So, I’m trying to get some study music off of youtube and I really felt like listening to Caparezza, an Italian artist. So youtube kept giving me a “This video has been blocked in your Country” message. Finally out of annoyance I went on the Italian language google page and still same thing.
I thought the whole purpose of Youtube and of the internet in general was to broaden the cultural horizons of the global population, so that as a global community people can share thoughts and ideas across borders. apparently this doesn’t apply to music.
I can certainly relate. I listen to Japanese music from time to time, and often I have found that Youtube disabled some music videos I had wanted to watch and listen. One purpose of Youtube is to allow people from all over to share their ideas/cultures. However, with two appendages: 1) it needs to lead to money (ads) and 2) it can’t be illegal. If copyright laws exist, websites will always take the safest route and just delete the illegal content to keep itself from shutting down. (If it’s worth anything, I found some of my videos on vimeo.com)
I completely feel your pain. When I was abroad last Spring, much of what I watched on YouTube was not available to me because I wasn’t in the states. This also happened a lot with TV shows online. I couldn’t use Hulu, Netflix, or anything like those (NBC, CBS, etc.). As much as we like to think of the internet as a way of connecting with people all over the world by sharing ideas and other things like music, it’s still very much a business and the creators of certain materials (music videos, TV shows) want credit and money for what they have done. Nothing is actually free, haha.
Regarding television shows, abroad they are often behind the US in terms of current seasons. While the US may begin airing a new season of a show in September, other countries, like those in Europe, will most likely wait a number of months before airing the new season. It is partly for this reason that I believe networks do not allow their websites to be accessed abroad. I do agree that the internet is in a sense, a business.
I agree completely, Professor Phillips brought up the point of internet databases charging insane amounts of money to access their information. Which reminds me of a rather heartbreaking story of Aaron Swartz, he was an activist for freedom of information on the internet and while at MIT he took a bunch of articles off of MIT’s database and gave them out for free online. He was prosecuted by the Government and essentially made a pariah for may years until just this year he took his own life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-father-says-killed-by-government_n_2482646.html
I remember when that tragedy occurred. Aaron did not even intend to profit off of the information and was given a life sentence. The purpose of a copyright is “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” The rights of authors are subordinate to the ‘Progress of Science’ – in other words the promotion of learning. The only reason authors are granted the right is for the promotion of learning. What happens if their (ab)use of that right hinders learning?
I was not aware of this occurrence, but from what people have mentioned it seems as if Aaron was simply doing exactly what authors would want- getting their work out there to the public, spreading their ideas. Everything in life seems to have a deeper, darker meaning than most people want to believe. I recently read a short story called “Me and Miss Mandible” http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/barthelme-mandible.html in which the narrator of the story worked for an insurance company whose motto was “Here to Help in Time of Need.” One day, the narrator realized that a customer of theirs was not getting all the money that she was entitled to, so he honorably let her know, and granted her the money she deserved. Later on that day he was fired from his job because of this. Just like Aaron, the narrator was trying to do the right thing, but instead got punished for it. Everything in this world is a business, and money is of the essence.
This same phenomenon happens on iTunes and you can’t buy music from other countries pages. This doesn’t make sense to me and seems to me as limiting a huge benefit of the internet. One reason may be that different currency is used but this reason doesn’t apply to the authors situation.