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How Hulu, NBC, and Other Sites Block Google TV

Posted by Soulskill on from the user-agent-what dept.

Shortly after the launch of Google TV, it became clear that several networks and services were blocking access. Reader padarjohn points out a blog post from Lauren Weinstein explaining the blocking mechanisms being used and wondering why it's being tolerated. "Imagine the protests that would ensue if Internet services arbitrarily blocked video only to Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers! Or if Hulu and the other networks decided they'd refuse to stream video to HP and Dell computers because those manufacturers hadn't made deals with the services to the latter's liking." Various workarounds are being used to get around the blocks.

1 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Google does the same by hackel · · Score: 0, Troll

    You are really an ass. This is why people (myself included) hate people from the U.S. so much. The United States of America is a SUBSET of all the states of America. It's rude to insult all Americans when typically it is just those from the U.S. that fuck things up so much. We desperately need a new adjective to refer to a person from the U.S. but until one formally exists, USian will have to do. Just don't ever use the word "American" unless you mean it to refer to everyone on this hemisphere.

    And to the others who have commented on this thread offering various comparisons--none of them are valid. I can't think of any other similar situation, except perhaps using the word "Soviets" to refer ONLY to Russians and not all of the countries that were a part of the USSR.

    You could also compare it to the phrase "British accent" which is entirely meaningless, considering the wide variation in accents between Scotland, England, Wales, etc. If you can find a Scot who is actually proud to be British (hard to find, I realize!), I could see them being quite offended at people calling an English accent "British" as if it represented the entire country.

    Similarly, an "American Accent" is Spanish-speaking accent, as that is the language spoken by the majority of Americans, though I could imagine a few people in the U.S. who wouldn't be happy about this.