S E C U R I T Y
Geoblocking – Limiting Access by Geographies
Depending on the type of product they are selling , software vendors often have to contend with different legal requirements and access restrictions in different countries . Some things simply cannot or must not be sold in some countries . But how to comply with these restrictions ? One solution is geoblocking .
Geofiltering and geoblocking sound dramatic , but the terms refer to something that virtually everybody has experienced at some point . We all have a favorite streaming service or Internet radio , but if we try to catch up on our local news on holiday , we often encounter a familiar error message : “ This function is not available in your region .” This is particularly common in TV streaming services : We cannot watch our usual shows , because they are not licensed in the country from where we are accessing them . Or we are trying to watch our favorite team ’ s latest match , but we suddenly find that the match is only carried on pay TV in this country . What gives , and is there a way we can get around such restrictions ?
These restrictions can be applied because , in theory , every time anything is accessed via the Internet , the IP address of the Internet location can be identified and linked to a realworld location . IP addresses are assigned to telecommunications services providers , which helps understand which country the user is based in or , more specifically , from where they have accessed the Internet .
This points to one of the essential weaknesses of the method : Technologies like virtual private networks can establish a tunnel to access the Internet from a completely different geographic location . It would appear to the world that the user is located at the end of that virtual tunnel . Still , not everybody has such a VPN connection .
IP addresses do not necessarily translate directly into exact geographic locations . There will be cases in which data is assigned to a country that the user is not actually located in , and the allocation of IP addresses to regions is constantly being changed by different providers and projects .
Despite these two reservations , geoblocking is one of several powerful means to restrict access to content or services . If access is restricted in this manner , it can safely be assumed that any user circumventing the restrictions does so consciously and deliberately . Medical technology is an interesting case in hand : Devices and software often need to pass separate certification and approval procedures in every country . To make sure that the certified products are only used in the countries they were certified for , vendors can either take certain precautions in their sales process , e . g . with separate online shops , or they can use Code- Meter licenses and take the right measures to allow their activation only in specific geographies . Whatever the user tries to do to circumvent these restrictions , the vendor has done everything in their power to prevent this .
Many software developers rely on Wibu- Systems ’ Operating Services to handle their license management via CodeMeter License Central . The system works through certain user-facing interfaces , WebDepot or Gateways , which can be restricted for selected countries to prevent CodeMeter licenses from being activated in regions where they should not be .
The same restrictions work with CmCloudContainers : Software vendors can restrict access to their licenses for defined regions .
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