[jyl]

For the IT minded…

I fire up my VPN, connect through a French POP, set my browser (Safari) on “private” mode, and go to france.tv to watch me some sweet free Tour de France. In France, the Tour is free on TV and streaming, it’s every Frenchman’s sacred right - liberte egalite fraternite et le Tour. France.tv wants me to create an account, but asks only for my first name and email, no address or payment, so I give my name and Gmail, and greedily click on “Tour en direct”. And get a black square - this content n’est pas disponible (available) in your region Etas-Unis (USA).

WTF. How do they know I’m in the US? Don’t they remember D-day and how we saved their Freedom Fries-munching butts? They OWE me, but more relevantly, isn’t that what a VPN is for?

What am I missing? How can I get around France Television’s geofencing?