Why Region lock the Internet?

The internet is great isn’t it? Someone in America can upload something online and I can view it in realtime. For the last decade or so we have had the ability to view information from different corners of the world in realtime. This is by far the internet’s greatest strength.

So why is there still so much region blocking particularly with the rise of streaming video. Physical products to some degree I get, developing something for another country takes time and resources which cost media developers. Although technology wise there is a lot less to differentiate between regions now than there was a decade ago, there are still some issues that need to be resolved when translating it to another region.

Language is the most obvious barrier but also the PAL/NTSC switch, particularly for gaming. Now though the latter barely applies, TV’s and products can easily accommodate a single system throughout the world, so why don’t they?

Take portable gaming. The DS was region free. With the internet you could quite easily buy a game only released in the US and import it to the UK. It would play without any fuss at all. The 3DS is region locked for some bizarre reason no-one has ever explained.

The closest anyone had ever come with a reason is with regional sales. Their argument as far as I can tell is if people import their sale goes towards the other regions sales, not theirs. I.e. buy from America it would add to their sales, not the UK’s. They makes it harder for companies to determine whether or not a product is worth shipping to the other country in the first place.

Case in point. The Phoenix Wright series is hugely popular in Japan but only has a cult following in the UK. Translating the large amount of text takes time so regional sales gives a good indication on whether or not this is worth their while. Fair enough.

But then when it is out in the US it is already translated in English and probably Spanish, even French too if it is also available in Canada. But that’s besides the point it is in English, I can understand it, I want to play it but when a UK release isn’t planned because regional sales are low I should be able to import it.

For example Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations spent a lot of time in translation limbo, despite the fact the Japanese version also had an English language option. It took over a year for the game to come to the UK and there were large doubts whether it would even come. I imported it, loved it, Capcom got their sale, I got to play it, everybody wins.

Even if they hadn’t brought it to the UK the combination of the Internet and a region free device meant Capcom got an ADDITIONAL SALE. I know I am not a special case, other people did this. The fact it was later released in the UK holds no relevance.

Because I could import Capcom got their sale. If this wasn’t possible I either have to do without (fuck that) or download it illegally (which I would), Capcom would lose out on a sale.

This is what people mean by piracy is a service issue. People pirate stuff because it is cheaper but also because developers don’t always bring it to your country, or you don’t particularly want something in English to be translated into French, German, Spanish, etc before you can buy it legally.

Moving away from gaming and back to streaming video, these days On demand TV is on the rise. BBC’s iPlayer, 4oD, etc allow people to catch up on their TV when they want, for free, and everyone benefits. Except those in other countries. They are blocked from the content. Similarly there are American services which block the UK.

Imagine for a second if they weren’t. Not only that but they were showing a live stream of their channels. The technology exists for this but so far hasn’t been implemented for the exact same reasons. If they did this they would not know which markets their product would be successful in.

Do they really care though? Imagine if they then made a channel that was internet only and available to anyone. Instead of locking people out by region they could show it to everyone at the exact same time around the world. Those that want to watch it can watch it, those that don’t, don’t. No you can’t watch this because it is unavailable in your region.

They would then get the maximum people watching the show with no risk. No-one would get left out; they would get all the revenue. The technology exists, why isn’t it being done?

Instead you get Sky celebrating show from the US with the tagline “Days after it’s aired in the States”. Why not at the exact same time? In those few days I can download it illegally, watch it and completely ignore your showing. You lose out, I gain, illegally maybe but if you give me no other option… see service issue, provide the service, get your gains.

Why am I brining this up now. Well it seems a couple of the biggest names on the internet are starting to censor websites by country. Finally we get technically capable of sending information across the world in real time and Google/Twitter want to go backwards and restrict it by country. They say this is to allow them to withhold regional laws.

If they are going to start segregating the Internet by country where will it end? It goes against the Internet’s greatest strength. If there is a problem upholding the laws it is not the Internet that needs to change, it’s the law.

YOU CANNOT POLICE AN ENTITY THAT IS NOT SEGREGATED BY REGIONS WITH REGIONAL LAWS.

People will always find away around it. Take the Pirate bay. Everyone knows what they do and in many countries it is illegal. But in Sweden where it is based it is not and therefore they continue to run giving a big two fingers up to copyright holders.

This is why extreme legislation like SOPA and PIPA are even thought up. The problem with SOPA/PIPA is not that it would take down sites that promote piracy, like the Pirate bay, it that it would take down half the bloody internet. The power goes to the copyright holders, big businesses when it should be an independent panel (ala the OPEN act). It is also America imposing their laws on the rest of the world.

But it is very easy to point out flaws it’s another to find solutions to them. So how do you solve the biggest conundrum of the 21st century, how do you police the internet?

Short answer, you can’t. The only way you could is if all the countries with access to the internet agree on a single Internet law. The Internet has to be treated as a separate entity not linked to a single country because that is what it is, and should always be.

Now if only if was possible to get all the countries of the world to agree to a single law.