Microsoft Strengthens Video Marketplace Fortress

Filed in archive Marketplace on May 4, 2007

Don't live in the US but really, really want to download Snakes on a Plane on your Xbox 360? Microsoft says you shouldn't be able to -- licensing agreements with publishers (who prefer that pricing structures represent the most money they think they can get from you on a region-by-region basis) are designed to keep your foreign hands off of US-specific content.

The workaround has been simple: just create a new Live account that says you live in the US. A hassle, but easy enough. Not so much, anymore, after the new spring Dashboard update:

Some of our contracts and agreements with content partners, particularly in the area of entertainment, restrict in which countries we may make certain content available. There are a number of reasons for these restrictions, including legal rights and regulations. As a general policy we try to get global rights to content, but in some cases, it's not possible because of legal restrictions. In other instances, we have to get legal rights on a country-by-country basis, which unfortunately results with us having content on the service that has to be filtered based on geographical location.

So what does this mean to you? Well, if you have an account that matches the country where you are located, then you will probably notice little to no difference. However, if you have set up an account that does not match the country where you are located, you will find that these new security measures will only allow you to purchase and download content that is licensed in the country where you are located.