Big Media = Control at All Costs!
Control at All Costs = Going the way of the Dinosaur!
The Gatekeeper at Hulu have been working very hard to slam the door on all so called illicit usage. This includes blocking companies like Boxee and cutting foreign viewers off by blocking proxy services and any foreign IP’s.
With global connectivity there is no way to put the rabbit back in the hat. Because for every door that is blocked by the Hulu folks 10 more open up because people are pissed they cannot get access to the content.
As a experiment I asked my son who is 11 if he could find a copy of the latest episode of a popular show on HULU. In a matter of 42 seconds by doing a Google search he had found a full length episode online. Being he is 11 I asked him if he thought it would be ok to watch it.
His response did not surprise me he said sure why not the episode was already on TV two weeks ago why not. I asked him next what he knew about BitTorrent and the response was more in line with what I teach as responsible computer usage here.
He said that down loading the video was probably wrong but he has a hard time understanding that if he can watch it on Hulu and also the other website we found why could he not download the episode to his computer.
If my 11 year is confused then imagine people worldwide who are being blocked by Hulu who are frustrated that they are being treated like criminals.
We all most realize the BIG Media makes millions of dollars selling syndication rights to all of those old seasons of materials. The solution is not simple but if you live in a foreign country you need to call your cable operator and tell them that you have already watched the 2009 season of Lost online and would ask that they get the 2010 season next year instead of being a year or two behind.
Foreign cable operators need to realize as well that people in your respective countries do not want to see old programming. If it was aired today in the United States then it needs to be aired on your service today as well. Next year is to late and local advertisers need to wake to the fact that the audience share will be much smaller because it has already been consumed for free online whether Big Media likes it or not!