Show HN: My weekend project, tracking the services you can't have in Canada

Post by recurrie » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:04 AM UTC

nolanw wrote: post #12

dcosson wrote: post #6

Are copyright laws more strict in Canada? Or are royalties a lot higher? There seem to be primarily music/video content services on the list.

As far as I can tell, it's a combination of the licensing being different (as in the terms of your license probably only cover the United States to start), and the CRTC's content laws and other regulations being annoying enough not to bother with considering our relatively smaller market size. (I think it's considerably easier to go from Canada to the US than in the opposite direction.)

Post by verysimple » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:13 AM UTC

Mark_B wrote: post #7

Granted, I'm not in Canada, but I'd be curious to see why a particular service isn't available.

Post by stretchwithme » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:16 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #31

OmarIsmail wrote: post #17

A lot of these issues can be resolved for $5/month and less than that if you're willing to setup your own private server. http://www.unblock-us.com/ lets you access American Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, ESPN3, etc etc. I'm not affiliated with them, but been using the service the past couple of months and it works amazingly. In fact I'm using American Netflix on my Xbox 360 as we speak. $5/month is a heck of a lot cheaper…

Certainly such a service could be even cheaper with official sponsorship and universal coverage. Perhaps Canadians can lobby their MPs to institute a national system providing every Canadian with a United States IP address. The Single-Payer-Proxy-System – or in French, Proxy Système à Payeur Unique (SPPS-PSPU). There's really no reason for the nation to stand for this sort of Canadophobic discrimination. Indeed, wher…

Post by jacques_chester » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:26 AM UTC

verysimple wrote: post #34

Mark_B wrote: post #7

Granted, I'm not in Canada, but I'd be curious to see why a particular service isn't available.

Notice that many of these services offer copyrighted contents online. I think the primary issues they had with doing business outside the U.S. is that there are less copyrighted laws to adequately protect the material and that sort of business in those countries. It would also be notoriously hard to sue people who abuse them. Other services such as telecom have to deal with Canadian collusion and protectionism toward…

Post by enjo » Mon, Apr 04, 2011, 2:34 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #31

OmarIsmail wrote: post #17

A lot of these issues can be resolved for $5/month and less than that if you're willing to setup your own private server. http://www.unblock-us.com/ lets you access American Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, ESPN3, etc etc. I'm not affiliated with them, but been using the service the past couple of months and it works amazingly. In fact I'm using American Netflix on my Xbox 360 as we speak. $5/month is a heck of a lot cheaper…

Certainly such a service could be even cheaper with official sponsorship and universal coverage. Perhaps Canadians can lobby their MPs to institute a national system providing every Canadian with a United States IP address. The Single-Payer-Proxy-System – or in French, Proxy Système à Payeur Unique (SPPS-PSPU). There's really no reason for the nation to stand for this sort of Canadophobic discrimination. Indeed, wher…