Digital Home Thoughts: Canada: Land of the Pirates! Arrr!

"Despite having a higher percentage of broadband users than Americans, [Canadians] are the poor cousins when it comes to the Internet VOD option. Americans enjoy a wealth of options, including popular services such as iTunes, Movielink, CinemaNow, Vongo and Amazon's Unbox. Heck, even Wal-Mart has its Video Downloads Store, where you can download flicks - such as 300, Wild Hogs and Epic Movie - for a few bucks apiece. So, what's the hold-up in the Great White North? "My guess is one of the main reasons why Canadians can't download movies yet is because of our country's high rate of movie piracy," explains Warren Shiau, lead analyst for IT research at the Toronto-based The Strategic Counsel market research firm."

Interesting article on why VOD is not widely available in Canada, and why the upcoming Xbox Live Video Marketplace is going to be so appealing to my neighbors across the border. I'm surprised that the Canadian government hasn't cracked down on piracy more, especially considering the relatively litigious society they live in (particularly taxes on storage media such as CDs and DVDs). Jason, more insight?