I understand that copyrights need to be negotiated in every single country and that is just where this problem starts. Record companies, Hollywood studios, publishers and broadcasters are still thinking in old media and it’s about time that they wake up and join the rest of us here in 2009.
When a new TV show is launched in the US, it can take up to a few years before I can see it anywhere on local TV. So, if I choose to watch this before it is available in my country, why can’t I? Why do I have to wait fo my local broadcaster to pick this up and watch it when they feels like airing it? And what if they decide to cancel the show?
How about an example? I really like Burn Notice for instance. This show is currently in its second season in the US. None of the local commercial broadcasters has picked this up yet. Now imagine they pick it up next year or so. They may air season one and then decide to cancel it. Where do I go as a fan with geo restrictions in place? I know this show is available on Hulu but officially I’m not allowed to watch it.
Same goes for the music industry. What if I like artist X but the local office for record company Y decides not to release it in my country? What do I do? I download it. What if artist Z releases his album in my country months after he released it in the US? What do I do? I download it. Would I buy it if it was available (on CD or as legal download)? Absolutely.
There’s actually a very good example on YouTube right now: Esmee Denters. This girl from Holland used to just record herself singing and then upload it to YouTube. She rapidly became one of YouTube’s most watched stars and got offered a record deal by Justin Timberlake. While her videos were watched all over the planet, you can no longer watch her new videos because of that very record deal she got because people watched her videos…
And what about the movie industry? With some exceptions, movies tend to be released about 6 months to up to a year later in Europe. Most movies are already available in the US iTunes store before they hit the theaters in Europe. So what do people do…? I think you get the idea. Would I buy or rent that new release if it was available in the local iTunes store or equivalent? I sure would and I’m actually also doing that now. Again, it’s very easy to circumvent geo restrictions even in the iTunes store. Do I stop going to the movie theaters? No… I still go and see the occasional movie in the theater.
Also, when I travel to the US, I can walk in to any Best Buy, Virgin Megastore or the likes and pick up any CD. There are no geo restrictions on that CD but if I want to pick up a DVD or Blu-ray, I can’t play that when I get back home. So what do people do? Get a multi-region player.
So let me ask this again: When a large percentage of users know how to circumvent geo restrictions on media files, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray DVDs, what’s the point of even having geo restrictions?
I believe, as you quite rightly state yourself, media giants are living in the early days. The impact of social media and the overall globalisation haven’t reached them.
This is the long issue of iTunes and is the basis of Apple’s struggle in Europe (e.g. Norway). I reside in Estonia and I have no access to iTMS – or should’t have – yet I do, as I’ve circumvented the limitations. But even so, if I really like that French artist and it’s only up on the French iTunes, I end up thinking of circumventing that one too. So a lot of unnecessary hassle. A lot.
Starting from Napster and ending with Pirate Bay they haven’t got the point. How long does it take to learn some basics? I hope EC will take this up as they’ve got the new telco law off their hands. Few antitrust cases against iTMS and the bodies on behalf there would fit in just nicely to force the representatives of US cowboy capitalism to thinking.
Copyright issues are only one ugly part of the story. Another issue is the way content gets monetized and sold (to advertisers). And then the whole ice-age mindset of the folks running the media businesses (for whom internet is still a very baffling concept / medium) ensures that the viewer / consumer gets pained thoroughly.
And then, torrent comes in to finish the story on a happy note for the tech savvy viewer :-)
I got only one thing to say, Serge: I COULDN’T AGREE MORE, I frequently use a US iTunes Store a/c with loads and loads of gift card to get a nice account balance.
I bought myself StarTrek episodes, full Stargate atlantis seasons like: 1, 2 and 3. etc. etc.
i think it’s actually illegal here in thailand to circumvent any geographic or gov nanny filtering restrictions. i was especially bummed with the tour de france coverage, for frak’s sake it was *free* but still unavailable here in thailand.
There is one more reason. Often unreasonable prices of physical distributed media. Like read article some time about about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 costing something like 100$ 0_0 This is just ridiculous buying a disk with a game for a price of 1/5 computer and a price you can live for month on in some average countries… Not speaking about say some African countries.
As for other things you mentioned I agree. They need to make Internet TV supported by something like international google video ads or something.
Or a commercialized unrestricted by copyrights P2P. Like there is this Swedish site called ContentBay. You can buy Swedish film there for a price of 5$ and download them trough bittorent. But then for each copy you seeded you receive 1$. So seed 5 times over and you bough film for free. Or seed 20 times and earn 15$. This can make pirates commercially interested. Still feels bad tough as it is DRM based tech.
Well anyways in the end old industry model is dieing whatever they try. Times changed and ways we consume clanged (not much tough, recoding/sharing tapes was normal years ago). It’s not up to us(consumers) to change back. Its up to them (producers including some of us, me too) to change and find new models that allow free for consumers content but that an pay production costs… Boy I wish that mess would end soon with someone making large and popular alternative model that will work and kill old industry models finally and legally.
Dave one thing that I’ve experienced/read is the fact that mostly Asian sellers (e.g. on eBay) provide fraudulent cards (or shall I say codes) so Apple is actually tracking them down. Thousands of iTMS accounts closed permanently. Esp. true for cases in which only the card code is delivered on email.
Read further: iTunes Voucher Codes Hacked.