I used DNS64 + NAT64 + dnsmasq to access iPlayer. I have a NAT64 gateway in the UK, a DNS64 server that generates addresses pointing to that NAT64 gateway, and a local dnsmasq setup that forwards .bbc.co.uk and friends to that DNS64 server.

AFAICT geofencing, and circumventing geofencing, are a legal and moral grey area.

It's not really clear that it's true that as an end user, "[Y]ou are breaking the iPlayer/BBC licensing terms" by watching the BBC iPlayer from outside the UK. After all, there is no visible end user license that you agree to before watching a programme on iPlayer; the BBC will stream it to anybody with [what it considers to be] a UK IP address.

Presumably the BBC does so based on the internal rationale that most UK residents will have a UK IP address, and most people with UK IP addresses will be UK residents, but is it really the individual iPlayer user's moral and legal responsibility to (second-)guess the BBC's motives and adapt their own behaviour to them?

Besides, there are plenty of people in the UK who have internet access but have no TV and hence pay no TV license. Surely such people are equally "guilty" of watching something without paying for it when they use iPlayer -- they don't even have to fool around with VPNs to do so.

In the case of 3rd party content (e.g. US produced films and shows) that the BBC licenses, the license is likely to be region-based, and the BBC is probably contractually obliged to restrict the broadcast to the UK. But these contracts and agreements are between the BBC and the content producer, the individual iPlayer users aren't party to them.

Lastly I vaguely recall it being suggested that geofencing and per-region licensing might be at odds with EU trade rules on free movement of goods. I understand that content producers might be able to generate more profit by licensing the same content under different terms in different territories, but surely individual end users are not under any kind of moral obligation to help them do so.

Personally, I'd use some iptables trickery in the router to intercept all outgoing HTTP(S) traffic and move it through the VPN. I'd expect that to be less fragile than messing with the DNS. But then, I didn't actually try it ;-)

I stayed with a much simpler setup so far to bridge my browser traffic to foreign endpoints. I just use the ssh socks proxy feature and the Toggle Proxy extension in Firefox. When I've endpoints in different locations I just add aliases like usprox for the US and ukprox for the UK to establish a ssh connection quickly, enable the proxy pointing at localhost and I'm done. That of course does not work for TVs you cannot modify.

Yes, if you can modify things then configuring a proxy-server manually is simple.

Similarly if you can configure your router appropriately, and ideally run OpenVPN on it directly, then things are trivial.

The sole reason for jumping through the DNS dance is that I can enforce that at the router and it will apply usefully to the "magic TV box".

Here is my combination: - haproxy at the remote location (runs in docker container) - dnsmasq locally which forwards selected hostnames

All traffic is over OpenVPN so haproxy is not exposed to the external world.

Works great.

No comment on the moral aspects?

You are breaking the iPlayer/BBC licensing terms.

How would you feel about people doing the same thing to your software? to Debian?

Ethics are important in system administration, so you're right to raise the question, and possibly right to think less of me for going ahead regardless.

I've paid license fees for years, and well understand the nature of of regional-licensing, and broadcasting rights being sold on a per-region basis.

I regard watching BBC content, from here, as being a little bad. But I'd regard downloading torrents as more-bad.

I guess if I were completely fair, legal, honest, and so on I'd do neither. As things stand I'm willing to stream media if I can do so - If it becomes a game of cat and mouse I'll concede and give up reasonably easily, but if I can make a minor effort to enjoy the content I will.

I understand the BBC has piles of money, both from licensing, and from selling to overseas. The fact that I used to pay an expensive license despite those oversea-sales brining in large profits makes me more relax and more comfortable that I would be if I were "stealing" media from, for example, Fox or HBO.