Soccer, Anyone?
Wired ran this feature on how to watch the World Cup for free, online. I hate censorship, DRM, so-called "exclusive rights" and all other information repression. Fuck Google.cn, fuck the RIAA and, most of all, fuck those who would tamper with net neutrality.
Nope, I can talk the talk but I just don't have the activist gene that would motivate me to do something about it.
World Cup soccer kicks off Friday, and the internet can offer one of the best seats in the house -- with the assistance of a few not-so-secret tricks.
Online video service ESPN360 will be streaming selected matches live on the net, offering the most straightforward online venue for fans interested in watching entire games as they happen. But ESPN360 is only available through certain high-speed internet providers and quizzically isn't carried by some of the big boys like Cox, or the even the biggest, Comcast.
The other sources for streamed games are almost exclusively pirated by hackers in China which then end up routed through servers in Israel. This means that the commentary for the games will probably not be in English; even so, it should be fairly evident what "GOOOOOOAAAALL!!" means.
Navigating the confusing myriad options of what player to use and where to find the streams can be a bit daunting. Here's a way through the morass:
Download a P2P streaming player from the forum Football Streaming Info, which is stuffed full of links to downloads and tips if you get into technical trouble. TvAnts is a front-runner due to its ease of use -- a big plus is that the channel menu is mostly in English, unlike many of the other players which seem to be in Chinese.
Once you have a player installed, a clear and detailed schedule of the day's games and where to view them can be found at BoxtoBox.
Another option is to use BitTorrent in conjunction with a tracker like the recently reopened PirateBay.org to find recorded games. The upside is that there will probably be some that have been recorded in high definition; the downside is that these will obviously not be live.
Football fans desperate to hear witty football commentary in English will want to view the BBC's stream of selected games. Unfortunately, these games can only be seen on computers inside the U.K.
Where there's a will, there's a way, of course. GHacks.net, for one, offers a workaround using public proxies to fool the BBC into thinking you're in the U.K. Caveat: Wired News didn't test this, so if you try it you're on your own.
Also it should be pointed out that FIFA frowns upon this sort of thing, but whether or not it is illegal here in the United States is a gray area.
"This is extremely controversial -- there is no clear answer here," says Gwen Hinze, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "No court has squarely faced these facts."
"Rights holders are likely to think that this is an infringement…. The EFF doesn't agree with that," Hinze says.
Mac users without VirtualPC (which allows the user to run Windows on a Mac) are currently out of luck -- the streams tested only work in Windows.
If all this seems too daunting, there is plenty for casual fans, too. Numerous sites are offering basic video highlights of the games, including Yahoo, which is hosting the official FIFA World Cup website. In a completely different take, Wired News parent Lycos is offering an unusual mix of behind the scenes video clips shot by soccer fans from around the world.
Nope, I can talk the talk but I just don't have the activist gene that would motivate me to do something about it.
World Cup soccer kicks off Friday, and the internet can offer one of the best seats in the house -- with the assistance of a few not-so-secret tricks.
Online video service ESPN360 will be streaming selected matches live on the net, offering the most straightforward online venue for fans interested in watching entire games as they happen. But ESPN360 is only available through certain high-speed internet providers and quizzically isn't carried by some of the big boys like Cox, or the even the biggest, Comcast.
The other sources for streamed games are almost exclusively pirated by hackers in China which then end up routed through servers in Israel. This means that the commentary for the games will probably not be in English; even so, it should be fairly evident what "GOOOOOOAAAALL!!" means.
Navigating the confusing myriad options of what player to use and where to find the streams can be a bit daunting. Here's a way through the morass:
Download a P2P streaming player from the forum Football Streaming Info, which is stuffed full of links to downloads and tips if you get into technical trouble. TvAnts is a front-runner due to its ease of use -- a big plus is that the channel menu is mostly in English, unlike many of the other players which seem to be in Chinese.
Once you have a player installed, a clear and detailed schedule of the day's games and where to view them can be found at BoxtoBox.
Another option is to use BitTorrent in conjunction with a tracker like the recently reopened PirateBay.org to find recorded games. The upside is that there will probably be some that have been recorded in high definition; the downside is that these will obviously not be live.
Football fans desperate to hear witty football commentary in English will want to view the BBC's stream of selected games. Unfortunately, these games can only be seen on computers inside the U.K.
Where there's a will, there's a way, of course. GHacks.net, for one, offers a workaround using public proxies to fool the BBC into thinking you're in the U.K. Caveat: Wired News didn't test this, so if you try it you're on your own.
Also it should be pointed out that FIFA frowns upon this sort of thing, but whether or not it is illegal here in the United States is a gray area.
"This is extremely controversial -- there is no clear answer here," says Gwen Hinze, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "No court has squarely faced these facts."
"Rights holders are likely to think that this is an infringement…. The EFF doesn't agree with that," Hinze says.
Mac users without VirtualPC (which allows the user to run Windows on a Mac) are currently out of luck -- the streams tested only work in Windows.
If all this seems too daunting, there is plenty for casual fans, too. Numerous sites are offering basic video highlights of the games, including Yahoo, which is hosting the official FIFA World Cup website. In a completely different take, Wired News parent Lycos is offering an unusual mix of behind the scenes video clips shot by soccer fans from around the world.
posted by Basil Epicurus at 1:03 PM
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