Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Sun Jul 13 19:54:22 UTC 2014

At 11:17 AM 7/13/2014, Todd Lyons wrote:

>Because that Netflix box is not an on-demand cache, it gets a bunch of
>shows pushed to it that may or may not be watched by any of Brett's
>customers.  Then the bandwidth he must use to preload that box is
>large, much larger than the sum of the streams his customers do watch.

Yes. Especially since Netflix insists upon sending multiple copies of
each video -- not only in different formats but in different resolutions
-- to the server.

>I did agree with the comment later in the email that making content
>freely cached is a non-starter because that content could be copied
>too easily.

The content could be copied just as easily from a Netflix server if it
were stolen from the ISP's office. However, by far the most likely place
for illicit copies to be made is at the client end, because it can
be done in a private location and attract no attention at all.

However, if there is any concern about either a Netflix server OR an
ISP's cache being used to obtain illicit copies of the video, the solution
is simple. This is a trivial problem to solve. Send and store the streams in
encrypted form, passing a decryption key to the user via a separate,
secured channel such as an HTTPS session. Then, it is not possible to obtain
usable copies of the content by stealing either a Netflix server OR an
ISP-owned cache. Problem solved.

--Brett Glass