I find it so ridiculous that an internet company has to "expand" to another country.
Why can't it just be a matter of removing the geoip checks from your servers?
(I know, I know, still... the internet was not meant to be this way.)
Why can't it just be a matter of removing the geoip checks from your servers?
(I know, I know, still... the internet was not meant to be this way.)
- Procurement of local films and dubbing/subtitles for existing ones
- Localization of interfaces/apps
- Payment options adequate for every country
- Local tax issues
- Local marketing
If someone in Germany wants to pay for non-localised movies or tv shows in English (or any other language) and can use the English website... why stop them?
It makes sense that they might have to get local servers, or at least test the waters before opening the floodgates.
That's not the limiting reactant. The actual issue with region lockout is copyright bullshit.
I would agree though that you do have to ensure content has been staged to your CDN, you have a local control plane in the EU for end-user latency, etc.
This is why content available on Netflix in the United States may be different than content available in Norway.
This hardly feels like an "expansion", then.
I guess the people who care can still use VPNs, like they do right now.
And even in a technologist's utopia where there were no local legal/cultural/language differences between countries, on a pure technology level you'd need to provision server capacity for new locales.
I am strongly against piracy, but I am even more strongly agains restrictive, profit-driven, privacy and freedom-trampling business models and legal systems.
Just wondering whether I'll be able to get the French Netflix content without using VPN and a local CC.
See this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7780650
As for needing local credit cards, hopefully some day bitcoins or something like it can truly enable international commerce.
But this is (slowly) changing, you now start to have major TV channels broadcasting TV series and Films in both French dubbed version and Original Version with subtitles. Not all of the channels, and not all of the content, but this is progressing.
Same goes for movies at the cinema (which was already the case in Paris but less in smaller towns),