London and
Manchester, England – Two weeks after the BBC officially launched the iPlayer, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits gathered outside BBC Television Center in London and BBC headquarters in Manchester to demand that Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) be eliminated from the BBC.
The BBC have developed the "iPlayer" at a cost to the BBC license fee payer of £130 Million and rising. The software tool was meant to be developed to help viewers download TV shows to their computers. But in the process the BBC Trust has unwittingly given up on important principles it was chartered to protect – open access and independence from corporate influence.
The BBC Trust choose to infect the iPlayer with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology. DRM restricts what you can do with your computer and the digital files you possess, and monitors and spies on your computing activities. The secretive nature of a DRM scheme hands a monopoly to the DRM author. In the case of the iPlayer, the DRM author is Microsoft. The iPlayer has been developed exclusively for Microsoft's operating system, and hands an enormous windfall to the convicted monopolist.
Green Party Principal Speaker Dr Derek Wall joined protesters in London from
DefectiveByDesign.org and said, "For years, anyone with a TV and video could record BBC programmes and keep them as long as they want. Now, with this new service, you have to own a specific brand of computer system - Microsoft. How does that help schools and home users to move away from the Microsoft monopoly? It doesn't. It gives them another reason to keep buying the over-priced and insecure Windows operating system."
FSF Executive Director attending the protest spoke about the corrupting influence of Microsoft, "BBC values have been corrupted because BBC Executives are too closely associated with Microsoft. BBC values have been corrupted because the iPlayer uses proprietary software and standards made under an exclusive deal with Microsoft. BBC values have been corrupted because license fee payers must now own a Microsoft operating system to download BBC programming. BBC values have been corrupted because license fee payers must accept DRM technologies that spy and monitor on the digital files held on their computers. We are here today to help BBC Director General Mark Thompson, clean up this DRM mess, and to encourage the BBC Trust to reverse course and eliminate DRM from the BBC iPlayer"
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Get your facts right BEFORE you put a rant in print.
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 02:05."The BBC have developed the "iPlayer" at a cost to the BBC license fee payer of £130 Million and rising. The software tool was meant to be developed to help viewers download TV shows to their computers."
No. The download service part of iPlayer is but a small part of the overall project, and its cost to date has been a small part of the overall expected cost.
"The BBC Trust choose to infect the iPlayer with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology."
Again, no. The rights owners demand their content is protected in some way from easy replication and distribution. It's their work, their livelihoods, and their right to demand this. NOTHING to do with the Trust.
"DRM restricts what you can do with your computer and the digital files you possess, and monitors and spies on your computing activities."
Once more, no. DRM reads the media files you select to play looking for a flag indicating that a digital licence is required before playback, then attempts to retrieve a licence for you from a licence server. Each licence is individualised to a hash value generated from your PC configuration. None of which constitutes monitoring and spying on your activities.
"The iPlayer has been developed exclusively for Microsoft's operating system"
Er, no. The next iPlayer release will make the same content bundle available over Virgin's cable service. No Microsoft involved. Later in the project the content will be available over IPTV services from various suppliers; it will be streamed, therefore without any DRM encumbrance, and therefore platform independent. So much for your claims of Microsoft exclusivity, then.
"BBC values have been corrupted because the iPlayer uses proprietary software and standards made under an exclusive deal with Microsoft."
(cough) um, no, actually. There is no exclusive deal with Microsoft. There is a deal with Microsoft, because they are the suppliers of the DRM component where it's demanded by the content owners, but it isn't exclusive in any way, as I have already pointed out.
"How does that help schools and home users to move away from the Microsoft monopoly?"
Don't be silly. How many schools want to download 30 day limited copies of TV programmes broadcast through the normal channels within the last week? Home users have simple options; watch the stuff on TV in the first place and/or record it to a VCR/PVR. Hiome users wanting to use the iPlayer catch up facility can always subscribe to Virgin or one of the other iPlayer partners and watch the content in streamed form. Oh, sorry, of course, that would require that they use proprietary services owned by Virgin or whoever, and pay them for the privilege. And we cant't have that, can we? We want everything the BBC produces for free, having paid our TV licences.
All your posturing and whining simply plays into the hands of those who would do away with the BBC. How much shrift do you think you'd get from Murdoch if you asked Sky to spend millions satisfying the Linux user base? I think I know what the response would be. Smell the coffee, penguins.