Hi, On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 03:19:26PM +0100, Bill Lewis wrote:

ahh so I think I get it now...

No, you're mixing up different cases. The original poster is providing VPN services, where the whole point is "hide the true origin of the user of the VPN service". Whether you call it "VPN" or "proxy" or whatever, this is just different technical means to achieve the same goal. Now, MaxMind caught up on this, and marks his IP ranges as "proxy services", aka "we don't know where in the world the user is" - which is quite correct. Now, if your business model is based on "I'm in the US, I'm offering VPN based services for money, so people can watch US-only television offerings" this tag would certainly wreck your business model. OTOH, that business model is bordering on fraud to begin with - getting paid to provide a way to circumvent content providers' restrictions that are there for a reason. (Of course I can see the point of someone actually *being* from the US, traveling abroad, wanting to watch his home TV shows - but I claim the majority of users just want to circumvent the restrictions, without actually being uS-centric) So - of *course* these VPN providers are unhappy if MaxMind provides correct data ("proxy service"). But such is business - your market niche just went away. Nothing RIPE is going to do about it. Gert Doering -- NetMaster -- have you enabled IPv6 on something today...? SpaceNet AG Vorstand: Sebastian v. Bomhard Joseph-Dollinger-Bogen 14 Aufsichtsratsvors.: A. Grundner-Culemann D-80807 Muenchen HRB: 136055 (AG Muenchen) Tel: +49 (0)89/32356-444 USt-IdNr.: DE813185279