Netflix is cracking down on people who try to bypass its geographical restrictions

LOS GATOS, Calif., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Users from outside the United States started tricking the service into thinking they were in the country, so Netflix is cracking down.

Due to certain copyright laws, Netflix can't stream some films and television shows in certain countries and doesn't offer its service at all in other countries. To get around this, some users have been using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) or changing Domain Name Service (DNS) settings to make the website think they're in the United States.

A VPN is a service that routes a user's Internet activity through a foreign network, in this case, and the DNS settings have to do with manually changing a computer's network preferences to make servers believe it's located in a certain place.

Reports claim Netflix is blocking users who access their service with a VPN, and at least the Android Netflix app is blocking certain users with questionable DNS settings.

Though many are having trouble accessing the service with VPNs, Netflix claims it is not involved in blocking those users.