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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

As someone from the UK (who now lives in the US) I look forward to the reversal of roles when US techies are forced to search out proxy connections that allow them to watch online content.

Welcome to the club.

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A lot of us had to do that with the Olympics already.

It was kind of weirdly entertaining in a Schadenfreude-esque manner.

Indeed, Rowan Simpson summed it up best for me (here in New Zealand) https://twitter.com/rowansimpson/status/230392577071923200

For the lazy:

> Highlight of #Olympic2012 so far: seeing Americans struggle with not having immediate access to new content http://fb.me/1FKecNifI

That just redirects me to a mobile signup page

Highlight of #Olympic2012 so far: seeing Americans struggle with not having immediate access to new content (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how-nbcs-olympics-strat...)

Don't worry America, Canada still gets screwed by all y'all.

Indeed it was.

As opposed to now, when the US can watch BBC for free?

BBC America is not the same thing. While a lot of their new shows are finally being broadcast at the same time (next season of Doctor Who has the same premier date in the UK and US), many are still a few months behind here.

I think the first season of Sherlock was one such show.

Also, doesn't BBC America have advertising? I don't think you see the full, uncut versions of shows because they need to put ads in.

Why do you want something unpleasant for people who weren't responsible for your own unpleasant experiences?

Awareness. I will often see someone post a link to Hulu and be genuinely unaware that no-one outside of the US can view it.

You want to hurt the innocent to build awareness for your cause? In America, we call that terrorism!

But then again, we call everything terrorism.

Because they've shown little or no empathy about those unpleasant experiences?

So you have some kind of beef with HBO's business decisions. My heart doesn't bleed for you because I am uninvolved third party to your beef with HBO. I don't think that merits any kind of aggressiveness toward me. Leave me out of it. Complain to whoever won't take your money.

Because most Americans are unaware of how limiting content providers are once you connect from a non-US IP. A blunt dose of awareness would go a long way in helping people understand the situation.

And it's not really their fault, either. How would you know that the whitelist even exists if you're always on it?

It's not exactly a new phenomenon. In addition to obvious British stuff like Sherlock and The IT Crowd, I also resorted to underhanded techniques to watch the first season of the remade Battlestar Galactica series, as it was released in the UK several months before the US.

I had abandoned TV long ago. I had no idea I was seeing the 1st season of BSG months ahead of everyone else, because most people I knew who were watching it were also torrenting it.

Happened with Spotify for a while.

As an American living in the UK, I look forward to this as well.

ps- You can get NFL Gamepass (it's basically a web-streaming version of NFL Ticket) for $150/season if you have a UK IP address. Only problem is that it blacks out one of the games (whichever Sky sports is covering) but otherwise HD streaming video and can switch to every game live. It's a sportsman dream.

I look forward to paying for this without having to pay for VPN service to Denmark as well to watch it.

We've been there for awhile. A la Top Gear.

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