dan Wagner, CEO and founder of international commerce specialist Powa Technologies.

He continues: "As much of the world heads towards a cashless economy, which is being spearheaded in Nordic regions, a single digital market is the only logical answer … there is no reason that somebody should not be able to buy a product from a website in a different country when the world is so connected."

What is the EU proposing?

Too many barriers still block the free flow of online services and entertainment across national borders, thinks the European Union, which wants to end geo-blocking to boost the music download business, establish a single area for online payments, and further protect EU consumers in cyberspace.

National copyright and tax rules will therefore be joined-up – no easy task considering that there are 28 member states in the EU – to make the European single market as homogenous as that of the US.

However, the EU's stance has been seen by some as an attempt to give European firms more chance to combat Google, Amazon et al – the companies curating web results in highly geographical ways also happen to be US-based and dominant, which brings, rather ironically, accusations of geo-bias to the geo-blocking debate.

The EU's wish for a single digital market is seen by many in the US as an attempt to get an unfair competitive advantage over the US. From Europe, that seems ludicrous – Europe only wants what the US already has – but geo-blocking is more complicated than that.

Why is the internet so regional?

There are many reasons why a website would want to block a particular geographical area. "Video streaming sites like Netflix and BBC iPlayer use geo-blocks to limit their audiences to a particular region – which is why things like Mad Men are restricted to the US," says Thomas. "Licensing limitations are usually the main reason behind the blocking, or they might choose to do this in order to maximise the effect of promotional campaigns."

Geo-blocking is also necessary to respect national laws. "Online businesses such as gambling services, or alcohol merchants might use geo-blocking to deny access of their site to countries where it is prohibited or where they cannot legally operate," says Thomas. "In some situations, IPs from certain locations can be blocked when the majority of traffic received from those locations has been from users with hostile intentions."

Company regulations and compliancy are also an issue. "Many companies now operate in more than one jurisdiction, juggling compliancy with multiple tax regimes," says Andrew Sullivan, Fellow at internet performance company Dyn. "Access to online retailers operating from websites abroad is usually restricted because the company is trying to comply with a national law or enforce an internal policy."

Geo-dodging and geo-tension

Geo-dodging

Preventing a browser from defaulting to local versions of websites isn't exactly difficult. "Advances in technology have made it quite easy to bypass old location-based business models, or 'geo-dodge', as people are calling it," says Thomas. "Because most geo-blocking is based on the IP address of a computer, it can be defeated by any method that alters or hides your IP address, such as a VPN or Proxy Service."

There are hundreds of ways of doing this, though it remains a 'giant grey area', according to Thomas, who says: "Its legitimacy remains questionable."

It can also be rather pointless once you reach the checkout page of a foreign retail website. "Setting up a private VPN connection allows internet users to send a request out which bypasses geolocation restrictions and appears to originate from another location," says Sullivan. "While this practice is reasonably widespread, many retailers are restricted to specific shipping locations and consumers may therefore end up being able to access a website from another country without being able to get their purchase delivered to their home."

There's another dimension, too – IPv4 addresses can be more accurately pinned down than newer IPv6 addresses. Despite that, a less accurate decision on an IPv6 user's geographical location is still made to restrict access to data from specific regions.

How could the EU enforce 'geo-freedom'?

It may seem laudable to try to protect and promote the 'permission-less innovation' championed by the internet, but is an EU-only digital single market a good idea? "The implicit danger of any region-bound proposal for 'geo-freedom' is that it means creating a network which acts as a subset of the internet," says Sullivan. Creating a tightly controlled network within the EU where geo-blocking is banned will create a geo-blocked experience open only to Europeans. That in itself is not sustainable.

"If internet users want to tap into the EU-only market from abroad, they will," says Sullivan. "It's impossible to implement the technological capabilities involved in controlling access to the network without sacrificing the capabilities of the internet itself. The EU would find it simpler to work towards a common worldwide market instead of just focusing on EU member countries."

There's also an issue with mobile phones. At present, licensing coupled with the rudimentary geolocation tech used in phones means it's impossible to use the BBC iPlayer when outside of the UK, despite the user having paid the licence fee, and so having a wholly legitimate claim.

Phone users crossing from, say, France into Switzerland – which is not in the EU – would have similar problems. The digital single market would break down at the EU's borders. Can more advanced geolocation and roaming tech change that? It's going to have to. If people from outside the EU will break in and benefit from the vast digital single market, then it's only fair that those inside the EU get to break out and still get the benefits.

Copyright and licensing: geo-tension

The classic case is Netflix. Although the company has different front-ends for each country it operates in, content is available depending on copyright and licensing deals, which are highly geographical. They date from the days of discs, and are firmly entrenched.

"Many people may turn to VPN connections to access online video services from outside the country in which they operate," says Sullivan. "The majority of laws and regulations in place for companies operating on the internet are firmly geographically-bound, but these don't translate well over to the internet."

Regulations that promote wider geo-freedom are well-meaning, but naive, ignoring commercial and contractual history. "There is a deep tension as countries try to make national laws fit with existing technological innovation," says Sullivan. "This technology is not in itself well-mapped to nationality and geography-focused laws."

While geolocation technology is restrictive, doesn't work well, is easily circumvented if you know how, and is based on outdated contractual habits, an EU-only attempt to free the internet will struggle to be effective.

Global industries with entrenched ways of doing business might not like it, but the unconstrained spread of VPNs on smartphones will likely make global geo-freedom a reality in the long run. All national and intergovernmental borders are being digitally disrupted by the internet. Why fight it?

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