Sorry for the quick follow up email, but <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/closed_consultations/ondemand_pvt_faqs.html">this</a> is worth a read as it explains the BBC's position on DRM and cross-platform availability.
<br><br><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/closed_consultations/ondemand_pvt_faqs.html">http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/closed_consultations/ondemand_pvt_faqs.html</a><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">
On 03/07/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Darren Fuller</b> <<a href="mailto:daz.fuller@gmail.com">daz.fuller@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div><span class="e" id="q_1138c38f10cc80bc_0"><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 03/07/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">J D Freeman</b> <<a href="mailto:sderby@quixotic.org.uk" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
sderby@quixotic.org.uk</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----<br>Hash: SHA1<br><br>On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 11:58:33AM +0100, Adam Armstrong wrote:<br>> You claimed that the BBC was discriminating against you because you run<br>> $nonstandard_os.
<br>><br>> The BBC is not discriminating against you, they've merely made a very<br>> sensible commercial decision not to support your choice of operating<br>> system. Much like they don't support the Amiga, OpenBSD, Solaris,
<br>> Commodore 64 or Oric Atmos.<br>><br>> You speak as if you deserve, nay, that it is your inate right to have<br>> access to the content on any platform you so chose. The BBC have chosen<br>> Windows has the logical platform to supply the content on, as it hits
<br>> the widest possible audience.<br>><br>> Just because you make non-standard choices, doesn't mean the world has<br>> to bend to meet you. Such arguments are why people hate Unix/Mac users.<br>> You have no rights. Once it's beneficial for people to care about you,
<br>> they will. Until then, you're the outsider. Live with it.<br><br>Fantastic, now to offer for you a few corrections.<br><br>Point 1: Not offering the iPlayer on anything other than windows is the<br>equivilant of the following announcement:
<br><br>"as of next month, BBC TV programs will only be viewable on Sony televisions.<br>We always aim to reach as many of our potential market as possible, and<br>market research indicated that Sony has the highest market share on the world
<br>wide TV market."<br><br>Point 2: There is no technical reason that the BBC should not support many<br>OS's. The BBC has one of the best research labs for video compression, they<br>don't need to buy in MS, they have it all in house.
<br><br>Point 3: The BBC has a charter from Her Majesties government to provide<br>information services to the the British people. As such, they are<br>required by law to make their programming as accessable as possible.
<br>
Which is why you will find they have programming for the deaf, etc...<br><br>As such, by ignoring a large proportion of the populance, (about 10% of<br>the populance use a unix based OS), they are failing their public duty.
<br>Whats more significiant here tho, is not just that linux and Mac aren't<br>going to be supported, but neither is windows 98,me,2000,nt. Which<br>between them account for another large proportion of the user base.
<br>
Which results in the support for XP service pack 2 only, being actually<br>a good deal less of the populance than you might think. Note, as of the<br>last info I had, Vista wasn't supported properly either, yet.<br><br>
Now if you want to go out and fork out alot of money to watch the BBC's<br>programming, spending several hundred pounds on an XP license, you are<br>welcome to. However personally I feel the BBC has a public duty to not
<br>discriminate on its user base, and in releasing the iPlayer, they are<br>doing just that.<br><br>J<br>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----<br>Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)<br><br>iD8DBQFGiklT42M0lILkmGIRAqpvAJ4xiXX2OVWKhCRx2PIZ9oSTwH5/PgCg1tNd
<br>VXmD5KLDJttdO5MXSE09sF0=<br>=mAmc<br>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Sderby mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Sderby@mailman.lug.org.uk" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
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<br></span></div>Looking at it as well the content is DRM'd (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/</a>), what is the point? I can use my PVR to record programme in case I miss it and it won't expire or I could record it to a DVD and again it wouldn't expire.<br><br>So in addition to restricting the number of people who can access the content they're also limiting the amount of time it can exist on your computer to 7 days.
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