The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.Comments posted to this newsletters' web site in recent weeks have highlighted a common problem: not all the information on the World Wide Web is available worldwide. For instance, web users in the United States are blocked from watching the BBC version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" The BBC wishes to restrict access to episodes of "Who Do You Think You Are?" to U.K. residents. The web server in the U.K. knows whether you are in the U.K. or not by looking at your IP address.
A second example of location-based blocks concerns web users in Australia who are frequently blocked from accessing some of the books on Google Books in the USA. Google Books has to deal with copyright laws in all countries. Those laws may vary widely from one country to the next. Google doesn't always know all the laws in all the countries; so, the company takes a conservative approach. Google typically complies with U.S. laws and therefore allows U.S. residents to access all content. Users in other countries often are blocked from some books because Google cannot guarantee compliance with all copyright laws in each country.
As one newsletter reader wrote recently, "It is disappointing to see a book mentioned on a genealogy mail list only to find we can't download it because we don't live in the USA."
How do those foreign web sites know where you are located? By your IP address.
Did you know your IP address is exposed every time you visit a website? Your IP address is your online identity and is visible to every web site you visit. Web servers can look at your IP address and then decide to block your access.
Can you change your IP address to appear to be located someplace else in the world? Yes, although the process isn't simple. However, once you have an IP address showing in another country, you can access all content available to residents of that country. For instance, with an American IP address, you can access all of Google Books' U.S. content even though you might be in Australia. If you have a British IP address, you can watch the online version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" even though you may be in the United States.
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