Free The Internet!
February 20 2009, 02:10 PM
Filed in: Opinion
One of the beauties of the internet is its ability to eliminate borders and geographical boundaries and for everything to be accessible to everyone, everywhere (unless in you're in China or another country who's access is controlled by the government).
But lately, when it comes to music and movies, the internet machine is continually throwing road blocks in front of my browsing tendencies.
You see, I'm a Canadian. And apparently that's a problem.
In the world of today's copyright-holder paranoia and the fear of a lack of control on content, firewalls have been put up to restrict access to those who simply put, aren't American.
The following quote has become the source of much inter-web browsing anxiety for me: "This service is currently only available to residents within the United States. "
Let's face it, the bulk of entertainment media online is advertised and marketed by US companies. The ads for their media are everywhere, directing you to specific sites to view their content. And everywhere I look lately, blogs and news sites seem to be espousing the glory of Hulu, the new online video venture that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox and many other networks and studios.
It's a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp (which both happen to have Canadian divisions and thousands of products readily available to us Canucks).
But guess what? Upon trying to watch any of the videos being advertised...this is what we see:
Digging deeper into the reasons why this black screen of death keeps haunting me when I click on a Hulu web link, I went to the their website for some answers:
"For now, Hulu is a U.S. service only. That said, our intention is to make Hulu's growing content lineup available worldwide. This requires clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific geography and will take time. We're encouraged by how many content providers have already been working along these lines so that their programs can be available over the Internet to a much larger, global audience. The Hulu team is committed to making great programming available across the globe."
Now this problem isn't exclusive to Hulu. The same issue arises when I try to access content on Comedy Central, Rolling Stone, Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify, and many others.
I have a real problem understanding the logic behind these restrictions.
You see, I pay my cable provider a monthly fee so I can watch Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on an NBC station from the US. I pay the same cable provider a monthly fee for my broadband internet access.
Yet I can't watch the same show online that my American friends can watch, even though we both paid to watch the original episode air on our TVs. Now I realize this isn't caused by my cable provider, but shouldn't they be fighting for our content rights?
So this is my call to arms...Free The Internet!
You may have heard the term, Net Neutrality, which is a current buzz term in the US, and for good reason. Here's a little more info on this, taken from the website savetheinternet.com:
"When we log onto the Internet, we take a lot for granted. We assume we'll be able to access any Web site we want, whenever we want, at the fastest speed, whether it's a corporate or mom-and-pop site. We assume that we can use any service we like -- watching online video, listening to podcasts, sending instant messages -- anytime we choose.
What makes all these assumptions possible is Network Neutrality.
Network Neutrality -- or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.
Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service."
Now to be clear, the above information is in regard to Internet Service Providers and to restrictions and bandwidth limitations they want to install. But that's not the only problem regarding internet freedom.
While we Canadians may not not have the exact same problems with our ISPs as Americans, we DO have problems with the large content owners not allowing us to consume their products in the same way as our neighbours. NBC Universal and News Corp want us to watch their broadcasts, listen to their music, read their magazines and news sites, and socialize using MySpace...yet...they DON'T want us to see the programs we've already seen, and paid for, on TV.
I don't get it.
Let's Free The Internet folks.
Brian Thompson
