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Comment by ajsnigrutin | Hacker News Reader

Not just that, you only get protection (in a specific country) if you make it reasonably simply available in said country.

I live in the balkans (but still.. part of EU, we have credit cards, internet, everything), and many many media (movies, music,...) are unavailable to buy here... not on netflix, no hulu here, not on any other streaming provider, not released on dvd, not available to buy any other way here...

...but somehow, if I download that movie/episode from a torrent site, i'm somehow causing them financial loss with my download...

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Even in America, I've had to pirate TV shows from England because they simply weren't available here, won't air here, and aren't sold anywhere, even in England.

I can't watch Big Fat Quiz of Everything legally at all. My options are to break copyright to pirate it after it airs, not watch it at all, or to move to England. I choose the first. I'd gladly pay for it if given the option, but I have no moral qualms with illegally downloading something I can't even pay for in the first place.

This illustrates the sheer inefficiency of the market in this case.

While distribution is basically free (pirates do it at a very low cost), having a payment system set up for these "unusual" purchases costs more than the revenue is worth.

The best part is that the second hand market satisfies the legal criteria of ownership, but doesn't reward the creators in the slightest.

I've bought a number of media second hand to make sure I own them, and it's remarkable how there just is no way to pay any original producer for things in a lot of cases. I can download a movie easily, but there's no way for me to pay anyone for having done so - meanwhile if I buy a physical copy of that movie from someone else...the creator doesn't make any money from me at all, but it's all completely legal.

This is not entirely true: Selling on the second hand market reduces the cost for the original buyer, allowing them to buy more media than they would/could without the second hand market.

That's assuming second hand prices below the original price. Inflated prices for rare works (which could be easily republished as digital media by the creators) are a different story.

it doesn't even have to be. Vimeo makes it insanely easy to sell content like this.

It's just, they don't even want to share the tiny bit of commission, or risk that you explore different content on these neutral platforms.

Some of my favourite local comedians sell all their stuff on Vimeo. Its like USD 3 for a show, and they have apps on most common devices.

Naturally I consider those more rentals than purchases that can be removed at any point in time, but thats a different topic

The big guys (Disney, big discography labels, ...) can afford to open a branch in every country. The small guys that made an independent film are screwed.

You don't need a branch in every country, they just need to remove the:

    if($country eq "Slovenia") { print "This video is not available in your country!\n"; exit; }

from the current store.

There is tax rules to comply with too, but I am sure a third party will be happy to make a solution.

... and immediately get bankrupt by copyright litigation.

A lot of distribution of media is set in the previous century, where distribution rights are negotiated on a per country basis.

It sucks, and I wholly support copyright reform to address these issues, but making Disney etc into Pirate Bay isn't the way to solve the problem.

He was talking about independent studios though.

Ah, you're right.

This whole thread is about copyright reform, and what should be done to make it better... and that includes this.

With stupidly long copyright protection I can see this being justified by "protecting those profits we're trying to make 2 decades from now"

yes naturally of course you are. Its your responsibility to take a plane to a country where they do sell this, you buy it there, you buy all the region locked devices to play the media also in the region and bring it back home, where you consume the content. Only watch it yourself, if your friends want to watch they need to come on the trip too and buy the same stuff themselves.

How is that not obvious, that's clearly what the hollywood executives expect you to do, to comply.

/s naturally

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