Geolocation Enables Internet Borders

JimRay writes: "The Washington Post's Tech site is running an interesting piece on geolocation technology and its increased use on the net. The article explains the technology as being able to locate an Internet user in the world, at least to their mother country, and then grant access based on their location. They note how television broadcasters are interested in this kind of technology to prohibit the loss of distribution rights to things like the Olympics."

Comments

Geographic IP Location

[image]

I almost loathe to post the URL because I don't want it to get slashdotted, but one of my favourite online utilities is:

The Net World Map

Just follow that link, type in an IP (defaults to yours), and it does a reasonably good job at locating the address.

Does anyone else have a link to another public service like that?

Re:Geographic IP Location

[blacksmith]

Just to make my comment above (about accuracy) look bloody stupid, this site gets me bang on. However, the other two I tried were both wrong - got the UK correctly, but the wrong end of the country.

VisualRoute

[iGawyn]

VisualRoute provides a similar service and is normally pretty accurate.

Gawyn

The sign of legitimacy

[standards]

The article talks mostly about commercial web sights that sell services that are illegal in some places - like on-line gambling and drugs.

To me, I want to know where I'm spending my money. Many on-line services do hide behind the web, trying to mask their true identity (and legitimacy and legality).

Clearly it is good for consumers to know with who they are dealing with.

It is, however, disconcerting that this same technology can prevent legitimate news, views, and opinions from easily making it to one location or another.

NRC Research Press

[gandalf_grey]

The Research Press (Publishes 14 Canadian online science journals) is using a system that will allow only Canadian IP's access to the online journals free of charge, as a service to the Canadian Public. All others must pay a subscription fee or Pay-Per-View charge. It seems to be working out rather well (for Canadian's at least).

The first reaction might be... so what, great for Canadians.... It's great, because at least SOME of the world can access the journals freely... as opposed to nobody at all. After all, they are government sponsored publications, so the Canadian people should be able to access them freely (while still being able to recover costs through international subscription sales). Check it out at: http://www.nrc.ca/cisti/journals

Re:Doesn't always work, apparently

[bje2]

I went to the page too, and it opened up...it did however deny me access once i tried to sign up for an account (i'm in the US)...so, it does work...