Hulu Networks’ Battle Against External Proxies

This TechCrunch article outlines how Hulu Networks, the rapidly growing purveyor of streaming HD content, is taking some fairly extreme steps to make sure that their content is only accessed by users in the US. Apparently anyone with an anonymous IP address is blocked. An interesting step that will, in all likelihood, fail.

Why? It’s all about numbers. There are millions of users worldwide who want access to their content. And as we discuss in this ThreatPost article, users will proactively circumvent controls. A 45 second search on the web provides a wealth of information on how to circumvent security controls and blocking mechanisms. Some examples:
* There are at least 7700 public proxies that users can access merely by visiting proxy.org.
* Users can build their own private proxy.
* Visit circumventor.net to find a list of circumvention tools.
* There are new encrypted tunneling applications like Gbridge popping up on a regular basis.
I could go on. And while I am sure that Hulu has a very smart and dedicated team of IT professionals, can they win against millions? My view is that they will not because of the sheer numbers. But I do wish them luck. But let’s look on the bright side, they have a good product and people want it.

Thanks for reading.