Remember, even though the Olympics Games are an international event, the International Olympics Committe (IOC) sells Olympic broadcast rights exclusively to 1 broadcaster per country – and only for that country. While that practice obviously originated for television broadcasts, the IOC still hasn’t gotten around to changing the rules for online streaming, which unfortunately means that access to Olympic video content on NBC, CTV and NRK sites is restricted to American, Canadian and Norwegian users only, respectively. No, they won’t check your passport, but they will check your IP address.

So if you’re lucky enough to live in the United States, Canada or Norway, you can check out the Silverlight and Smooth Streaming powered video coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics by visiting the following sites:

• United States:  http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/
• Canada:  http://www.ctvolympics.ca/video/index.html
• Norway:  http://www.nrkol.no/video/index.html

You will, of course, need Silverlight 3 installed to view any of the video content. If in doubt whether you have the latest version of Silverlight, visit http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx. Silverlight 3 works on Windows and Mac OS (Intel only); and with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and (still unofficially) Chrome browsers. If you’re a Linux user, you might be pleased to know that the Novell Moonlight team has been working frantically to get Moonlight 3.0 ready in time for the Winter Olympics. It’s still just a preview release so your mileage may vary, but please give it a shot – you can download Moonlight 3.0 Preview 2 here. I recommend reading the prerelease notes for Moonlight team’s recommendations on browser builds.

Everyone should also be aware than not all broadcasters have chosen to make the same amount of Olympics content available to their viewers. While CTV’s and NRK’s coverage is pretty much unlimited and requires no special sign-up process, NBC has chosen to restrict access to “premium” content only to cable/satellite/IPTV customers. First time you try to access such content you will be asked to sign in with your Comcast/DirectTV/Cox/DISH/TimeWarner/etc account. Many more providers are supported, but be prepared to possibly jump through some hoops to prove that you’re an NBC affiliate customer. In addition to the sign-up procedure, NBC is also withholding much of the live online coverage, preferring to show the popular events on primetime television first. Don’t shoot the messenger.

If you experience any issues with Silverlight or content access, there’s a good FAQ over on the NBC website: http://www.nbcolympics.com/faq/index.html.

We need Silverlight on Linux – and we need your help to make it happen.

Jason writes:

Yeah, it would have been nice to be able to watch the Olympics event playbacks and live feeds on Linux using Moonlight.  But right now, Moonlight only supports Silverlight 1.0 apps, and NBCOlympics.com is implemented using 2.0. As Novell’s chief Mono/Moonlight developer, Miguel de Icaza told me several weeks ago before the NBCOlympics content launch, “Work on this has started, but it will take a lot of work. And sadly, there are very few people willing to contribute to make this happen on time.”

That’s incredibly disappointing to hear, because here’s just a sample of the type of feedback I’ve been seeing from Linux users regarding NBC’s use of Silverlight:

“It’s infuriating to be summarily left out just because I choose to use a superior OS, Linux, instead of the crap M$ puts out. Oh well, I guess NBC doesn’t care how many viewers–and, yes, we ARE viewers as well, not just people online–they’re alienating by their idiotic decision to go with a Micro$oft only application.”  – from a comment on an LA Times blog

“I triple boot. XP, Vista and Ubuntu. I refuse to boot into XP or Vista to watch this online. If they don’t care about Linux users then I will return the favor and find alternatives.” – from a comment on Digg

“Nevertheless, NBC’s official stance is to support Internet Explorer and Firefox for Windows and the Mac, but there is no Linux support. This seems absolutely foolish. How hard is it cater to users of Firefox on Linux?” – from a blog post on OStatic

So on one hand we have Linux users who are infuriated because they feel left out, and on the other hand we have a statement from Moonlight project leader indicating there is not enough interest and support in the OSS community to deliver a solution. What’s going on here? Some might say it’s just a case of Linux users growing too complacent, or use this as an example of a counterproductive anti-Microsoft bias in the OSS community – but an article on the not-very-subtly named Boycott Novell site hints there might be more to it than meets the eye. As it turns out, the OSS community doesn’t seem to like Novell very much either.

My own opinion is: if you want it, help make it happen. Miguel is waiting for your e-mail. 

I’d love to hear everyone’s opinion on this, especially from Linux users and active OSS contributors.