Aug. 3, 2012: Irish national Colin Manning uses a VPN to watch Irish sports online in Berlin, Germany. European Union citizens can live and work in any of its 27 member states, but broadcast services are still strictly limited by national boundaries.
AP Photo

"Team USA Deserves No Gold Medals for Internet Access"

Op-Ed, Bloomberg

August 5, 2012

Author: Susan P. Crawford, Former Faculty Affiliate, Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project, January–December 2012

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: The Cyber Project; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"The opening ceremony of the London Olympics showed us the Internet's history by honoring Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and featuring a display of his live Twitter post: "This is for everyone."

Unfortunately, the games as a whole are providing a less inspiring vision of the Internet's future, at least in the U.S.

People in at least 64 territories around the world are able to watch free live streaming video of every event; 3,500 hours on 10 separate real-time channels are being made available online by YouTube. Yet in the U.S., this coverage is only available to those who pay for a cable, satellite or telephone-company TV subscription that includes MSNBC and CNBC...."

Continue reading: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-05/team-usa-deserves-no-gold-medals-for-internet-access.html

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Full text of this publication is available at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-05/team-usa-deserves-no-gold-medals-for-in
ternet-access.html

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