This Painting is Not Available in Your Country

The internet is a big photocopier. Every time you load a page or save a file, you make a copy. Copyright law originated in a time when it was very hard, if not impossible, to make copies. So, it’s no surprise that the entertainment industry doesn’t really get along with the internet that well. Or, the internet broke copyright law, the genie is out of the bottle and it ain’t going back in, but the old system once made some people filthy rich, and they like that, so they oppose change with all their might.

One of my pet peeves is geographical restrictions. With the internet connecting the entire world, it just doesn’t make sense to me to restrict access to content based on someone’s location. Suppose I heard about this band, and I want to check their music out. So I go to YouTube and search for them. Oh, look, that’s nice, an official video. So I click play, and all I get is a message saying that this video isn’t available in your country. That’s like saying, Oh, hi there! So you want to check out this video we made? That’s awesome. Oh, but wait: haha! You can’t! You’re in The Netherlands, we’re in the U.S.A., suck it! Well, no. What’ll happen is this: I go somewhere else, you suck it.

Enter Paul Mutant. When I first saw his This Painting is Not Available in Your Country I was all, like, OMGWTFBBQawesomesauce. Do want. Unfortunately, that painting isn’t available.

But prints are:

This painting is not available in your country.

This painting is not available in your country.