Why do non-US users have to jump through iTunes hoops to get content?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 24 February 2008 08:00

Opinion and Analysis

For all the talk of ‘free trade’ and ‘globalisation’, we still have far to go, with even the threat of free trade being pulled back, rather than further expanded, as the US faces the possibility of its worst recession since the Great Depression.

The content restrictions and ‘region zones’ we all live with won’t go away anytime soon, but neither will users’ efforts to get around those restrictions in a quasi-legal way, or simply access pirate networks which place almost no restrictions at all, other than the chance of getting caught.

The online revolution has certainly changed the content game in ways that traditional content creators never imagined, but we clearly have a long way to go before we’re all treated equally in our ability to access content.

The Internet has made the globalisation of ideas and content a reality, while the ridiculous nature of these legacy artificial regional content restrictions means that unwanted barriers remain.

These barriers will surely come down just as hard the Berlin Wall did in 1989 – and the sooner they come down, the better!