Rant alert: The world is bigger than the US alone
I was just reading the live blogs coming from the Amazon press conference and felt kind of disappointed… again… I was hoping that Amazon would announce the European launch of the Kindle. But sadly… no.
I’m pretty sure it is yet another copyright issue that is preventing Amazon from launching Kindle worldwide. And that is exactly something that needs to change. With the Internet being this widespread and content accessible worldwide, old school copyrights and release tactics just don’t work any more. And in my opinion, they also make no sense at all.
Sadly… It’s not just Amazon. Apple’s iTunes is another good example. iTunes TV shows and movies are still only available in 1 or 2 countries in Europe. Or what about other online video providers like Netflix and Hulu? Even though it is perfectly possible to access these sites outside the US, copyright laws prevent you from using their service. Why is that?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to release books, movies, music, games, … on the same day worldwide? Combine available marketing power into one global campaign? Could that also have a positive effect on piracy? If I can go and see/buy a movie on the same day as someone across the ocean can, surely there is no need to download it? I would have no problem paying to see a movie or a new episode of a TV show.
Sadly, this is not even just restricted to copyright laws. Remember the launch of the iPhone? It was available only in the US for months. What did people outside the US do? They bought one in the US and hacked it. There are plenty of other examples like this one out there…
I know this blog post is not going to change anything but at least I got it out of my system ;-) Would love to hear your thoughts though!
UPDATE: As Mike Chambers pointed out, in some cases this is a knife that cuts both ways. People in the US also can’t watch content from Europe.
- End of rant -
7 Comments
Feel free to follow me on: 
It’s even worse than this. I plan to move to London in 2 years time and I already know it’ll be a pain to transfer my currently itms songs to the British store. But hey, I won’t have to pay anymore for my last.fm radio channels ;-)
This isnt an issue specific to the US or US copyright law. It just happens that a lot of the compelling content and technology comes from the US. For example, I would LOVE to be able to view content on the BBC’s iplayer, but I am blocked because of regional restrictions. There are also tons of games released in japan way before they are released in the west (if they ever are).
I suspect that the reasons companies dont do world wide releases as much are related to:
1. localization
2. different tax laws
3. marketting resources
On 1 and 2, they could do them but that could potentially push the US release back some (and the US is often the largest market). On #3, they simply might not have the resources to do a worldwide simultaneous release. Im guessing it is a mix of those 3 depending on the industry (i.e. for software, #1 is a big deal).
Anyways, I feel your pain (I so want to watch IT Crowd online), but it is not something specific to the US.
mike chambers
Hey Mike,
You are right. There are some examples that are not US specific. Emphasis on the “some”
;-)
I understand that there are some issues that could potentially be at the source of this problem. But what if I don’t care about localization (for software) or subtitles (for movies/TV-shows)? Shouldn’t I be able to make that choice?
I’m not sure if marketing resources could be a reason though. i would think it would be easier to do one global campaign instead of 35 different ones.
Anyway… Just ranting… ;-)
Serge
Totally feel your pain, and I can actually bring you an example which should be a bit closer to home, from the Adobe Media Player. Boy was I thrilled when Adobe announced that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would be available through the Media Player. And boy was a pissed off when I started the Media player, found The Daily Show in the catalog and when I tried to play an episode it said “This content is not available in your region”. Anger management was called for at that point…
But, when it comes to TV series and movies, I actually think the problem is often closer to home in that it’s the domestic TV broadcasters and movie theaters that don’t always dare to buy something before it has proven it’s success in the country of origin. For instance, very often here in Finland a TV series will air with a one season lag compared to e.g. America simply because they first want to be sure it will be a success. Luckily, there are more and more exceptions these days. Lost for instance airs with only a one week lag these days (so now the only reason to download an episode is to get it in HD).
I don’t think one can always blame the seller for not licensing their stuff, often it’s the buyer who isn’t interested at the early stages. But because the Internet is global, the early adopters will get to know about the new and cool stuff in all parts of the world at the same time, and the ones who then become interested in a Movie or TV series will find a way to get their fix as soon as possible, meaning more downloads.
Perhaps one model that TV broadcasters and movie theaters should consider is a sort of shared liability model. In the case of TV, the way it could work is that TV broadcasters get new content cheap, almost dirt cheap. If the series turns out to be a success they would pay the original producers an additional fee for any episodes that have already aired and then a normal fee for any subsequent episodes. If however the series tanks, they would not have to pay any additional fees and could cut their losses. This way, the producers would get all their money if they’ve made something good, the TV broadcasters would have a lower threshold to buy untested stuff and by being early adopters themselves they might also attract some of the people who would otherwise download the content.
Damn, this comment almost became a rant in itself, sorry :)
Kind of agree with you… Those restrictions and lags with global distribution make me go an pirate some of the stuff like TV shows.
And Apple iTunes and iPhone are horrible globalisation fail example… As you said iPhone came with decent lag but that was not biggest problem… iTunes came with even bigger lag even after iPhone release in my country and as iPhone was not that well polished in terms of software and lack of programs like eBook readers firstly made me register fake US account for free apps and the go Jailbreak for some stuff you can even buy in iTunes now when my country has it. And know what it did in my case is that I still haven’t registered on local iTunes App store and not planing to buy anything from there as I got used to Jailbreak + Free apps now even tough I wanted to buy bunch of stuff when I just bought iPhone and who knows may be then I would have got used to buying stuff in App store if it was available right away…
So yeah yey for models that allow synchronized global releases and nay for those that can’t as it just fuels piracy and hacking movements and makes consumers used to them.
Few words but so true Serge.
If there is an example for me that is the iTunes store. Its the 1st place that I look for music these days. Its awesome that I can pay just a song instead of the whole album and its awesome that I can pay back my favorite band and yes ever Apple or whatever other Corporation for the chance to seat on my office and buy the music I love. I wish I could do the same for TV Series. I dont care about subs or what ever. I dont mind to pay to view it. All I care for is the good quality and the ease of use of a service like the iTunes store.
I totally understand that lunching worldwide a new car for example is not that easy and @mesh mentions many good reasons for this but for Macromedia’s sake when we are talking about digital content when THEY are not making it world wide available on the same time its like them asking for piracy!
I just hope that things will change soon..
As far as tv shows go, it’s because of deals made to sell the shows in other countries. Hulu can’t show tv shows in countries where other networks there have the rights to those shows. Just as the BBC can’t show say Doctor Who across the world, even if customers are willing to pay for it, as it will step on the licensing rigths to networks that have bought Doctor Who. I know in Canada, this means CBC buys the rights to Doctor Who (they actually co-produce it even) and it’s up CBC whether or not they wish to stream video of the show online. However, CBC has to block IP’s from outside of Canada, if they show it online, as that’s as far as their deal with the BBC allows.
Apparently more deals made with tv shows, allow the original studio/network to retain online rights, but it’s still going to be a number of years before this changes.
Another issue is advertising dollars, even if Hulu has the world-wide rights to a tv show, they don’t want to show it internationally unless they have ads that are international. As a US advertiser might not have their brand internationally and doesn’t want to pay add dollars for areas that do not matter to them. For banner ads this is easy to do, but for video ads, it’s a bit more difficult to work out. For a company that might still be working out how their business model works, they rather not reproduce their methods with advertisers nationally until all the quirks are sorted out.