Can Hulu Come in the Open Skies?

While these new hybrid services – Web-on-TV, TV-on-Web, Radio-on-Web, etc. – are proliferating, they’re giving a new definition to the Internet. In fact, the fundamental nature of the Internet that allows it to be ubiquitous, defying all geographical demarcations, is being challenged.

Take Hulu.com, for example. Hulu is an online video service that offers TV shows and movies at Hulu.com. It was founded in 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp.

When you try to access it from, say, New Delhi, India (I live here), it only shows you its homepage, and then displays a regret message like this:

Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States.

Hulu is committed to making its content available worldwide. To do so, we must work through a number of legal and business issues, including obtaining international streaming rights. Know that we are working to make this happen and will continue to do so. Given the international background of the Hulu team, we have both a professional and personal interest in bringing Hulu to a global audience.

If you’d like, please leave us your email address and the region in which you live, and we will email you when our videos are available in your area.

Another example: It calls itself Pandora Internet Radio. But when you try it on the Internet – from, say, India – it won’t sing, saying:

Dear Pandora Visitor,

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

This is, in fact, another type of censorship that restricts content availability across the Internet space. Countries like China, North Korea, Iran, and about a dozen more – labeled as Enemies of the Internet – don’t allow free Internet use because of their closed cultures and political systems. And most ban unlawful content that can instigate anti-national or subversive activities in those nations.

However, countries like India and U.S.A. are among the biggest democracies, which are supposed to show respect for free expression and speech. And online services like Hulu and Pandora would carry only entertainment content that can be consumed by all. Then why should they be shackled?

Internet is Internet. There’s nothing like local Internet. So any online information service on the Internet should be freely available everywhere. If it’s available in a local area only, then it’s not based on Internet. Then it’s being delivered on a dedicated network, which can’t be termed as Internet.

Though proxy websites and other means are there to access banned and close-door websites and bypass such restrictions. But there’s no point using Internet like a thief.

So, will the proponents of open and free cyber space pitch in to help keep Internet qualities intact, and enable services like Hulu and Pandora to fly in the open skies?

Rakesh Raman is the managing editor of My Techbox Online.

This article first appeared in My Techbox Online, at http://www.mytechboxonline.com/mtodcon/dcon-rrhulu-12.html