i’ve watched this VPN arms race get weird over the years... as a user i feel like the license wars always spill over onto my connection.

rights holders keep demanding geo fences and identity checks... service providers comply because they don't want to get sued.

BUT... the blunt tool is to block whole swaths of IPs... then we all scramble.

i think the conversation around Apple or any single company saving us is missing the point.

ALSO... even if a big platform rolled out an anonymizing proxy... regulators would still push for carve outs... copyright exemptions... law enforcement taps.

the root is the business model... ad targeting... licensing... fraud detection... all of which depend on tying a real person to a real IP.

HOWEVER... if enough of us treat VPN use as normal... the calculus changes.

blocking a few percent of weirdos is easy... blocking half your paying users is not.

i don't know the answer... but i suspect it's going to get more fragmented before it gets better.