While running some tests for the Open Net Initiative while I’m in Korea, I’ve interestingly discovered that most of the sites that are “blocked” for me are not because the Internet service providers are actually blocking the IP, but because licensing issues are involved.

I can access sites such as Pandora.com or Fox.com but I can’t listen to Pandora or watch any of Fox’s shows. I suppose it is similar to the fact that I can’t play World of Warcraft with my friends in the U.S. because the servers are entirely different. Country servers were separated because of problems such as character-swapping and gold farms, but it limits networking, segregating users by country.

What is even more amazing is that while gaming companies are seeking to increase social networking functions (such as Sony’s Home) platforms are still prone to technical limitations, as I pointed out in my article about how Nintendo Wiis are different in Korea. This was somewhat of a shock to me since the Wii is a new platform and has networking functions.