Country restrictions at YouTube
category: general [glöplog]
It seemed like a normal day, but when I followed the link which my USA friend sent me, I saw that the world had slightly changed - instead of the usual YouTube page, a pink strip with succinct text informed me that "this video is unavailable in your country". I sat there for a while, staring at it, not believing my eyes for a few seconds.
Huh?
Now, I was not stunned by the fact that I was blocked from watching this exact video - the YouTube block can quite easily be worked around. What struck me was the fact of its existence - that someone somewhere allowed himself to decide what several million people can and cannot watch.
More than that, when you see what videos were blocked, you understand that those are ordinary, normal videos. There is absolutely nothing in them that people of my or other countries shouldn't see and there seems to be no reason to block them. No reason but the desire to rub it in to every person using the Internet that it is not he who is making decisions. From now on someone's rough hand will hide one information and throw the other into our faces. Start getting used to the new order, people!
And actually, this is how it happens - by a series of these small humiliations, because humiliation is what you experience when you see "the video is unavailable in your country". Essentially what it says is: "you are not good enough to watch it".
But the most dangerous part is that people may start to get used to it and eventually consider it a norm - existing within their small rooms of allowed information and silently obeying what they are told by the invisible power. Look at the western world - mega corporations are winning there, having knocked into everybody's head that copying files is illegal. Try to even mention the word "mp3" on American forums - it scares the hell out of people.
Yet no matter how hard you press the plug, water will sooner or later burst out and just like sharing ideas cannot be forbidden, nor can the freedom to choose what to read, listen and watch. And how soon the water shoots up really depends on us, on each and every person.
I am against YouTube country restrictions. Are you?
Huh?
Now, I was not stunned by the fact that I was blocked from watching this exact video - the YouTube block can quite easily be worked around. What struck me was the fact of its existence - that someone somewhere allowed himself to decide what several million people can and cannot watch.
More than that, when you see what videos were blocked, you understand that those are ordinary, normal videos. There is absolutely nothing in them that people of my or other countries shouldn't see and there seems to be no reason to block them. No reason but the desire to rub it in to every person using the Internet that it is not he who is making decisions. From now on someone's rough hand will hide one information and throw the other into our faces. Start getting used to the new order, people!
And actually, this is how it happens - by a series of these small humiliations, because humiliation is what you experience when you see "the video is unavailable in your country". Essentially what it says is: "you are not good enough to watch it".
But the most dangerous part is that people may start to get used to it and eventually consider it a norm - existing within their small rooms of allowed information and silently obeying what they are told by the invisible power. Look at the western world - mega corporations are winning there, having knocked into everybody's head that copying files is illegal. Try to even mention the word "mp3" on American forums - it scares the hell out of people.
Yet no matter how hard you press the plug, water will sooner or later burst out and just like sharing ideas cannot be forbidden, nor can the freedom to choose what to read, listen and watch. And how soon the water shoots up really depends on us, on each and every person.
I am against YouTube country restrictions. Are you?
i offer free beer at the next party for the first group to release a demo that refuses to run in louigi's country! :-)
more seriously, don't blame youtube... for they are just following your democratically elected government's wishes and demands.
amazon.com refuses to send some electronic device to my french address :( whereas amazon.fr is out of stock.
they don't send it out at all, or just not with cash on delivery? :)
Probably some New World Order crap. By seeing this message people will think "my country sucks, maybe it's better with a world government to replace sovereign nations."
It is better, isn't it? After all, how can you block certain countries from watching Youtube videos if there aren't any countries?
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It is better, isn't it? After all, how can you block certain countries from watching Youtube videos if there aren't any countries?
See? It works.
Next up: Youtube censorship based on data collected from your webcam!
"This hiphop video is unavailable to whiggers like you"
:-)
"This hiphop video is unavailable to whiggers like you"
:-)
"more seriously, don't blame youtube... for they are just following your democratically elected government's wishes and demands."
I did not ask them to do it. Nor do I remember in any political programs the part where they said they are planning to restrict me from watching certain videos. I also highly doubt that the government has so much time as to restrict me from watching a video of Frank Sinatra, while having the same video from the other user available. I don't feel any anti-Sinatra trends here. And other anti-stuff trends which were restricted. I do know that the XML file at YouTube has a restriction flag.
I did not ask them to do it. Nor do I remember in any political programs the part where they said they are planning to restrict me from watching certain videos. I also highly doubt that the government has so much time as to restrict me from watching a video of Frank Sinatra, while having the same video from the other user available. I don't feel any anti-Sinatra trends here. And other anti-stuff trends which were restricted. I do know that the XML file at YouTube has a restriction flag.
Who's in the wrong, he who creates the technology or he who uses it for "evil"?
I mean, YouTube doesn't care if you watch the video or not, the copyright holders do, and are also the people behind the block. YouTube just provides the tech.
I mean, YouTube doesn't care if you watch the video or not, the copyright holders do, and are also the people behind the block. YouTube just provides the tech.
Aghhh, an account I was just watching for UFOs and stuff was just banned and I don't know the reason :(
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I did not ask them to do it.
Ich hab es nicht gewusst?
I do not blame YouTube itself. In fact, I do not care who is responsible for restrictions - I just don't want them.
As for copyright holders, I never understood that. They delete shows from YouTube because it violates copyright and so noone gets to see those shows and yet many of them are unavailable from anywhere else. What's the point?
As for copyright holders, I never understood that. They delete shows from YouTube because it violates copyright and so noone gets to see those shows and yet many of them are unavailable from anywhere else. What's the point?
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"This hiphop video is unavailable to whiggers like you"
i thought they were the target audience in the first place :O
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I am against YouTube country restrictions. Are you?
Absolutely.
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Aghhh, an account I was just watching for UFOs and stuff was just banned and I don't know the reason :(
I've seen that happen a lot more lately. I've even seen people get their accounts closed within minutes after making completely innocent text comments on sensitive UFO topics. I guess it just proves that youtube is censored and monitored by secret government agencies. :)
you shouldnt be allowed to see what the others see, you might get ideas.
George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.
people. hotspot shield. srsly.
people can be banned for not passing the idiocy test by being interested in ufos.
ok so in which country do you reside and what was the shocking blocked video?
I reside in Russia. Several videos that I couldn't see were two comical unpolitical sketches made by some users. Just some silly stuff. Also Frank Sinatra. The rest I didn't even check - one of the links was in fact from this very forum and according to the context it was also some joke video.