I was trying to check out the Clogger article on “The L Word” show as I have been out of the US and have no idea what the show is about. When I clicked on the link I got:
Sorry. We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.
And I get people asking me about censorship in China??!!!
This seems to be some kind of voluntary reverse censorship. Is there any name for this behavior?
This is happening more and more. It happened during the last winter Olympics as well. I was wanting to see highlights of one of the events that they were advertising on the network that was covering the event…Short Track Speed Skating, I think…and I wasn’t able to view it.
What makes it even MORE irritating is that I am not in China. I am in Canada and I can virtually throw a rock from my back yard and it would land in the State of Washington. (OK, my arm isn’t THAT good, but in less than 30 mins I am across the border)
Being an American living in Canada I have pretty much lost any sense of patriotism. It is little things like this that eats away at that sense of loss even more.
I hear ya. Im from Canada as well, (TO), and have been severly frustrated in the past to come across such digital fences to content.
Worst offender, INHO, is the Apple iTunes Store. No movies in canada, automatic crappy Can-Co (canadian content) pushed to the front page (thanks, ill pass on Alanis Morrisette/Celine Dion/Knicklebacks’s Top Hits), and not even the same podcasts listed.
I can understand the technical reasons (DRM, licencising), but it its still a bitch. Esp. when the US got Films to iTunes over a year ago!
R
For Christmas I received a legitamitly purchased Jeremy Clarkson DVD, but it was region code 8 (or whatever Europe is). I was pretty upset, but managed to, undoubtedly illegally, make a copy viewable on my DVD player. So frustrating! I blame everyone though, not just Americans.