I just tried to access a link posted on Twitter by someone in Australia…
I just tried to access a link posted on Twitter by someone in Australia (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130102-tomorrows-world) only to get the above message.
Normally I just go elsewhere and find the story if I get a paywall or block from a news site but this time I stopped and thought, that’s odd.
Now I see they are saying that this is not accessible because it’s a commercially run service but I can also see that it is in fact being delivered by the regular BBC web site. This got me thinking, and here are those thoughts;
- BBC Worldwide maybe a commercial enterprise but it’s wholly owned by the BBC so doesn’t that mean I, as a licence payer, also ‘own’ part of it so therefore why can’t I see the content?
- If the content is being delivered from the BBC’s regular web site infrastructure then that’s probably paid for by licence payers fees, so again why can’t a licence payer access the content.
I may have missed something obvious here, and I’m sure the legal beagles at the BBC have this sorted but it does seem a bit weird that the BBC is blocking content from BBC licence payers.
Anyway, it’s no big deal. I’ll just use my US based proxy server and browse via that for a few minutes.