From The New York Times: ‘Davy Crockett’ Star Fess Parker Dies at 85

Fess Parker, the actor best known for playing the American folk hero Davy Crockett, has died at the age of 85, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Edit: A more detailed obit.

This is just a quick little story; the BBC had a news program (I should say programme) on I wanted to see. I went to the BBC website, which informed me I couldn’t, since they only allow streaming to computers within the UK. Now I could have found a proxy in the UK that would let me pretend to be within the country, but I said “the heck with it,” went to the newsgroups, found a cap of the program, downloaded it, and watched it.

Who wins? No one. I had to perform a mildly improper act just to watch a program I should have been able to see directly from the provider. And other networks are equally narrow-sighted, locking out whoever they wish without seeing that on the Internet, one can always find what one is looking for. I mean, c’mon, how many folks in the UK watch our drama series right after they air here instead of waiting until their country deigns to run the show. Do they think denying access really stops anyone who wants to see the latest episode of House or Heroes?

Look, this is really simple. Media companies can either make it easy for us to watch their programming, or we’ll find another way, one over which they have no control. Putting up roadblocks just encourages us to find a more direct route to the same target.