[CAnet - news] GeoBlocking: Why Hollywood itself is a major cause of piracy

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
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[From my opinion piece at Thinkernet --BSA]

GeoBlocking: Why Hollywood itself is a major cause of piracy

http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=506&doc_id=147793&

There is a lot of buzz in the popular press about video sites where you can
legally download (for a fee) movies and TV shows across the Internet -- such
as Apple's iTunes and Amazon's UnBox. Unfortunately, the content on most of
these services is only available to U.S. citizens. The rest of the world
cannot legally download this same content because of a practice called
"geo-blocking." 

Geo-blocking is a technique used by Hollywood distributors to block their
content from being accessed by online viewers outside the U.S. The system
identifies users by their IP address to determine if they reside in the U.S.
or not.  There are several sites that provide services to get around
geo-blocking, but they tend to be cumbersome and slow -- and you need a
degree in Geekology to use them properly.  

Hollywood studios generally are keen on geo-blocking because they can
extract more revenue from the traditional "windows" process of first
distributing through theaters, rentals, pay per view, and finally on cable
TV. 

Geo-blocking is also a convenient arrangement for international cable
companies and culture regulators.  Both are terrified of the contrary
implications: Their citizens can have free and open access to popular
American culture bypassing their own regulatory controls and wallets.  

[..]


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