Alin75's advice column

I'm Canadian. You had to have at least one on this site. If you live in my country or even if you don't you likely know the CRTC blocks U.S. stations unless NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX from being shown here.

When it comes to the Internet similar story. The service providers Rogers, Bell et. all make it so you can view certain You Tube and other video content such as music videos, episodes of TV shows on major network sites, sports clips you name it.

All I want to do is watch the You Tube clips that are U.S. only as well as episodes of TV shows we don't get in Canada such as America's Most Wanted's content on lifetimetv.com

Most importantly, anything put on You Tube by account holder Indycars that shows clips of races, qualifying, practice and driver interviews.

I'm not looking to do anything illegal I just want a program that is safe to download and use to watch this content that should be open to al to watch.

Canada is not China (no offense to anyone) so censoring what we can see or access on TV in Canada or over the Internet seems nuts to me and we've let it be this way for decades to protect Canadian TV stations and Internet service from people getting what America could offer us cheaper and better. That's my view.

If you know a way around this with You Tube and what I asked that is FREE and doesn't come with the threat of viruses or only being available for a few days let me know. I need a long-term thing.

I couldn't begin to tell you what Indycars on You Tube or NBC, CBS, ABC and Life Time are using to prevent Canadian access to videos on their sites though.

Ok, I am not going to be of great help, but I can clarify a few things.

First off, when they limit the content to US only, they do so because they (i.e. the owners of the content) want to make money off the stuff not because of censorship. In other words, they are keeping their options open to sell these shows later to other countries where they have not yet been shown.

Therefore, no one but the proprietor of the content can determine whether it "should be open" for all to watch. And it is very much these owners of content (in this case American companies) who are restricting the viewing regions, not your Canadian stations or government.

So, as annoying as it is (and I say this as someone who also does not live within the US), to circumvent their restriction is not entirely kosher if you get my drift.

The way it works is that they read your IP address. Your IP indicates which area of the world you come from and that way they know which to allow and which to block. To watch the content you need a different IP.

The only free solution that I am aware of is a proxy server. Here is a list http://proxy.org/cgi_proxies.shtml

However, in my limited experience they dont work very fast and they can go down, so its probably not a very good solution.

I have also heard of (but not tried) a program called surfbouncer. Its not free, but I figured I would let you know anyway.

Edit: I realise advicenators is not the place for a debate, but since you brought it up, what I am totally shocked about is this prevalent mentality on the internet that somehow content owners should have no rights over their own property. Surely if I own something (a movie, a book, a song, a building, you name it) I have the right to decide who uses it, who doesn't, and how much it should cost... no?

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(Rating: 3) I knew that was part of the reason but censorship does exist in Canada. Two companies control all cellphone and cable/satellite and block out a lot of U.S. channels. I believe strongly that whatever reason they give they shouldn't be allowed (nor should any content owner)to block an ISP like that unless the ISP is connected to maliciousness or something. That's my argument. I found a Proxy that does the trick so I'm good. I'm just flabbergasted as to why they can do this and not have it raise eyebrows is all. Thanks for responding.

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