Canada: Land of the Pirates! Arrr!

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/story.html?id=174de329-81e9-42c6-b2f7-0b40e1ab7eec&k=66250' target='_blank'>http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/story.html?id=174de329-81e9-42c6-b2f7-0b40e1ab7eec&k=66250</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Despite having a higher percentage of broadband users than Americans, [Canadians] are the poor cousins when it comes to the Internet VOD option. Americans enjoy a wealth of options, including popular services such as iTunes, Movielink, CinemaNow, Vongo and Amazon's Unbox. Heck, even Wal-Mart has its Video Downloads Store, where you can download flicks - such as 300, Wild Hogs and Epic Movie - for a few bucks apiece. So, what's the hold-up in the Great White North? "My guess is one of the main reasons why Canadians can't download movies yet is because of our country's high rate of movie piracy," explains Warren Shiau, lead analyst for IT research at the Toronto-based The Strategic Counsel market research firm."</i><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/canadian_pirate.jpg" /><br />Interesting article on why VOD is not widely available in Canada, and why the upcoming Xbox Live Video Marketplace is going to be so appealing to my neighbors across the border. I'm surprised that the Canadian government hasn't cracked down on piracy more, especially considering the relatively litigious society they live in (particularly taxes on storage media such as CDs and DVDs). Jason, more insight?

[Jason Dunn]

I think the answer is the obvious one: there's just not enough of us to be worth the trouble. There are 33 million people in Canada. There are 301 million people in the USA. The licensing issues, especially dealing with Quebec, is a headache for any company - and they need a big enough market to be worth the trouble.

I personally think the whole "piracy" issue is a red herring.

[mrozema]

Yeah, I think the piracy thing is just an excuse. It doesn't seem to matter whether its VOD, Zune, the iTunes Store, etc; the US gets it first and Canada is either left 'til last or never gets it.

[ctmagnus]

:?

And that's not the only thing. Several third-world (whatever the current term is) countries have much better mobile phone plans (price-wise and data-wise) than Canada does.

Not to take this thread off-topic or anything. Just deriding (again) the wonderful country that I live in. ;)

[Jason Dunn]

And that's not the only thing. Several third-world (whatever the current term is) countries have much better mobile phone plans (price-wise and data-wise) than Canada does.

AUGH! Don't even get me started...! :evil:

[Jeremy Charette]

No VOD, crappy cell phone plans, declining US dollar...might be time to move Jason! I hear Montana is nice. :wink:

[Felix Torres]

No VOD, crappy cell phone plans, declining US dollar...might be time to move Jason! I hear Montana is nice. :wink:

Yup, you'll feel right at home: the cell phone service is crappy, the currency is declining, but at least we get VOD (of a sort). Whopeee! :roll: