U2 Live Concert Blackout in Scandinavia, Arrrrrrr!
In a move so typical of elements of the music industry, the upcoming live concert from U2 will be on YouTube but artificially restricted. No access is available from Sweden, the home of Pirate Bay.
On Sunday, YouTube will stream the Los Angeles stop on the U2 tour.
It will be viewable in 16 countries — Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, UK and, of course, the US.
However, if you happen to live in Sweden, or indeed anywhere in Scandinavia, the show is unavailable since the area will be blocked. The citizens in the home of the world’s most notorious pirates will be unable to watch the performance. Officially at least.
When I ask people almost rhetorically why situations like this occur, the answer is never down to technical inability, it is almost always down to licensing. A management issue. Not my problem. Fans want music, not excuses.
The labels tangle artists’ creativity so deeply within their complex business structures that in this instance their talent cannot be enjoyed by millions of people, a problem that could be solved at the flick of a switch. To be honest they seem to have pulled off a minor miracle getting as many countries on board as they have, but this is yet another case of a product being absolutely available but artificially restricted.
But nevermind, the pirates will surely fill that gap and Scandinavians will be able to see this U2 concert one way or another, that much is guaranteed.
More opportunities lost, and over what? Numbers on paper and people in suits. Alice Taylor, editor at the UK’s Channel 4 and wife of Cory Doctorow said it all this week;
Piracy is simply demand where supply does not exist. Pointless protection mechanisms simply restrict a person’s ability, as a creator, to be discovered.
Amen
Solution is simple: Use something like http://www.torrentfreedom.com to appear like you’re in another jurisdiction (plus, as an added bonus the encryption allows you to use BT without your ISP noticing!).
R
funny facts about notorious pirates, they at least know 20differents ways to get around this cheap blocks.Ways are included but not limited to, dns optimizations,proxies,VPNs,tor like p2p systems….
WTF?!!, bo OH NO!, never shall I get this dirt in my saint ears!, Boycot bono as U boycot Bill!!!. Keep on trucking, Freakbits!. Reine and her dog: Poutou.
Can’t watch U2? Eh, no loss. They kinda suck.
Use OpenDns or proxy and you are in…
Most people who would have liked to watch it won’t have a clue about using proxies. It shouldn’t be difficult to imagine that those people may start to feel antipathy towards The Pirate Bay if the media draws the reason for their occlusion from the broadcast as related to Sweden’s failure to bow to indistry demands for the closure of The Pirate Bay. Who cares if a few nerds manage to evade the block through technological means? The industry probably won’t, because they know the action will affect the majority.
RobM – What are you on about ‘bt encryption’. Though irrelevent to this discussion, it does not make BT undetectable at all (how the fcuk you think they traffic shape?).
Bs – As said, a few pirates evading the block are irrelevent to the industry.
Reine/Norm – Thats’ cool that you don’t like U2 (and neither do I), but many do, and it’s those that will be pissed. Good one!!!one!!11
Jasper van Weerd – What will OpenDNS do!? Don’t you think the broadcasts will be blocked by GeoIP? OpenDNS won’t change that, you need a new IP.
…
Pirates, if you’re really capable, then let’s see you offer your own realtime streams of the event to Scandinavia, then you might have an impact on the industry’s action, otherwise in the end you all will lose here.
I just stopped caring ages ago. Works fine for me.
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