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India’s government wants total control of the internet

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Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#61

Post by jeroenhd »

iso1631 wrote: post #49
CommanderData wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBC iPlayer is restricted to UK residents only.

It's quite sad, it's a generic "this video isn't allowed globally due to rights". That makes perfect sense when you're talking about last nights showing of Moanna, or even Eastenders (where background music in the pub might not be cleared for use outside the UK), but when it comes to a program like this you'd hope exceptions would be made.

These programs are often made by commercial entities (like BBC Worldwide, which is separate from the normal state funded BBC) who license their material to foreign streaming services like Netflix.

If every impactful documentary would be given away for free, there's no incentive for anyone to pay the company behind it to make more. Journalism is expensive and I don't think enough people would donate to a large corporation through Patreon.

I would love documentaries like these to be available without restriction, but when it comes to copyright and business model, it really does come close to Moanna or Eastenders.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#63

Post by 6510 »

CommanderData wrote: post #13

The documentary produced by the BBC "The Modi Question", was uploaded onto YouTube several times the week of release but taken down by request of the Indian Government. I was astonished a foreign entity can stop the world watching something if they don't like it, it wasn't just geo blocked it was removed off YouTube.

you can watch it easy enough

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#64

Post by jaldhar »

vijaybritto wrote: post #25

I have learnt a very valuable lesson about my country's people at the face of the fascist govt. Caste affinity triumphs anything and everything. No matter how cruel the BJP is, their core vote bank which is the Upper caste population are not going to deviate away from them. The BJP has perfected formulas to win elections using hook or crook in every state now. Modi is going to do more fascist stuff and take away righ…

Pardon me for interrupting in the middle of a “LITERALLY HITLER REEE!” but LOL if you don’t think every every other political party isn’t trying to appeal to some caste or the other particularly at the local level. Of course they do because democratic politics is about people first and ideas second. In India jati is the basic unit of society, in Ancient Greece it was the Demos (which is exactly the same thing) and in other countries yet other tribal groupings.

But that’s not the end of it. Sure Hindus (who are not nearly as monolithic as you think) appreciate that BJP seems to be supporting their values but that in itself would not have been enough. Modi’s success comes from being perceived as someone who gets things done. I was recently Gujarat UP and Delhi and talked to people from all walks of life. There’s a huge amount of optimism that life is getting better and rightly or wrongly Modi is getting credit for it. Maybe it’s a mirage. Maybe it would have been just as good with someone else but this is in fact the perception on the ground and those who want an alternative ignore it at their peril.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#65

Post by Hizonner »

wkat4242 wrote: post #57
archon1410 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BBC iPlayer only works in the UK. Sorry, it’s due to rights issues. BCC iPlayer doesn't work in any country other than the UK, so there isn't any question of it working in India. BTDigg is blocked in India, along with most piracy oriented websites, since long before the BBC documentary thing I think.

But for the content they make, they own the rights. Including this doc, right? So what's the problem?

They make money selling the rights to stuff they produce in other parts of the world. Maybe not for this particular show, but in general.

They presumably treat everything on the service exactly the same, because it would cost them money to do otherwise, and also because they probably don't want to pay for the bandwidth for foreign users. I suspect you probably have to have a UK TV license to watch it, too, which means they're charging for it in the UK. It'd actually be surprising if they had a way to treat different content differently, as opposed to the whole service being all or nothing.

They probably also have foreign stuff on there that they've bought only the UK rights for.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#66

Post by rushabh »

supriyo-biswas wrote: post #12
rushabh wrote: post #7

Yes there is increasing threat to freedom of speech, but India is not new to this. The left leaning Congress had even worse norms when they imposed martial law (Emergency). India has a robust sphere of public debate and draconian laws and acts of discrimination by the government are regularly criticised. In more cases than not the government embarrasses itself by its clumsy use of power to restrict opposition, like i…

It is useful to realize that either side is moved by the allure of power, and it's a fool's errand to justify the current situation with whataboutism - either instance was wrong.

I am not justifying the situation. I don't buy the overly negative prognosis.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#68

Post by mc32 »

scottLobster wrote: post #26
CommanderData wrote: post #13

The documentary produced by the BBC "The Modi Question", was uploaded onto YouTube several times the week of release but taken down by request of the Indian Government. I was astonished a foreign entity can stop the world watching something if they don't like it, it wasn't just geo blocked it was removed off YouTube.

"You want access to my market of a billion potential consumers? Do what I say!" Simple as that really. The government of Tuvalu making a similar request probably would have been politely ignored.

One solution (not an ideal solution) might be where every entity that wants to serve the citizens of a sovereign country have to have a local company that serves the local population, a local subsidiary like in most brick and mortar industries.

They may even require that all compute happen locally. And of course that all content and so on meet local regulations. Sort of like what we see with other telecommunication, be it T-mobile or other. Sure, they operate in many countries, but they have local staff and follow local rules.

Re: India’s government wants total control of the internet

#70

Post by newswasboring »

mc32 wrote: post #68
scottLobster wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You want access to my market of a billion potential consumers? Do what I say!" Simple as that really. The government of Tuvalu making a similar request probably would have been politely ignored.

One solution (not an ideal solution) might be where every entity that wants to serve the citizens of a sovereign country have to have a local company that serves the local population, a local subsidiary like in most brick and mortar industries. They may even require that all compute happen locally. And of course that all content and so on meet local regulations. Sort of like what we see with other telecommunication,…

India is kind of moving towards this? Data security is a big discussion in whatever policy discussion is left in the country. I think legislation is in the works to mandate that all data related to indian citizens need to be in India and not leave it's virtual borders.
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