Comments on: Geo restrictions on media are so 2001!

By: Ain Tohvri

Ain Tohvri — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:15:25 +0000

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.

By: wonderwhy-er

wonderwhy-er — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:18:33 +0000

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.

By: coldfusionPaul

coldfusionPaul — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:40:28 +0000

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.

By: Dave Wouters

Dave Wouters — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:55:34 +0000

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.

By: vsagarv

vsagarv — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:56:08 +0000

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 :-)

By: Ain Tohvri

Ain Tohvri — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:17:47 +0000

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.