Project WolverineBroadcasting LIVE from the orbiting command centre

So I decide it’s time to catch up on The Daily Show episodes I’ve been missing. A good way to kill a few hours I think.

But no!  I get presented with a message and a link.

Apparently, Comedy Central/Viacom have decided to block New Zealanders (and a whole heap of other countries) from watching their show on the Internets, because New Zealand has a local distributor – C4 in our case (I think).

C4 obviously think that by preventing all other options of watching The Daily Show, I’ll be forced to watch it on their channel, with their advertising.

Two thoughts crossed my mind.  Have they heard of The Pirate Bay?  It’s a bit of a hassle, but if I was sufficiently motivated, I could still get my Daily Show fix.

Secondly, if I install a proxy addon for Firefox, then I’m back in action!  As far as The Daily Show is concerned, I’m a good ol’ American!

Which is what I did. 15 minutes later, I was watching The Daily Show.

What C4 don’t seem to realise is that it’s not convenient for me to sit down and watch TV whenever they decide to air the programmes I want to watch.

I would actually be OK with watching advertising as well, if I had the freedom to choose when I can watch it, so it’s not really about the advertisements for me, I just don’t really want to be dictated to about my personal TV schedule.

Oh well, I’ll just have to wait and see how widespread this idea goes.  As per usual, tech-savvy people can always find a way around restrictions.

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