Ooh no - Pandora music station to limit self to the US via IP filtering

Ever tried listening to Pandora, the "this should sound like that" online sort-of radio station? If you don't live in the US, then you'll have found its insistence on a US zip code trivially easy to circumvent. But now it's going to get serious, filtering users based on their IP (internet address), which is a clearer indication of where you are.

More details at TechCrunch, which says the switchoff will start some time in the next 24 hours. A lot of people in Britain will probably miss it - which makes it good news that Pandora is working hard on negotiating rights to play in, yes, the UK.

It's also struggling with other mad cost impositions in the US, as TechCrunch notes:

This isn't the only bad news recently for Pandora. Along with other Internet radio companies, they have also been fighting the RIAA over revisions to the fee structure they must pay for playing music online. The rates they pay are significantly more than satellite providers pay, and terrestrial radio stations pay nothing to play music.

I wonder what it means for any US military and other staff overseas? If they listen to Pandora and have valid US addresses, how will they be whitelisted?

Still, being able to play legally in the UK would be a boon: they could get some revenue from people buying through Amazon and iTunes in the UK, which one was prevented from by, um, geography before.