YouTube Has Regional Controls

Someone I met recently recommended I listen to the Scissor Sisters so I went to YouTube to get some sense of what their music was like.

I was very surprised to find that I could not play the video for a song called Laura. All I got was a message saying

The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Sorry about that.

Try playing it yourself, and you you get content, please let me know where you are, what platform you are using, and how the song is.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-0d3cjgfLg

YouTube/Google is not only within its rights to do this, it may even be a legal requirement in some cases, but I see it as a further harbinger of the socially costly fragmentation of the Internet.

This entry was posted in Kultcha, Law: Copyright and DMCA. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to YouTube Has Regional Controls

  1. I live in Mexico. The video loaded for me from my MX ISP. Catchy tune, not nearly as abrasive as I thought Scissor Sisters were. I then jumped on my U.S. VPN router and got the message you quote – video would not load. I use that VPN router to get around the copyright restrictions on e.g. Hulu and many U.S. sites. Do not know if Strong VPN (the service I use – $55/year) has routers in other countries to get around US controls. Agree it is a socially costly fragmentation of the Internet, and a short-sighted one in my opinion, by licensors. This is the first I have encountered inabiility to access from US router.

  2. I could see/hear it fine from England via a regular Firefox browser.

    The end of the video had a copyright 2004 Polydor Records on it. Polydor is a UK company. Although Scissor Sisters is an American band, they tended to release their recordings in Europe first as they were bigger here than in the US.

    Richard

  3. Optimus Law says:

    Chrome/Good-ol’-U-S-of-A/same error.

    However, it doesn’t matter, as this is assuredly the greatest Scissor Sisters song/performance ever – and this link works in the US: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEf_-BKT6zg .

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