Though don't worry, the UK and Canada are the exception to that headline there. American based personalised web radio service Pandora has confirmed it is blocking access to non-US listeners, except in the UK and Canada, because of concerns it could be accused of breaching copyrights by providing its service to users elsewhere in the world.
As previously reported, Pandora provides music fans with a personalised music stream based on their personal musical preferences, taking a favourite band or song as a starting point. The service has been US based to date, and the music it plays is licensed through the American royalty collection societies. To that end users have had to provide an American postcode when registering, though that system doesn't really block non-US users, because new registrants can simply enter any US postcode without having to prove that it is where they actually live (a rather large number of non-US users end up 'living' at Beverley Hills 90210). From this point onwards the Pandora system will become much more strict in restricting the service to American music fans by checking the IP address of users and blocking access to anyone coming to the service from a non-US IP address.
Pandora has introduced the tougher measures to avoid the wrath of the record companies, who could claim that they are providing the service illegally outside of the US. The service's bosses say that they had hoped to secure licences in other key territories before having to introduce tough restrictions on the US service, but with the exception of the UK and Canada, gaining such licences is proving tricky. As a result users in the UK and Canada will be able to continue accessing the service, but everywhere else access will have to be blocked.
Confirming the new restrictions, Pandora founder Tim Westergren wrote on his blog yesterday: "Tonight we began the heartbreaking process of blocking access to Pandora for listeners outside the US. While the DMCA [US Digital Millennium Copyright Act] provides us a blanket license in the US, there is no equivalent in other countries. After a year of work, only the UK and Canada have shown enough progress for us to feel comfortable allowing continued access".