Is there a way to watch Amazon prime outside the USA?

[Remobz]

Does not seem fair that people who pay the yearly $99.00 fee for an Amazon Prime membership cannot watch movies outside the USA due to geographical restrictions.

I imagine the same applies to netflix and hulu.

Does it even make sense to try?

 

[rh71]

I did the Prime trial and all the shows on there were either already on Netflix or were crap. I loved the 2-day shipping, but the instant video was not worthwhile. I would've kept Prime if that had been any good.

 

[Remobz]

I did the Prime trial and all the shows on there were either already on Netflix or were crap. I loved the 2-day shipping, but the instant video was not worthwhile. I would've kept Prime if that had been any good.

Is there any way to watch netflix outside the USA?

 

[cbrunny]

Canada has its own Netflix I assume other countries do too. It's still 'Netflix' in form and function, but not in content. It's got more to do with copyright stuff and related acquisition things than anything else.

There are ways of tricking Netflix into thinking you're in a different country in order to get, say, USA Netflix, but depending on the country you are in the legality of this is variable.

 

[joutlaw]

A VPN provider would work.

 

[GreenGhost]

Services like unotelly.com allow by-passing geographical areas. Never tried but they have settings so access different Netflix sites. It's definitely a gray area. One could argue that if you live in the US, you should be able to access US services from anywhere. Now, if you live in the US and watch the BBC, you should pay the british TV tax first. The restrictions exist because of movie distribution rights in each country.

 

[mmntech]

Unotelly is a good service. It's what I use.

The problem is the archaic way in which content licensing is handled. It doesn't reflect a globalized society, limits consumer choice, and encourages piracy. Which is why copyright laws need to be updated to reflect these changes. Unfortunately, they only seem to be going in a more anti-consumer direction. Content providers trying to put the internet genie back in the bottle.

It's long been a huge issue here in Canada. That's why a lot of people pay for DNS/VPN services to watch US content. Netflix here pales in comparison. There's also the Canadian content laws to contend with as well, which the CRTC was wanting to push on the web as well. Which prompted Netflix to drop the mic on them late last year. Those laws made sense during broadcast days, to ensure Canadian artists were getting airplay. Yet it doesn't make much sense in the age of Soundcloud, YouTube, etc that make it easy for startup Canadian content creators to reach a global audience. Plus the existing film and video game industries, which are booming.

 

[Remobz]

Unotelly is a good service. It's what I use.

The problem is the archaic way in which content licensing is handled. It doesn't reflect a globalized society, limits consumer choice, and encourages piracy. Which is why copyright laws need to be updated to reflect these changes. Unfortunately, they only seem to be going in a more anti-consumer direction. Content providers trying to put the internet genie back in the bottle.

It's long been a huge issue here in Canada. That's why a lot of people pay for DNS/VPN services to watch US content. Netflix here pales in comparison. There's also the Canadian content laws to contend with as well, which the CRTC was wanting to push on the web as well. Which prompted Netflix to drop the mic on them late last year. Those laws made sense during broadcast days, to ensure Canadian artists were getting airplay. Yet it doesn't make much sense in the age of Soundcloud, YouTube, etc that make it easy for startup Canadian content creators to reach a global audience. Plus the existing film and video game industries, which are booming.

You made some good points. That unotelly service looks too good to be true I will give it a try.

 

[mmntech]

It's pretty reliable and there's no bandwidth limits on their DNS service. You can program it into your router. All you need to do is update your IP address with them from time to time.

 

[TheELF]

Also hola! ,totally free ,no logins ,no restrictions, just a plugin for your browser.

 

[Printer Bandit]

..

 

[GreenGhost]

Also hola! ,totally free ,no logins ,no restrictions, just a plugin for your browser.

They work, too, but I found them to be less reliable. With Unotelly any device in your house has access to tons of channels. You can simply add the DNS IPs to a laptop to keep it working anywhere you go. It does not work with every web site, but mostly with those they say they support (tv channels). It's just a matter of convenience; if you use it daily, $5/month gets you a lot of content.

 

[Grooveriding]

As others have said a VPN service/DNS masker. I use unotelly as well because they include a VPN with one of their packages. Think it's $50 a year or something around there. It also allows you to stream a lot of the major sporting events with a list of channels available. I get a lot of South American football games with some of the channels.

The problem with Amazon prime is you have to use a US amazon account. Your Canadian Amazon login will work on the US site, but your prime membership does not carry over. So you have to buy a US prime membership just for the video service without getting the free shipping. I didn't think it was worth it, Amazon prime doesn't have anything not on Netflix apart from HBO shows and I've seen those all multiple times and have the box sets for the series I would watch multiple times like The Wire.