Region Blocking and Why the Sift is Important
So by now you guys should all know that I am no longer wasting my days looking for videos...that is why for the first time in two years I actually have room in my queue (Personal queue is pretty full though 
Yes, a sifting addiction can be treated for those in the community concerned that they themselves are becoming addicted.
Some of us spend money to enjoy our moving picture experience here within the walls of this community. It's interesting how we have watched as other social platforms got massive corporate donations. We are lucky we had Lucky to slug out 3.0, it is a beautiful work of code. If you have been on the sift since 2006 then I am sure you have witnessed the future of media and the future of the internet unfold before you. As we have scrounged the youtubes and blogs for Sift fuel, the outside world was moving. I like it here, every Internetter since the dawn of the Internet has become social within communties big and small.. And although I work full time within some of the heavyily funded giants, I love this community here because we come from all over the globe and we all have different video tastes. As a clip hunter I appreciate the tools we have here to sort online video too.
Online video is changing, most of us should have known that back when TayTV broke the "YouTube was bought by Google story" eons ago. Oh..and so did the Sift. <---- This link offers great research by the way of lots of archived coverage of that 2006 event. Dag linked to a Great Mark Cuban blog post, with a hint of Irony when you hit play on the embed.
The Sift is at Risk! - as Krono pointed out in this Sift Talk a month ago, Regional Blocking is becoming widespread and I fear for the Sift. Our great community is home to many Canadians and for some reason, and America is building a wall, it just happens to not be in Mexico but within the mega video Social Networks of the Internet.
I first encountered Regional Blocking after experiencing for the joy of having access to a real life version of a TV archive that I thought would be available in heavan, The Daily Show archive. I was pretty upset, at one point I was so delusional I drafted up plans to incite a Colbert Boycott! Me? I have been the hugest Colbert Fan even before he stuck the Banana in his mouth.
(btw Canadians...the video above is region blocked)
So that historical footage is locked away unless I hack a proxy or something like that. Either way its Something my grandma will never figure out, and she loves the way I describe this clip, a clip, a 91 year old Canadian, wife of a WWII vet, will never experience...What is it with old ladies and the Royal Family? Why is it America is suddenly so afraid with Canadians watching their video content. We get the Buffalo News in Ontario and the Seattle News here in BC. And yes, between 1999 and 2005 you could watch the Simpsons syndicated during every hours of the day with just a regular cable hookup, half the idiot box is American.
This is why Videosift is vitally important, we have an archive of almost every great clip from youtube that saw the light of the internet before the great Google purchase of 2006. If they have been removed from the net we can anticipate their return from a the deep end of the dead pool. I for one hope that once the dust settles its only sane, friendly corporations that survive. Because this new trend seems like a step backwards to where we were a year ago. Isn't it called the World Wide Web.
Region Blocking sucks, Tear down this wall.
8 Comments
gorgonheapI second that motion, though living in the US I've never really come up against region blocking, I fail to see the purpose of it. One of the things that endures me to videosift is that on this site we have the collected life experence of hundreds nay thousands of years, from all over the globe.
Now what makes all of that more special than any other site is that here on videosift we speak, for the more part, fairly civil and respect one another. Unlike the common YouTube "You suck" comments, here people express feelings, ideas, opinions all without adding unnecessary expletives or hurtful words. (again, for the majority)
It would be a tragedy if corporations would fail to see the importance of a world wide audience. Much less the connections it would make. I honestly feel a real connection to many sifters on the site. People I would probably never meet in real life become friends and I find that the connection between all humans is tangible and not an imagined thing. There is something that binds us all to each other. And if the love of video content is what makes us step a little closer to a united human race, so be it.
Tear down the wall!
jwrayI agree
The workaround is to use a video downloader browser plugin, convert the file format, then re-upload the video yourself without the region restriction.
blankfistHere! Here! I hear an echo of Pink Floyd The Wall. Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!
This regional block has been a pain in the arse for us in the US, too, because all too often someone will mistake a regionally blocked video for a dead one and send a perfectly viable video to the woes of the deadpool. Just yesterday I promoted this video and within 4 hours someone had already marked it for dead. This immediately removed it from being promoted. What a waste. This is a bad situation for all of us, and I think it needs a swift remedy.
Fedquip>> ^blankfist:
Here! Here! I hear an echo of Pink Floyd The Wall. Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!
This regional block has been a pain in the arse for us in the US, too, because all too often someone will mistake a regionally blocked video for a dead one and send a perfectly viable video to the woes of the deadpool. Just yesterday I promoted this video and within 4 hours someone had already marked it for dead. This immediately removed it from being promoted. What a waste. This is a bad situation for all of us, and I think it needs a swift remedy.
So True...because it doesn't tell us it regional blocked, he just tells use the video isn't working (as if it were dead)
winkler1BBC does this too..only serves up some streams in Real format..which my way cool roku soundbridge can't handle.
The following stations are available only if you are located in the UK:
BBC Radio 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/wm_asx/aod/radio1_hi.asx
BBC 1Xtra: http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/realmedia/1xtra_hi.asx
BBC Radio 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/wm_asx/aod/radio2_hi.asx
BBC Radio 3: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/wm_asx/aod/radio3_hi.asx
BBC Radio 4 (FM): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/wm_asx/aod/radio4.asx
BBC Radio 4 (LW): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/wm_asx/aod/radio4_lw.asx
BBC Radio Five Live: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/live.asx
BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/live_sportsextra.asx
The following stations are available anywhere in the world:
BBC Radio Five Live: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/live_int.asx
BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra: http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/l...sextra_int.asx
BBC 6Music: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/ram/6music_hi.asx
BBC7: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/realplayer/bbc7_hi.asx
BBC Asian Network: http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/rams/asiannet_hi.asx
BBC World Service mms://wmevent3.broadcast.com/bcenc199178?StreamID=25962424&b=b9v7iakvt948i451b3 63d&CG_ID=57025
winkler1Has anyone tried FoxyProxy? http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/
"Define which proxy to use (or none!) for arbitrary URLs using wildcards, regular expressions, whitelists, blacklists, and other conveniences"
Sounds like you could define rules to proxy certain hosts.
jwrayI can reach all those BBC stations from Nebraska, USA.
I suspect some region restrictions rely on the browser's self-reporting instead of IP address. In that case there's an easy software fix.
winkler1Discuss...
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