Tag: contracts

Hulu United States Only — FAQ

Paul4 Replies

In a Comment on there Hulu Blog,

August 16th, 2008 at 08:52 AM Umm, when exactly did Hulu decide to shut its doors to everyone outside of America? The site’s title is “Watch your Favorites. Anytime. For Free”. I’m sorry Hulu, this is a complete lie, as anyone viewing your site outside of the US is banned from viewing your videos. All the time. So that you know, I intend on writing a letter to Joss Whedon asking that he pull his Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog video from your network and redistribute it to a video site that isn’t run by people who embrace the philosophy “Defective By Design”. That way, the thousands of other people wanting to see this video, like me, don’t have to resort to downloading the thing via the piratebay.

Well, This is something I wanted to discuss for everyone who reads my blog why Hulu isn’t allowing anyone outside of America to see the videos.   It’s all have to do with there contracts they have with certain providers.

Let me explain it to you another way, Hulu is now being watch all over North America.  Hulu is obligated to make sure no one out side of the US can watch these movies because they have “NO RIGHTS” to share this with anyone out side of the US.  When Hulu makes deals with these major distributors, they sign a contract.  In the contract somewhere at sometime, they are explicitly forbidden to stream this material outside of the US.

Is there ways around this?

Having experience in the computer repair and understand of what is required for someone to get around this type of “Protection” is somewhat hard.  Here is the reason, when Hulu banned people from watching outside of the US they did so by banning a group of Internet Protocols.

Here are Three ways at which I know you can watch HULU programming.  Be advised that these are ways to get around the protection and by doing this, You hold me not responsible for any and all actions.  I talk about this because it would be unfair not to, I’ve got to have some responsibility to my readers.

  • USE A PROXY Server in the United States —  Now this one is the hardest because I don’t know of any.  I am not going to do your homework for you, but I will say there has to be several in the US.  Be Warned that using this will greatly reduce quality and speed.  You will sooner or later be found out and blocked, so use this one is at your own risk.

  • Ask Major Media Distributors to join HULU — Writing to them and asking them to join Hulu will increase the likely hood of them opening up the resources to let people view outside of HULU.  You see the other distributors have the rights to distribute outside of the US.  If you get them to come to Hulu, you will be giving them the power to allow certain content to be streamed outside of HULU.  If you want to contact the distributors and ask them to join Hulu, by all means go through the IMDB and look for the distributors you want on HULU and find out how to email them or Snail Mail them!!

  • USE an VPN to Access HULU — This one is like Proxy Servers but this one is most often used by people who are traveling outside of the US.  That’s right if your company has a VPN inside of the US you can watch shows.  This too could get your IP banned from Hulu, although I tell you this for those business men and women who are traveling and live in the United States and Military people too.  Has all the same flaws as Proxy, will slow you down, and quality will take a hit also!!

These are just a few of the ways you could stream information from HULU but use at your own risk.  If you have any other comments to add just go ahead and add them.  I want to hear what people think or what they want me to talk about.

Understanding Hulu!

Paul

So I’ve had so many people tell me.  I’m wrong on some of these ones I say are coming out.  Just like last week the tiny URL was going to Dick Van Dyke Season 3 and they  replace it with the Facts of Life.  They used the Tiny URL system to give us hints.  Anyways, back to the topic at hand. <See July 14-19 Post>

This is all speculation and theories,  Read end of post for more details!!

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Why does Hulu promise one thing and do another?

It’s really not Hulu’s Fault, They have a lot of things going on at one time.  You see when they give use a week of clues, they have made Tentative Agreements, sometimes it’s a written agreement with a clause.  They have a clause? Well let’s put this in terms you can understand.  If there is any reason from either the publisher, or Hulu, they can’t or won’t publish the movie or show.

What does this mean and how does this affect the clues?

Having these agreements they have a duty and a right to keep the publisher happy.  If you don’t keep the publisher happy, they won’t keep there stuff on Hulu.  Hulu will start to loose publishers.  This is why it is so CRUCIAL that they keep the publishers happy.  They have to worry about the quality and how they present it with the ads to keep the publisher happy.  This isn’t always easy because sometimes in the process of getting the video on HULU there’s flaws in the video or something is wrong with the video.

Like any data on a hard drive, you can get bad sectors to prevent a video from showing up right.  It can also be the case that sometimes the ads for the shows are not showing up or some other small problems on the videos.

How can I support what Hulu is doing with the videos?

That’s easy, make comments in the Hulu blog praising Hulu’s hard work.  Also make sure to praise the publisher too because they have to composite and transcode the video for Hulu.

What? Hulu does not do this?

Well in most cases, No!  Hulu has to worry about Copyrights, so they let the publisher do this.  This is speculation but I am sure this is a plausible reason.  The publisher does all this to make sure they have total control and so no unauthorized copies of the publisher gets out.

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So what does Hulu do?

In most cases, puts the file on there server and does some preliminary tests to make sure all is well with video.  I am guessing they get a DVD or CD copy of the publisher’s work.  This is for backup purposes, in case there is a failure in the server.  In the end, they only handle the end product like a Television studio.   They put it on the server and let it roll.

How do you know about this?

I don’t, This is all speculation and theories.  I don’t work for Hulu, or any of the publisher.  I do know how they think and act. All of what I’v said is my own work and what I believe is going on at Hulu.  I’ve not even talked to them about this because I understand how hard it is for them to talk to anyone.  They’d have a problem talking about this because they’d be worry about the publisher.  I am sure they are always going to worry.  The publisher is the one calling the shots.  They have the Right’s to do whatever they want with the video because when it comes down to it. They are the Boss.  I’m sure someone is going to tell me I’ve either dead wrong or on the Mark.  Either way, I’d like to hear how they do this myself.  I’d like to have an active conversation with them and find out all the facts, nothing but the facts!!

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