I am not feeling too sympathetic towards CBC Canada at the
moment. I am an overseas fan of their show Republic of Doyle. We are in the final
season. Fair enough I didn’t expect to see the up and coming episode
titled ‘When The Whistle Blows’ with Alan Doyle and Scott Grimes returning as
Wolf and Jimmy when shown and is blocked in my country. Republic of Doyle isn’t
on Google Play, my preferred methods of buying digital content (due to the
absence of country barriers) and only available it seems on ITunes. (I am not
sure if the content is available in my country as Season Five is being shown on
pay TV). So I went looking for the Republic of Doyle on YouTube to play catch
up and see what I could find.
And there Republic of Doyle was in full seasons and episodes
diligently recorded by loving pirates available for viewing, in direct
competition to ITunes, other pay television content and even a site that looks
like the official Republic of Doyle social media sites. What is a fan to do?
Buy or watch for free? Even the latest Season Six had been recorded week by
week and there was not a DCMA copyright notice in sight. So I am not feeling
too much sympathy or the love for CBC Canada right now when they choose to
block viewers watching content overseas on their site and then allow pirates to
record content and go unchecked. Why should I do the right thing and pay for
television content when CBC Canada doesn’t care?
I love Republic of Doyle. I love the amazingly talented,
creative and very proud Newfoundlander Allan Hawco. I love the Republic of
Doyle’s brilliant and talented cast. I love how the television show presents
the exquisite city of St John’s, Newfoundland. I am continually amazed at how many
beautiful sunny days they found in St John’s and Newfoundland to film. After
six successful seasons I certainly can understand why someone like Allan Hawco
and perhaps the cast and crew would want to move onto other projects. Of course
all their fans thank them for the hours of enjoyment they have brought to our
lives and wish them well.
Being a fan of a television show like Republic of Doyle in
another country other than Canada provides viewing difficulties. The preferable
place to watch content is on the CBC Republic of Doyle webpage episodes where
hits count for something and let the organisation know many people love this
show, even in it’s last season. The second choice is to buy legal content on
places like ITunes and pretty soon after the episode is watched in its country of origin. I didn’t know
until recently the content was available from ITunes including, the most recent episodes, but I am still not sure if this content is available overseas in my country.
The next stop is YouTube. Pirates who film illegal content like
television shows and place it on YouTube themselves make content difficult to
find by failing to label their illegal recordings properly. Many pirates who
illegally record television shows quickly have DCMA notices slapped on them by
the legal copyright holders and brought down. Pirates have posted advertisements
on YouTube sites stating the content has been moved to webpages which allow
interested viewers to download and watch content and pirates to collect revenue
from advertising. Alternatively pirates escape the DCMA notices by only
recording part of the program, mixing it up with other series content.
Then there are people who advertise content that contain
within it a catch in that they direct people to online streaming through Fox2hd
television giving them 14 days free trial. They require fans not only to log
onto sites, but also to give details such as credit cards even though they wont
be charged. Why take credit card details when customers might not like the
service offered? Sounds like a right out scam to me when customers have to give
over their personal details for something for free. It has taken a couple of
days, but finally this episode is being loaded up onto YouTube. There are the
opportunistic pirates who record content and load it up. Then there are the
diligent pirates who record the show week after week and have their loyal subscribers. These latest
episodes seem to have attracted advertising.
I have just found a recent copy loaded up onto YouTube about
an hour ago as I researched this post. There is a site on YouTube called
Republic of Doyle and is consistent with the official social media sites like
Twitter and Facebook. The site was created at the beginning of the Season Six
on October 15 2014. It has recorded all the episodes for this season. While it
is great for a site to put content up so quickly, if it is an official site, it was
particularly annoying to watch the episode in a smaller screen and the words
Republic of Doyle written across the top of the screen. It is kind of insulting
that someone who designed this site doesn’t think I can remember the name of
the television show I am watching. Perhaps, it is there to make fans feel so
annoyed and uncomfortable when watching that they would go to the official
Republic of Doyle site at CBC Canada. I originally chose this site on YouTube to
watch this one episode, giving them the benefit of doubt.
After this discovery I am left wondering three things. The
first one is why isn’t CBC Canada more vigilant when hunting pirates of its
content to the same extend some US television shows are? And the second reason
is why should I care about their content if they don’t? The third reason is why
are they not regularly searching for pirates on YouTube when television shows
like Republic of Doyle are still being sold to pay television syndicates in
places like Australia and the United Kingdom for programming. So I am left thinking if
television shows are going to compete with pirates at their own game and
collect any kind of revenue they can in places like YouTube they should set up
then own official sites or pirates will.
The Jimmy and Wolf episodes are my favourites. Wolf is looking really hot with the long hair, full on beard and a thick Newfoundlander accent. Jake Doyle was gorgeous too, as the man who found out he was being scammed by a girl claiming to be his daughter. It is a shame they are both fictional characters in a television series. St John's was spectacular as always. Now, that's real. I have in the past bought four seasons of Republic of Doyle on DVD.
The Jimmy and Wolf episodes are my favourites. Wolf is looking really hot with the long hair, full on beard and a thick Newfoundlander accent. Jake Doyle was gorgeous too, as the man who found out he was being scammed by a girl claiming to be his daughter. It is a shame they are both fictional characters in a television series. St John's was spectacular as always. Now, that's real. I have in the past bought four seasons of Republic of Doyle on DVD.
From the official Republic of Doyle Twitter Account "Sweet Baby Jesus, give me strength..."
From Torrent Freak…"IIPA: Canada is a magnet for “rogue” sites and persistent pirates". By Ernesto on February 10 2014 (no copyright infringement intended).
The MPAA, RIAA and other entertainment industry groups are calling out Canada for its lack of effective anti-piracy enforcement. The groups label Canada a magnet for pirate sites and also want Internet providers to punish subscribers who repeatedly download copyright-infringing content.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has just published its latest submission to the U.S. Government, providing an overview of countries it believes should better protect the interests of the copyright industry.
The IIPA, which includes a wide range of copyright groups including the MPAA, RIAA, BSA and ESA, has listed its complaints against a whole host of countries. As in previous years, Canada was discussed in detail with the recommendation to put it on the 2014 Special 301 ‘watch list’.
One of the main grievances against Canada is that the country offers a home to many sites which the copyright industries label as “rogue” businesses. This includes the recently shut down isohunt.com as well as other popular torrent sites such as torrentz.eu and kickass.to.
“Even after the shuttering of Isohunt, Canada is still the home to some of the world’s most popular Internet sites dedicated to piracy, including torrentz.eu and kickass.to, which garnered rankings of third and second place, respectively, on one of the most widely accessed listings of the world’s most popular illicit BitTorrent sites,” IIPA writes.
The copyright holders further mention the linking sites cuevana.tv, free-tv-video-online.me, and solarmovie.so as having Canadian connections, as well as the smaller torrent sites fenopy.se and monova.org. Without proper enforcement action against them, Canada remains very attractive to these allegedly infringing sites, they claim.
“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Canada remains a magnet for sites whose well-understood raison d’être is to facilitate and enable massive unauthorized downloading of pirated versions of feature films, TV shows, recorded music, entertainment software, and other copyright materials,” IIPA writes.
“The largest of these Canadian-hosted sites attract scores of millions of unique visitors every month, and their corrosive effects on legitimate markets are felt worldwide,” they add.
The United States should encourage Canada to take action against these sites, the industry groups recommend. Without proper action the country will not just remain a safe haven for infringing websites, but also a breeding ground for new generations of Internet pirates.
According to the IIPA, current policies have resulted in widespread piracy among Canadian Internet users, with instances twice as frequent as in the United States. “In this environment, it is not surprising that Canadians continue to demonstrate a formidable propensity to patronize illegal online sources of copyright material, thus stunting the availability and growth of legal alternatives,” IIPA writes. “A report released in September 2012 found that, on a per-capita basis, Canadians download more unauthorized music than residents of any other country, and two-and-one-half times as much as Americans,” the groups add.
“Canadians continue to demonstrate a formidable propensity to patronize illegal online sources of copyright material, thus stunting the availability and growth of legal alternatives.”
The industry groups further recommend that Internet providers should partner with copyright holders to tackle the ongoing piracy problems. While some ISPs already forward infringement notices to their customers, they note that repeated infringers go unpunished.
Due to this “glaring weakness” the current copyright infringement warnings sent out by some ISPs are not believed to be very effective.
“Although more and more notices of infringement are sent by right holders and forwarded by service providers to their customers each year, the providers do not even correlate the notices with individual subscribers to know which are repeat infringers,” IIPA writes.
“To treat the first-time violator identically with the serial offender jeopardizes any deterrent effect the notices might otherwise achieve,” they add.
The groups recommend that the U.S. Government urges Canada to implement “strong legal incentives” for local ISPs to take action against these persistent pirates by teaming up with copyright holders.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg for Canada. Among other things, the groups also call for stronger border protections and hefty jail sentences for copyright infringers. This is not the first time that Canada has been called out on copyright. Based on similar recommendations the U.S. Government has placed its northern neighbor on the intellectual property watch-list for several years in a row.
The IIPA’s full 2014 Special 301 recommendation report is available here. This also includes assessments from more than two dozen other countries, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Italy, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.
