It didn't take gamers long to figure out they didn't have to live in a certain country to get access to that country's content. Xbox Live users could simply set up a dummy Xbox Live account, put in a false address from abroad, and download what regional agreements said they couldn't.
That loophole may not be exploitable for too long. Soon, according to Xbox-Archiv, Microsoft will begin policing Xbox Live accounts and deleting "dummy" accounts. The reason stems largely from the recent addition of on-demand video content to Xbox Live and the multitude of regional restrictions movies and televisions have.
Xboxic has posted a rough translation from Xbox-Archiv, which claims to have known about the plan for weeks but is only reporting on this now as other sites have written about it. The site claims that Microsoft will shut down Xbox Live accounts with IP addresses that do not match the user's information.
*UPDATE* According to gamasutra.com Microsoft will not be banning the accounts, but rather block the non-allowed downloads:
Despite earlier reports, the dummy accounts are not being banned, but exclusive content downloads are being blocked to European users. According to a brief statement from Microsoft's Chris Paladino on the Gaming-Age fan messageboards: "Details aren't all in yet - but I do know for a fact that we are not banning the accounts. We are blocking downloads in cases where gold accounts are being used to gain U.S. content in foreign marketplaces."
Any Xbox Live account being accessed from an IP address not corresponding to the indicated country for a given account is in danger of having content downloads restrictions.
