The web is going backwards
Do you remember that innocent time when the internet was this wonderful thing that knew no boundaries? That ignored political and physical borders? That brought people together and allowed ideas and content to be shared across the world? How did we manage to start stepping backwards and unravelling all this wonderful progress? No - I’m not talking about China, I’m talking about these (apparerently) wonderful sites offering great services which you get all excited about then find - sigh - are only available if you live in America. I’m encountering this more and more these days and it really makes me feel sad inside. Here’s just a few of the shamed:
Pandora
Hulu
Lala
MTV
And it’s always the same story, they need to negotiate distribution rights with the various publishers and distributors for all other countries outside of the US which I can sort of understand but ultimately the choice you’re giving me is:
Watch Family Guy on your website and you’ll get a little money from advertisting
or
Download Family Guy illegally and nobody gets any money
(PS You’re not America so you’re allowed to do the first one)
These sites need to take a good look at the BBC iPlayer - doesn’t matter where you are in the world, it doesn’t matter if you pay the UK TV Licence Fee or not, you can access the iPlayer no problem.
