Here’s a great post from TechDirt, inspired by a captioned screen shot on Facebook. The poor Facebook user was trying to buy some music online and couldn’t because it wasn’t available in his country (I’m guessing he’s Canadian). The caption reads “RECORD LABELS: FIX THIS SHIT OR STOP BITCHING ABOUT ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS”.
He has a point. As TechDirt says:
What I want you to explain is why, in this day and age, with the internet handling a large quantity of the sales, are labels still attempting to pretend that the purchaser’s country makes any difference. Because it just doesn’t. The only people who would find this sort of thing acceptable are the legal teams, administrators and royalty-collecting intermediaries who need this sort of relentlessly stupid convolution to maintain their positions.
Why can’t I buy a digital magazine subscription from Amazon.com, or an MP3? Why couldn’t I buy the Kindle edition Alastair Reynolds’ latest novel from Amazon.co.uk when it was released in Britain last month instead of having to wait until June to get it from Kindle.com? Why can’t I watch TV shows on Hulu – the same shows that are broadcast on Canadian TV networks.
There’s possibilities here. Fix the system so we can buy music, videos, or books from anywhere, legitimately, and pay the creators. Or we go to the Pirate Bay and it’s ilk or we just don’t bother at all. One way the creators get paid. The other way they don’t. Figure it out guys.