BlogAllAlong

YouTube for most parts of the world is the magical mirror on the web. You tell it what you want, and it will show it. I stopped downloading clips to my computer but in rare cases, cause they are all on the net ready for quick streaming anytime/anywhere.

Recently however, this message started showing gradually more often:

At first, I would go to the top left, click on Worldwide -> Worldwide (All Regions) and it would work. It would solve it, it’s a bit annoying, and it would make embedded videos mostly useless but as links to original video url. Now, even that Worldwide option is not working, and more and more videos are being blocked. And I’m not talking about offensive content, or even debatable content. Regular trailers, video game music play, such as the one above, and many such similar things. If those videos are banned for all regions, then why am I able to see them using a proxy? Because those videos are only not availale in Kuwait, and I’m not sure on what basis and on who’s request are those videos being blocked. Is MOC hiring full time employees just randomly picking videos to be banned! This is seriously making YouTube non-usable, or else so annoying to use. Another thing is, why wouldn’t YouTube be clear with their message “This video is no longer available in your area”. Their message is kind of decieving.

People who were not aware of it, anoter big video streaming site, VEOH has also blocked all Kuwait traffic as well.

My first guess was, maybe it’s porn flooded video site, but the main page shows nothing more than youTube does, perhaps even less offensive in some cases. Does it have porn videos? I would bet yes, same as all other video sites. But it’s also a great place for video games videos. Why would the site stop all traffic from Kuwait, and not even response to my inquiry about it. They probably got sick from us they don’t even care anymore. Does MOC have that strong influence? Why wouldn’t MOC just block it through our ISPs then?

Beware China, here we come.

UPDATE: As some people suggested in the comments, the YouTube problem does seem to be related to Qnet only. Problem seems to be cleared now. Let’s hope.

Popularity: 33% [?]

I only heard yesterday that MOC has blocked Skype. I thought of searching for rational reasons behind blocking a voice service rather than throw all my week’s burden on MOC blindly. So here goes. Why did the MOC block Skype?

1. Because it became a dating service?

But there are many ways for opposite sexes to communicate, and then they can easily just use cell phone, or any other voice service, like MSN. MSN is not blocked. 

2. Because it’s one of those BAD PHENOMENONS our perliment formed an official committe of 5 (Team-5) to fight?

Nooo… Again there are lots of other VoIP services out there, and I don’t recall them raising it. They have more important things to do right? We’re talking about millions of KDs these days. You know what I mean

3. Because it eats bandwidth?

Well, YouTube is surely more bandwidth intensive.

Why then? Why? Skype has been available for years, and there was nothing against it. And just when PayPal was opened in Kuwait, and I thought we are moving forwar.. Ohhh. Wait a minute! PayPal allows you to pay for Skype PC-to-Phone credits, which then allows you to make cheap international calls, without paying anything to the ministry. Before, PayPal was blocked and payment to Skype was blocked. So now that they opened a payment option, they have to go and knock down each and every site they have, allowing payment through that gateway!

I knew there must be a logical explanation behind all of this. Our MOC won’t do things blindly and for no good reason. Ahh, now I’m relaxed. I have even came up with a better plan. To be fair for people with different tastes, who may have beenhappy with Skype and didn’t care a lot for PayPal:

Popularity: 22% [?]