Politics: Illicit Acquisition of Game of Thrones in Australia and the Death of CISPA

EricMesa

- 2 minutes read - 357 words

A bit of a news roundup for this week’s political post.

[caption id=“attachment_6120” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] Game of Thrones - coveted by Australians Game of Thrones - coveted by Australians[/caption]

Apparently, illicit acquisition of the Game of Thrones is making things awkward for the United States Ambassador to Australia.  He’s asking Australians to please stop getting the show off the Internet. After all, the US is quick to put (or threaten to put) other countries like Spain onto their special list if they start grabbing TV shows off the net.  But Australia is an important ally so it’s embarrassing for them to be pushing the US’s buttons. Here’s where they could have done better by listening to something I’m constantly complaining about. See, according to the linked article, the issue is that for seasons 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones it was not available until a few weeks after it had aired in the US.  There’s no reason for that. It’s not like the days before current technology where physical objects need to be ferried around the world.  It’s all digital - all parts of the world should be able to watch all programs at the same time. Because NOW that it’s available a few hours after it shows in the US, the people in Australia don’t care - they’re already used to getting it for free online. So - the whole cliche about the genie being put back in the bottle.

Anti-CISPA logo

In other news - Boing Boing reports that CISPA has once again died. Although the House had passed it, the Senate did not. However, Penguin Pete provides the best explanation of why we might not need to worry about CISPA anyway. (really the only webpage outside of those involved in trying to get it passed) Pete makes a very reasoned post and I think you should definitely check it out - even if you were against CISPA. The other side has a lot of resources and I think they’re trying to wear us out by continuously bringing it up and hoping we get fatigued and give up.  So we need to make sure we save our fights for the most important issues.