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Europe Vows To Get Rid of Geo-Blocking
AmiMoJo writes: The European Commission has adopted a new set of initiatives for digital technologies that aims to improve access to online services for everyday users. Among other things, Europe vows to end geo-blocking, which it describes as "a discriminatory practice used for commercial reasons," and lift other unwarranted copyright restrictions. Consumers will have the right to access content they purchased at home in other European countries. "I want to see every consumer getting the best deals and every business accessing the widest market – wherever they are in Europe," Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says.
Yeah this will have about as much impact as the banning of involuntary cookies had...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Put up free public anonymous proxy servers.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Will this include having Germany unblock Youtube?
Currently, ANYTHING on Youtube involving music is blocked because GEMA (the German equivalent of RIAA) can't reach an agreement with Google. The end result is that all those videos out there where people play a bit of background music are effectively banned from being seen in Germany.
For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
An interesting excerpt for those too lazy to click on links:
A study sponsored by the video hosting website MyVideo estimated that 61.5% of the 1000 most viewed YouTube clips are blocked in Germany. This is significantly higher than, for example, in the United States (0.9%) or in Switzerland (>1%).[7]
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
This stuff is perfectly legal to own in the blocked areas. The content owners just want to make sure someone viewing their content in Germany must pay the German price for it, instead of say the French price. Even if the customer is French, already bought the content in France, and is visiting Germany temporarily.
The Nazi stuff, on the other hand, is not legal in Germany.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
Two big reasons geo-blocking exists: to take advantage of currency arbitrage and mandatory copyright licensing. GEMA managed to get Youtube videos with any music in them banned in Germany simply by requiring a ridiculous amount of money in per-viewing fees.
Example Netflix, have different movies and tv series across countries in EU, because of the agreements with content owners. So for example i can't watch content from Netflix in EU country A because i live i country B. From now on i will be able to get all the content in EU.
TFS talks about geo-blocking, not blocking IPs based on content.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Well, we're screwed.
If the EU bans geoblocking, media corporations will push for unified copyright law in the EU as well - after all, it only makes sense, right? You can't force them to abide by every country's individual law, that's just unreasonable...
Now, I'm from the Czech Republic. Our copyright law has a lot of problems, but generally it's better than in the "west" - we don't have insane shit like the "three strikes" shit in France where you get literally kicked out of the entire internet for being *accused* three times of "piracy", no court, little or no recourse... this doesn't happen here, because we're a small and relatively poor market so it's not worth it to bribe our lawmakers.
With geoblocking forbidden and unified anti-piracy laws pushed on the entire EU, we'll get the combination of the absolute worst, most anti-consumer "anti-piracy" measures from all corners of the world. The corporations will only need to pay off a few politicians in Brussels, instead of having to do it separately in each country, and we'll all suffer as a consequence.
I'll gladly give up the ability to watch some shitty shows etc. on the Internet if it means I can continue to live in a comparatively free country. I mean, with the current local legislature, if I *do* want to watch a show that's inaccessible here, I can just legally pirate it... but soon I won't be able to. All that will be left to protect my freedom will be the local police's incompetence and indifference.
> This stuff is perfectly legal to own in the blocked areas. The content owners just want to make sure someone viewing their content in Germany must pay the German price for it, instead of say the French price.
Yes, there are two parts to it. The article says that content once bought should be available in the whole of the EU. So far, if you are on holiday in France, you can't use your existing streaming account, Kindle downloads or MP3s. Clearly that is wrong, because nobody would buy content again just for a holiday (apart from the fact that you would need a credit card registered at a local address).
The problem of separate markets is a different one. It is also on the European agenda, but the issue will be much more contentious. But that is not a geoblocking issue.
The loophole is right there in the article;
Among other things the Commission plans “to end unjustified geo-blocking,” which it describes as “a discriminatory practice used for commercial reasons.”
We only have to wait to find out what kind of geo-blocking is classed as "justified", but I'd bet on most of the kinds that really cause problems for people.
Oh no... it's the future.
The European Union is firstly and above other things a common market - we, Europeans of the Union, agreed to that before any other type of unification (other types -e.g. monetary- which not all members of the union accept yet, and may never accept). While EU is very problematic for many reasons (not only economical... as many would think i mean because i am a Greek!), its common market concept is the least problematic (and the least negative in the eyes of its citizens). Geo-blocking inside EU is against the common market concept, so it is good that we will get rid of it. But is that means that we Greeks could watch some great football matches from England, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc? I highly doubt that nationall content providers among the EU members will agree so easily to provide their valuable products (e.g., football) to every member. Because if it is only for stupid things like Eurovision... well, we get that already, we commentary in Greek (so no need for any barbarian).
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
This type of thing can have good and bad sides though. Somebody in Germany or the UK likely has a lot more money to spend than somebody in Greece. With Geo-blocking, you can charge people in Greece a price they can afford, and you can charge the people in Germany a price they can afford. If you aren't allowed to discriminate based on where the customer is, the only options are to charge Greek prices to everyone, or have the item at a price where Greeks couldn't afford the item. If they price it at a price that Greeks can afford it, then they are quite limited in how much money the can make, so they will probably opt to just charge the German price to everyone, and Greeks are left without any option of paying for the product at all, and they will just pirate it. Having lower prices for countries where people actually have less money probably helps cut down on piracy. If there's only 1 price allowed, then there's going to be a lot of people who simply can't afford the product.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Right after the US joins the EU.
In a pure free market, you don't charge based on what people can pay. You charge cost plus. That's the same in Germany as Greece for something provided in Italy. It's the monopoly-thinking that gets "market-based" pricing. And yes, the market is different in different places. The more "pure" the capitalism, the more you move to cost plus, where geography is irrelevant. Since they can't ban every local monopoly, they address the cross-border effects of a local monopoly. If someone in Italy bribes and cajoles the locals for an exclusive car rental business, then they would want to charge monopoly market prices. They would want the person in Greece to buy from them, and would need to charge less for that than the higher prices they get from Germany.
The EU central government can't fix the corruption in Italy, but can ban that discrimination from crossing borders. If there wasn't a monopoly, regardless of how it got there, then the competition would reduce the cost of a car to cost + 10% (or some reasonable return). That price would be the same for Greece and Germany, and would likely be lower than the old Greece price.
Learn to love Alaska
> How would you like it if you went into mcdonalds, and they said nice rollex, and charged you $100 per burger.
How would you like it if you went into a McD's in Lille and paid 50% more than 20 miles away across the border in Brussels? (which is what happens at the moment)
American posters don't get how fragmented the EU market is and life is much simpler for interstate vendors as the consumer is required to declare and pay sales tax for "exported" items.
It shouldn't be this way, but it is.