Goodbye greek-movies.com!

I was pretty much as surprised as anyone else who logged onto the greek-movies.com main site, only to find that the service will stop, since Google Video will erase all its contest from their data bases, after a formal demand from the copyright owners.

That was quite expected, rather sooner than later. The copyright wars are upon us since some years now, and, seriously now, how could this be a happy exception?

The main question is, though: What do you give us back for what you take from us? Pretty much nothing. ABC Network (to name just one) has all its shows available online after the premier airing is over. The greek channels authorities have not even dreamed of providing anything like that. In addition, it seems that the ridiculous and obsolete law structure prevents Greeks living (or working, or studying) abroad sharing the same TV with their brethren in Greece - they get a watered down, obsolete, and "special interest" variety of programs from the satellite greek channels.

Even if the satellite tv programs were of a content agreeable to most greeks abroad, not everyone can have a dish. I know for myself that I can't. My apartment building offers cable tv only. And, guess what? My provider does not offer a greek channels package. None at all. I can subscribe to watch Russian TV, and BBC America is not bad at all (I just wish that they showed more Python, Faulty Towers and Blackadder), but there's not greek tv in the horizon. Not one crumble.

So, to ask again, what do you give us back? Nothing at all. The only thing you manage to do is to cut us off even more from today's greek reality. We complain how the Greeks of the Diaspora are completely unfamiliar with the Greece of 2007. And if this fact could have a list of legitimate reasons until let's say the mid 90's, there's no reason for this today whatsoever. The World Wide Web has made the whole world as small as a rooster's butthole. And the people that have the actual power, or at least most of them (the fact that I can read TODAY's Greek paper on pdf is a marvel to me, you know, and I am eternally grateful to whomever thought of that idea!), won't do anything about it, even though they could do it in a way that it would bring them profit. Yes. Profit. Shiny blue and tan euro bills for them to collect. Provide streaming videos of the programs you play, for a subscription, or add commercials. I don't care either way. But I will be ecstatic to know what's going on in my homeland. I will be ecstatic to be able to converse with my family and friends, and not feel like a weirdo that is kept in a dark room for all eternity.

Good bye, greek-movies.com. You will certainly be missed...