Last month I was in online video heaven after The Daily Show put their entire archive online; what a magical concept. I could go back and re-watch history from my favourite news satirist. This archive was a great tool for delivering better blog posts for you. For example, when the topic of money being spent on the war came up recently, and it reminded me of an older TDS clip where Stewart mocked the amount of money that was being spent. The clip was quite significant as it reminded us of the small price tag that was promised before the war started. So, to anybody who bothered to read my blog post about the money being spent on war, the reader was rewarded with an archived Daily Show clip related to the topic.
I watch Jon Stewart every day and when I read the news I often am reminded of a classic TDS clip, like the example above shows, adding historical clips can help complete a blog post and gives the reader a little bit more back story on current events.
Well, you may have heard that many countries are starting to close their broadband borders. Countries like Iran, Burma and China naturally censor the outside world from many of their websites, but now Viacom has decided to import the same mentality to America. For the past couple of weeks Viacom and Comedy Central have begun blocking International users from viewing their websites. First it was comedycentral.com, then it was indecision2008.com, and now thedailyshow.com. Each one has been blocked for me and anybody else who does not live in the USA. Viacom blocked internet users from uploading their clips to websites like myspace.com and youtube.com and now they are blocking internet users from even watching the clips on their own website. What ever happened to the spirit of the internet? Sharing!
Does Viacom not want international internet users hearing the voice of Jon Stewart? Well an Aussie friend of mine and the founder of Videosift.com has written an open letter to Viacom in regards to the current block on the comedy central website, please read it and please digg it.
I say we Canucks have to respond, let's block the famous "Vancouver Otters holding hands" clip. Nah, we won't do that, we're too nice.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. the reason that thedailyshow.com site and material has been blocked to canadian ips is because ctvglobemedia own the rights to the content in canada.
if you notice, when trying to access the site from canada, you are redirected to ctvglobemedia's comedy network site instead. viacom essentially gave them the rights to block their site and put in the redirect.
unfortunately, the comedy central site is nowhere near as comprehensive as the dailyshow.com
david at 8:19PM on Nov 5th 2007
2. Thanks for the Info David, I should have known it was the bastards at CTVglobalhypercorporatemedianet has something to do with this travesty.
But it's the same all around the world, I have friends in Australia and Europe who also can't access any of the Viacom websites.
Jeff at 10:00PM on Nov 5th 2007
3. Thanks Jeff for helping us get the word out!
dag at 10:14PM on Nov 5th 2007
4. Ha! No worries Dag, the title doesn't lie I'm going nuts, Every Single TDS clip. Archived/dated/tagged/embeddable! What a pioneering step, imagine if other programs did this? BBC News, The History Channel? The Simpsons? And what a tease, giving us access for only two weeks, I was just getting my feet wet.
I stare at my computer screen, I know it's there, I just can't touch it. It's certainly something I would pay to access as well, i'll pay with Ameros.
Jeff at 10:40PM on Nov 5th 2007
5. Jeez man... it's almost like people really enjoy screwin' Canadians!! God knows that when I visit family up there I was planning on killing hours and hours watching Daily Show clips online (not kidding... aside from going to the mall and snowmobiling and playing hockey there isn't a lot to do during the winter)
I'm sure there's some way to get access remotely as if you were in the U.S... it just may not be legal... but they'll probably fix the thing soon.
Matt at 11:49PM on Nov 5th 2007
6. I guess there are not a lot of fun things to watch in Canada. You love the United States, it's all you ever talk about, read about, and fantise about.
Tsar Nicholas II at 10:25PM on Nov 6th 2007
7. Thats really interesting. I had no idea that comedy central and stuff is blocked for other countries. (thank god for illegal copies!) I know that shows from like CtV are blocked but I can't understand why tey would block the shows unless they had a different channel in your country broadcasting the show after it was being shown here.
nut job at 12:06AM on Nov 16th 2007
8. Just crazy. Don't they know some Americans do travel.
Jack at 10:57PM on Nov 21st 2007