[contingencies]

I live in China which has crap international bandwidth. Youtube via VPN is the only way ... my solution is to use VideoDownloadHelper plugin for Firefox @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloa...

OTOH, China has an awesome "who cares about gwailo IP" progressive IP policy which allows you to stream lots of copyrighted stuff instantly via multiple domestic providers. Hell, new TVs have this sort of thing built in! It's awesome for Hollywood crap, just not the content (eg. EU / art-house films) or type (eg. documentaries) that I am typically looking for. Then again we have torrents...

Somewhere, somehow, the internet finds a way. When all is said and done, it's only people who are scared, stupid or spendthrift that pay... or those who want the authentic cinema experience, collect media, or are commercial operations that need to worry about legal challenges.

A few years ago I actually used to live in Hollywood and London working for a big DRM-based video solutions provider that did work for literally most of the world's major mobile device manufacturers. Boring, but a great insight in to how corrupt the industry is. (Very)