4 ms·

Star Trek was my favourite television show back in grade school. Never got to see them all as a kid, because TV was limited to a few (crappy) channels where I

Star Trek was my favourite television show back in grade school. Never got to see them all as a kid, because TV was limited to a few (crappy) channels where I grew up, but I really loved it. To this day, an episode of ST can side track me fairly easily. So I was pretty pleased by this headline. Unfortunately, it turns out this release is only for the U.S. Seriously, wtf Netflix? You don't need to translate the episodes into Canadian, just let me watch the damn things.

wladimir 16y ago
It's indeed too bad. I'm from Europe and I don't think such a service will be available here in the forseeable future. Due to sticky politics it's impossible to have a proper global video streaming service. Sad, really.
- tomjen3 16y ago
  It is certainly possible - you just have to ignore copyright. At some point we are going to have to realize that we have enough movies, books, etc that we can't read/watch all of those which interests us and just kill copyright. It is already half happened because most people flatly ignore it and the amount of draconian enforcement necessary to uphold it is too large for people to accept.
  - wladimir 16y ago
    Ignoring copyright is what I'm doing right now. Downloading movies/series is not illegal in the country where I live. But I would like to pay for streaming sci-fi series online, to support them and make sure they are continued being produced. It's sad that the laws that are meant to protect copyright status are preventing me from doing that.
    - trotsky 16y ago
      You could probably find some poor US based star trek fan that is pirating their content and pay for a netflix streaming account for them. I know it sounds a bit odd, but you could kind of look at it like buying carbon credits.
      - abofh 16y ago
        Which would acquiesce the moral issues, but not the legal ones. Sorta like papal pardons <g>. Don't know of a better idea though if the content isn't reasonably available in your area.
    - xiaoma 16y ago
      Downloading movies/series is not illegal in the country where I live. Is that country not yet part of the WTO by any chance?
      - warp 16y ago
        Making a copy for private use is legal in the Netherlands, regardless of the source. That includes downloading movies and tv-shows. Distributing (uploading) however is illegal. I expect there are other european countries with similar laws.
        xiaoma 16y ago
        IANAL, but I don't see how that kind of law can pass the three step test of the TRIPs treaty. Copying movies for personal use clearly conflicts with "a normal exploitation of the work". Then again getting EU countries to stop subsidizing their farmers will probably take decades, so this sort of violation is probably pretty far down the list. I'm not saying I agree with the current IP, but it's highly doubtful that acts violating international treaties are "legal" in the strictest sense.
        xiaoma 16y ago
        Neither of my comments were profane or misleading, the first was an honest question and the second one supplied a reasoned point that was likely informative for at least some who read it. Both are downmodded to zero. Is this some sort of knee-jerk nationalist response or was there something wrong in either my question or my analysis?
gommm 16y ago
You can what I do, I use a ssh tunnel to a server that I have in the us to watch them... Netflix does geoip but doesn't check the country of the credit cards paying the subscriptions...

wladimir 16y ago

It's indeed too bad. I'm from Europe and I don't think such a service will be available here in the forseeable future. Due to sticky politics it's impossible to have a proper global video streaming service. Sad, really.

tomjen3 16y ago
It is certainly possible - you just have to ignore copyright. At some point we are going to have to realize that we have enough movies, books, etc that we can't read/watch all of those which interests us and just kill copyright. It is already half happened because most people flatly ignore it and the amount of draconian enforcement necessary to uphold it is too large for people to accept.
- wladimir 16y ago
  Ignoring copyright is what I'm doing right now. Downloading movies/series is not illegal in the country where I live. But I would like to pay for streaming sci-fi series online, to support them and make sure they are continued being produced. It's sad that the laws that are meant to protect copyright status are preventing me from doing that.
  - trotsky 16y ago
    You could probably find some poor US based star trek fan that is pirating their content and pay for a netflix streaming account for them. I know it sounds a bit odd, but you could kind of look at it like buying carbon credits.
    - abofh 16y ago
      Which would acquiesce the moral issues, but not the legal ones. Sorta like papal pardons <g>. Don't know of a better idea though if the content isn't reasonably available in your area.
  - xiaoma 16y ago
    Downloading movies/series is not illegal in the country where I live. Is that country not yet part of the WTO by any chance?
    - warp 16y ago
      Making a copy for private use is legal in the Netherlands, regardless of the source. That includes downloading movies and tv-shows. Distributing (uploading) however is illegal. I expect there are other european countries with similar laws.
      - xiaoma 16y ago
        IANAL, but I don't see how that kind of law can pass the three step test of the TRIPs treaty. Copying movies for personal use clearly conflicts with "a normal exploitation of the work". Then again getting EU countries to stop subsidizing their farmers will probably take decades, so this sort of violation is probably pretty far down the list. I'm not saying I agree with the current IP, but it's highly doubtful that acts violating international treaties are "legal" in the strictest sense.
        xiaoma 16y ago
        Neither of my comments were profane or misleading, the first was an honest question and the second one supplied a reasoned point that was likely informative for at least some who read it. Both are downmodded to zero. Is this some sort of knee-jerk nationalist response or was there something wrong in either my question or my analysis?

gommm 16y ago

You can what I do, I use a ssh tunnel to a server that I have in the us to watch them... Netflix does geoip but doesn't check the country of the credit cards paying the subscriptions...