[ecrea] CFP: Geoblocking and Global Video Culture

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GEOBLOCKING AND GLOBAL VIDEO CULTURE
An edited collection to be published by Institute of Network Cultures (INC)
Edited by Ramon Lobato and James Meese


IP address-based blocking (geoblocking), which restricts access to
online content based on a user’s location, has become a popular
strategy for managing digital media flows and maintaining separation
of national markets. A diverse array of video services – from YouTube
and Netflix to BBC iPlayer, Telemundo and MTV Asia – use geoblocking
to filter international audiences, localise content and satisfy
rights-holders’ DRM requirements. For people outside the target
markets, the end result is often a familiar error message: “this video
is not available in your region”.

Geoblocking is changing the nature of the open Internet, locating
audiences within national market-spaces and fencing-off enclaves of
content. But this geography of control is not absolute. In recent
years the appearance of user-friendly circumvention tools – including
VPNs (StrongVPN, Witopia, HideMyAss), DNS proxies (Getflix,
Unblock.us) and browser plug-ins (AddTele, HolaUnblocker) – has
unleashed a wave of unauthorised cross-border media activity, allowing
audiences to easily access streaming, news and sports services from
other countries.

The edited collection Geoblocking and Global Video Culture takes these
practices as the basis for a critical discussion of the Internet’s
changing cultural geography. The book’s focus is on online video
platforms, broadly defined, and the spatial regulation and
circumvention practices that are emerging around them. Drawing on
insights from media and internet studies, law, geography, and
mobilities research, it aims to offer up-to-date analysis and critique
of international digital video culture in the age of geo-location.

A further aim of the collection is to explore linkages between
different forms of blocking and circumvention. Many tools used for
unauthorised streaming are also used by millions of people to
counteract government censorship. In Turkey, Iran, China and other
nations where popular video and social networking platforms are
regularly blocked, circumvention has become a mainstream practice.
Probing this connection, Geoblocking and Global Video Culture seeks to
critically examine the location-masking practices of a variety of
communities, including price-sensitive consumers, early adopters,
filesharers, privacy advocates, tourists, overseas workers and
political dissidents.

Geoblocking and Global Video Culture will be published digitally in
early 2016 in Institute of Network Cultures’ Theory on Demand series,
as a Creative Commons-licensed PDF and ebook.



SUBMISSIONS

We are now calling for short, timely and succinct essays (max. 5000
words) that respond to the topic of geoblocking in provocative ways
and/or explore its political, historical, legal and cultural contexts.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

* geographies of Internet content and/or consumption
* the spatial organisation of digital media rights
* geo-targeting, algorithmic recommendation and platform curation
* circumvention practices in specific media sectors (TV, film, games,
live sports, etc)
* histories of regional controls, parallel importing and unauthorised
media consumption
* national/local media and diasporic populations
* futures of post-broadcast television

If you are interested in contributing, please send a 500 word abstract
and brief bio to (geoblockingandgvc /at/ gmail.com) by 28 April. Authors will
be notified of the outcome within 2 weeks. Final chapters are due on
23 August, to ensure timely publication of our findings. Submissions
should adhere to the INC style guide, available at
http://tinyurl.com/kczbz25

We also have a limited number of slots available for case study
chapters that explore circumvention practices in specific countries.
Please contact the editors for further details if you have research to
share on this topic.



CONTACTS

Enquiries to the editors are most welcome. For further information
please email (geoblockingandgvc /at/ gmail.com) or contact us directly:

Dr Ramon Lobato
Senior research fellow, Swinburne Institute for Social Research
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
+ 61 3 9214 8637

Dr James Meese
Research fellow, Swinburne Institute for Social Research
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
+ 61 3 9214 5042


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