[Gllug] Reminder - Protest BBC iPlayer Tomorrow - Tuesday August 14

[Peter Brown]

On Mon, 2007-08-13 at 10:51 +0100, Ashley Evans wrote:
> Hi Peter,
> 
> I think that this is great but I thought the the BBC, after the 
> e-petition was so successful, to re-engineer the player so as to include 
> osx and linux users.  Have I missed something?

Hi Ashley,

Two things. First, they are pushing ahead with DRM regardless. So the
main thing we need to do is to help the BBC Trust reverse the decision
on DRM.  Right now, we see around us EMI and Universal dropping DRM from
their catalogs. DRM simply doesn't work and consumers avoid it. The BBC
has a history of standing up for open access, so the decision to use DRM
is flawed.

Second, BBC executives have said that a two year deadline to get a
platform neutral iPlayer released is "unworkable", and the only thing
they are committed to is a 6 monthly review of the situation. So no
GNU/Linux support for at least two years - and then only if you accept
DRM. That is the extent of their commitment.

If they reverse their decision on DRM we could have a universal iPlayer
within months. 

Thanks

peter

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug