New Digital Divide - we don't have internet, we just have the wires

[Anorion]

lately seeing too many services being restricted to only US and Canada, or only Europe, or only Australia
egs:
Internet Radio - Last FM, Pandora mobile version available in select countries only, even for paying subscribers who have got the service on desktops
Many multimedia services - Veoh, Google Music only available in a few regions (though once you set up account, Google Music is not IP locked)
Streaming-renting movies - Hulu and Netflix, again US only, we only recently got iTunes
HBO - hey that's not TV, as the oatmeal web-comic pointed out, there is simply no way to actually pay for HBO content on your computer... well, now you can only if you are living in the nordic countries though
Aika online - advertised as a completely free to play online MMORPG, when you download the colossal client, only then you know its US only
can go on listing these services... clearly shows that we have only a portion of the internet, and only the bits that are no fun... don't think the same net is accessible to everyone, pretty much looks like the Internet is blacked out unless you are living in US

 

[furious_gamer]

Exactly right, but it is always this way. All the technologies will come to India, after it is obsolete in US or other countries. We are way behind them when it comes to Tech. The reason being is, one the users, who is not willing to adopt to new tech. Second, companies doesn't want to modify their infrastructure to provide the latest services, because they know, customer can live with that.

Second, india is not well mature market in technology oriented services that you have mentioned. People still download old games from torrent at poor speeds, when they can easily get the games at cheaper price. Until otherwise consumer's stand up against this and start something like protest, revolution, nothing is going to change.

 

[Anorion]

last fm gone from desktops too... used to be subscriber... this division is getting worse as tech improves
Radio changes to Last.fm from Tuesday 15 January 2013

 

[doomgiver]

i dont understand. the devs are locking themselves out from a very profitable segment by ignoring the non-USA customers.

well, sucks to be them.

 

[Vyom]

I have always wondered why websites which can be accessed from any part of the world and therefore is virtually omnipotent have to be restricted geographically. As it turns out it seems nothing more then the attempts of some ignorant minds to divide the areas of Interwebs in physical boundaries to satisfy there political needs.

I would never be able to figure out why can't I buy a game on steam just because I am in some other country, or why can't I buy some digital song from Amazon, even when the cost to sell the same would be same for them as to a US address!

Well, one possibility is their of copyrights. Since copyrights on a product could be different in different countries, it make sense why some product are not available in all countries. So, as I said, before, its all political/business.

 

[Naxal]

VPN ??

 

[Sarath]

If you want to offer your services worldwide than the licensing rights are going to be very expensive. This is why most of the services are restricted to a market which is most profitable - USoA as of now. Also they carry the license to stream or provide services for that geographical region only.

It is not like the rest of the world is being blocked out. In today world, things have become a lot more accessible, whether it was meant for you or not. A lot of countries do not speak english and do not care about US websites. This is why they have their own tailored websites.

Our country with a bazillion languages, luckily a few major ones which is still 20+ with English as the unofficial State language means that there is way too much content that we can absorb.

In time we will have these services too. It's just a matter of time.

 

[Anorion]

no stranger to the interwebs as an anonymous agent... highly reco in fact, hiding behind servers, firewalls and norton is not the point, the whole point of the internet is to connect point a to point b, we owe such discovery to the nubs or the webs has no meaning anymore, i am not anonymous, i am a person, i want to scrobble every track i play from veoh, youtube, 8tracks, hypemachine, grooveshark, google music or wherever. that is, there is a digital divide. the web was not made for such restrictions, it was meant to connect geographies.
had to do that for my google music account for ex, just wish that there was a legit route
at least a few of these services are run under compulsory broadcast rights, and track plays to pay a monetary compensation to the copyright holders for broadcasting the content, without having any prior agreement with them
india has, controversially, and with the threat of putting the entire industry in confusion, passed such laws, this is actually how dd broadcasts the cricket matches
then don't understand why Brazil gets the cool stuff and we do not, looks like 1,241,491,960 people and counting is not a viable market



also, yes, we need more local language services, Malayalam imageboards would totally rock

 

[Anorion]

book in question was public domain
*i.imgur.com/hHJ5HWn.jpg

 

[doomgiver]

hah, fail.

i firmly believe that information should be released in public domain.

 

[Anorion]

this can potentially turn into a hardware problem, access is more of a benchmark important than cores
phone or comp, this decides content more
this is the very worst thing to happen for the Internet, even US not haz deezer, such is cyberspace
maybe this will explain
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/technology-news/169879-deezer-music-services-coming-smart-tvs.html
*i.imgur.com/H7orw92.jpg

these services or their consumption are not simple and cannot be bypassed in a single step, every service needs it's own unique workaround

*i.imgur.com/yPMjJfl.jpg