[astorsnk]

>> You buy a bunch of iTunes movies in Canada, then move to the USA, and you no longer have the right to watch them anymore due to licensing.

Maybe this is true from the perspective of the license but it's not something Apple enforces through tech. For example, I have a two iTunes accounts for two countries. I can purchase content through both and use that content anywhere without restriction. They make it a big pain because you can't switch your account to a different geo after it's created but with multiple accounts your content isn't actually restricted.

[AlecSchueler]

Maybe iTunes wasn't a good example but it has happened to me with other services. I live in the Netherlands where I bought a subscription for the Formula 1 TV service. Last year I was in the UK visiting family and was unable to watch races there, despite havng already paid for them, as the geo restrictions were different.

[astorsnk]

>> Last year I was in the UK visiting family and was unable to watch races there, despite havng already paid for them, as the geo restrictions were different.

Yep, thank sucks. You can thank brexit for that. AFAIK services offered in one EU country have to work throughout the EU (so if you were in Germany it would have worked). This meant that on holiday (coming from UK to Spain) a few years back I was able to watch F1 live on my phone via the NowTV/Sky app. This year - geo restricted.

[squeaky-clean]

I think they're referring to the official F1TV app, which is region restricted in UK because of an exclusivity agreement between SkyTV and Formula One Group.

F1TV also added DRM this season, so open source clients for it no longer work. You're allowed to view up to 6 simultaneous cameras with your subscription (There's the main feed, the map view, the data view, and 20 onboard cameras). But there's no easy way to do this now aside from having 6 chrome windows with all their chonky borders taking up space, or using 6 different devices.

RaceControl [0] is an amazing open source client that offered split screen and synchronization of the videos (F1's own app has the onboard cameras about 20s ahead of the main feed, which means you either had to manually delay them all yourself or you get spoilers). Now it only works for archivee races.

Which is ridiculous because someone with an HDMI splitter can still strip the DRM and stream it illegally.

I'm probably going to end my subscription after this season and switch to watching pirated streams, because I'm being punished for having the gall to be a paid subscriber.

[0] https://github.com/robvdpol/RaceControl

In case robvdpol is an HN member, thanks for all the work you put into RaceControl. It was the best way to watch the sport.

[detaro]

> AFAIK services offered in one EU country have to work throughout the EU

Streaming services are a bit of a special case: they can have different access in different places, but the location that counts is the users home location. So e.g. a national sports league can license exclusive rights to different streaming services in different countries, and in your home country there is only one choice, but if you sign up with them and then travel, you still can access it, even though the "exclusive" contract for that country is with someone else.

[denton-scratch]

Nothing to do with Brexit.

[astorsnk]

The British government disagrees with you.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cross-border-portability-of-onli...

[Tangurena2]

I found this happens sometimes with Kindle books. I never know what will work or what will get disappeared when travelling.

[stewx]

Jumping through hoops doesn't work for most consumers. Nor should they have to do it.

[411111111111111]

The original point was that you might loose access to purchased movies because the licensing doesn't allow you so watch it from a different locality.

This is currently untrue for Apple/itunes and that's the only point they made.

There are currently no hoops for anyone to jump through unless you want to sidestep the law or licensing agreements, which is another discussion entirely.

Potential buyers still have to consider the original point however, as even if Apple doesn't enforce it currently, there is no assurance that it won't in the future. And there is no guarantee that it's gonna be the same if theyre buying on another platform.

Didn't Google and Amazon have competing platforms for example?

[makeitdouble]

I am on the same boat but found it more and more a PITA to manage as Apple started to push for 2FA (that damn prompt every fucking login to "upgrade" your account). Switching account is now way more burdensome, and it's also a pain to get the password prompts on updates as apps are still bound to your logged out account.

[warp]

I find the password prompts an improvement over earlier versions of iOS, where there was no way to get updates to those apps without logging out of the app store entirely and logging in with the other region's account.

Obviously it would be better if we could be properly logged in into multiple accounts at the same time (The play store on android does support switching easily), but at least I can now (I think since iOS 15) get app updates while staying logged in in my main account.

[chordalkeyboard]

in 2010 I bought an ipod touch at the px in Afghanistan and Apple wouldn't even let me create an account; without an account most of the features were not accessible.