Can I watch from a foreign country?

[Ron Handel]

I used to be a Netflix member, and loved it. I am now an expat living in South Korea. I would love to stream Netflix over my Windows machine, but I'm not sure if I can do this? Some web sites, for example, are blocked over here - hulu.com, abc.com, etc. Korea is very protective of any outside competition. If you don't specifically know if Netflix will work outside of the US, do you know any way I can find out without actually having to pay first?

[spiderpig]

No you won't be able to watch in South Korea. Not sure if you can get to this FAQ link if you don't have a Netflix account, but basically, Netflix doesn't have the rights to distribute streaming content internationally to other countries. You may only watch instantly on your compatible computer or Netflix ready device within the 50 United States and the District of Columbia.

[Knaldskalle]

Just adding to Spiderpig's comment, it's not so much Korea being protective of outside competition as it is hulu.com, abc.com etc. blocking access for computers from Korea and elsewhere.

Secondly, living in Korea, Netflix probably wouldn't even accept you as a customer, since they don't ship DVD's outside the US.

[Ron Handel]

Actually, it is probably both ways. I am afraid even if Netflix did offer streaming overseas, as the article linked below suggests, Korea may not allow it. For example, the new Amazon Kindle works in over 100 countries worldwide. Not in Korea. One can always hope though!! Also, I understand they will never ship to Korea. I am only talking about the online service. My daughter is in college in CA and could always use the mail service, though. That is actually what we do with Sirius radio. She has it installed in her car just so I can get the online radio service streamed to me in Korea.

[Lester]

Check back in 2010:

According to Steve Swasey (vice president of corporate communications at Netflix), "Netflix will expand its online streaming video system (more on that in a minute) outside of the U.S. next year." Article

[Sock Puppet]

I still think the folks at the Dallas News are on crack... Could you imagine the licensing nightmare?

[Lester]

I understand the legal issues, but that was a quote from Swasey. I doubt that he was incorrectly quoted. Of course, outside the US may just mean Canada.

[Sock Puppet]

Yeah I read it... But if you read between the lines as Im want to do... the quote was:

"In fact, Swasey said that while Netflix will expand its online streaming video system (more on that in a minute) outside of the U.S. next year, the company has no intention of offering DVDs by mail anywhere but in the U.S."

A system is different from a service ;-)

They might open their system up to places like the UK to stream UK shows/movies, but not necessarily US shows/movies in other countries. If Netflix cannot get the studios to open license for more titles (yet) there are not going to get them to open license for international use... (yet).

[Ron Handel]

Thanks for the article. It gives me a little hope.

[Ron Handel]

I actually use SlingBox right now to stream all of my tv shows over here to Korea. Movies would be a nice addition, though. Several people I work with here download movies from different net sites. Although probably illegal in the US, it is ok here. I don't do it, though, just because I care little to wait 2 hours for a movie to download!! I recently read in Wired an article about Netflix where I guess Netflix looked into online services a couple of times in its history, only to have Hastings shut the idea down as it took way too long to download a movie. Broadband changed everything.

[Sock Puppet]

Well actually it is illegal in Korea, its just next to impossible to enforce the laws, which is why many companies blacklist Korea from access (as well as China, Thailand, and many other countries that are know for pirating...)

[Ron Handel]

Being new here to Korea, I'm curious what you mean by "it is illegal in Korea?" Are you talking about Korean laws, international laws that Korea is not enforcing, or US law that Korea is not enforcing?

[Sock Puppet]

Its a little bit of all three, its reported that more then 85% of all movies downloaded in korea are illegal (at least south korea, but not much different in north either ;)

There are some stories that touch on the issue:

NYTimes: Internet Video in Korea Eclipses the DVD
Bloomberg: Warner Brothers to Halt DVD, Video Distribution in South Korea

You can google a lot of similar stories.

Basically almost 100% of all homes in Korea have high speed internet (40Mbps+) and very little else to do with their time then pirate things (much more cheaply) then buying them, fact is most of the street vendors you find with DVD's for sale are going to be selling pirated copies of those movies anyway :)

LOL its so bad that porn companies are going after 65000 pirates in Korea for stealing their content and reselling it :)

I'm sure it hasn't changed much since I was in Seoul about 20 years ago :D You can buy anything and everything, and all of its cheap.