Sorry, this media is not available in your territory.
by Volker Weber
Repeat after me ...
Comments
... and yet a friend of mine in Moscow has no difficulty with it - but then, he does have a UK operating system.
I have emailed BBC for an explanation.
Fair enough, we (the residents of the UK) pay for that content via our TV license. So all you have to do is move to the sunny UK. We'll go easy on you, I promise.
So do we, I mean pay for a TV license. Mind you, not into your treasure chest. This all makes some sense for locally distributed content ...
BBC uses lots information and Technology provided by the World Wide (!) Internet for their broadcast. They inform themselves with news from other countries and other people. But when it comes to such things as Volker describes, its only available in the UK. Stupid thing...
Most of the content of the BBC is actually available worldwide and to everyone, a lot of the content the BBC doesn't make available to outside of the UK is content they don't have the worldwide distribution rights for.
Why should the UK license payers pay more (as the BBC would be charged more for worldwide distribution rights) just to allow others who don't pay watch it for free?
Because they can watch all Swiss TV shows on the web that I pay for?
If the BBC was supported by advertising, I would agree - it's not.
I support most of vowe's DRM arguments, but this is the exception to the rule...there are many reasons, none of which I can be bother to type now.
I would answer with many reasons, none of which I can be bother to type now.
It's stupid (sorry Ben), but it isn't DRM.
They use some geo-ip lookup, which also means that you can be in the UK and be denied access, if the IP you are using is a T-Mobile hotspot and is assumed to be in Germany, for instance.
It is also easy to defeat, either by using a proxy server or by using Firefox and Greasemonkey, apparently...
Further to discussion about paying one's TV license, I was quite amused by this....
An answer, one month later (albeit to a slightly different question than the one I asked):
'Sometimes even though you're in Britain it's possible you may see a
message saying you're not. This could be because your computer is on a
foreign-based network, or is routed overseas (sometimes the case with
work connections if your employer is not UK-based). Some programs, such
as web accelerators, can cause your IP address to appear as if it is
outside the UK.
If BBC media player doesn't recognise your IP address at all, then you
won't be able to stream or download programmes.
Occasionally it may simply be a network error, so it's worth closing
your browser or router and reopening as a new IP address is allocated
which may be UK-based.
Our Geo-IP technology system recognises IP addresses provided by
UK-based internet service providers (ISPs). If the BBC media player
doesn't recognise your address, you must contact your ISP as they alone
can register your address.
If your ISP has registered with the appropriate databases, our servers
are updated on a monthly basis so you will have to wait until the next
refresh to gain access. In the meantime, you should be able to access
our non-rights restricted content.
Regards, Journalism Media Team'
