Fix for US-only web sites

When you live in Britain and aren't allowed to watch Britain's Got Talent on YouTube (even if you actually wanted to), it's clear that something is badly wrong. It's becoming more and more obvious as the years go by that American internet connections are apparently superior to everybody elses', with many video sites locking out filthy foreigners.

The situation peaked last night when I was trying to watch a video interview with Tim Schafer regarding Brutal Legend, his new video game. You can lock out Britain's Got Talent and I'll be pissed off as a matter of principle, but locking out content that I can't get ANY OTHER WAY is unacfuckingcceptable. The game will be available all over the world, but the interview video box stayed black and didn't show anything. In the comments of the page, the guy who himself conducted the interview reported that users download a program called UltraSurf, which somehow re-routes your web connection and makes sites think you're based in the US.

UltraSurf is a little Windows program which launches Internet Explorer (and can work with Firefox if you're using the optional extension and gains access to the verboten videos. There's a speed penalty, but it's better than being shown a "Filthy foreigners go away" message. Granted, there's very rarely anything worth looking at anyway, but the matter of principle is intact.

Here's a little comparison of what YouTube looks like to American eyes, compared with the cut-down international version. If you are not an American, or if you do not live in America, LOOK AWAY FROM THE VIDEO AND PUT YOUR ARMS DOWN ON THE GROUND AND DO NOT LOOK AT ADVERTS FOR THE DISNEY CHANNEL BECAUSE THESE ARE FORBIDDEN:

(By the way, the program was originally developed so that Chinese citizens could bypass internet censorship. Now we have to use it to watch interviews with game developers. Jesus).