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"Perhaps this broke while I was off sick, but I'm surprised (or perhaps unsurprised) to learn today that Iran has blocked YouTube - anyone accessing the site from that country sees an explanation that \"On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this Web site is not authorized.\"  Apparently Iran's Shiite leadership regularly blocks sites which express opposing views - in YouTube's case, that means Iranian pop music, which the leadership disapproves of on religious grounds, and videos from opposition groups.  Reporters Without Borders responded by saying that Iran is among 13 countries pursuing widespread Internet censorship.\nMeanwhile, the Japan-YouTube copyright story has developed further this week: The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), which already asked YouTube to pull 30,000 clips last month, has demanded a preliminary screening system for uploaded clips, a notice in Japanese about illegal uploads, and that YouTube deletes the accounts of users who upload unauthorized content.  JASRAC has given YouTube a deadline of December 15th to respond, although it's not clear what action they'll take (suing, perhaps?)."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2006/12/06/iran-bans-youtube/>