Hulu Content Available Only In The USA
September 18, 2008 by Geoff Jennings
When the internet became public property, civil libertarians hailed this as a step towards freedom in the media. And it’s true, the burgeoning of blog sites like this one have contributed to the dissemination of opinions and information that have not ever been seen before en masse.
However, things may be beginning to change. Video-sharing site Hulu.com has taken the protective step of making its site’s content available only in the USA.
This is what I got when last visited and clicked on a video:
This is, no doubt, a response to the large amount of litigation surrounding copyright issues and public video sharing.
This blocking of content could impact the uploading of employment video content if it’s unable to be played in international cyber space. For example if Youtube decided to take this stance then the ability to ad video to Seek job ads via a Youtube link would disappear. And into what other areas will this censorship seep?
The modern social construct of a “state” with borders originates from the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648.
Its quite bizarre that 360 years later, companies are trying to restrict the globalised flow of information to the Westphalian state system.
While I can understand why Hulu is taking a conservative approach to distributing other people’s content or ‘IP” based on a fear of the rules of their pareticular state, I think the globalised nature of the internet is going to render this approach somewhat irrelevant - the Westphalian system of border control is just not what it used to be in the 1600s.
No doubt some competing offering based somewhere like the Dominican Republic will be streaming the content within 24 hours, and consumers will just vote with their feet (or mice) - no passport required.
Thank you for the historical perspective you’ve contributed to this discourse, Carey. It’s often important to draw threads from past events in order to plan for the future.
Your conclusion on this issue is insightful. Hopefully, the internet will remain the source of globalised communication that it is currently.
And I suppose it will be incumbent on folks like us to ensure this happens:)
It’s interesting because a similar thing happened during the Olympics. In the lead up there was a lot of fuss about how Microsoft had done a deal and NBC would be using Silverlight for their Olympics web site and it would be a major show piece for MS. So when the Olympics started I wandered over to NBC to check it out only to be told where to go. Only US visitors welcome!