[Sussex] BBC and Microsoft sign agreement

[Simon Morris]

On 29/09/06, Andrew Guard <andrew at andrewguard.com> wrote:
> I must of missed that story when BBC have been in talks with open source
> projects.
>
> Fixed up!
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5390000.stm

</lurk>

Hello SussexLUG,

This article really concerns me. I'm working with other fellows of the
FSFE to respond to this news and I would urge people to make their
feelings known to the BBC.

I have drafted the FSFE response here...

http://beerandspeech.org/fsfe/bbc-ms-deal/

And I invite you to borrow the text to formulate your email. Please
don't copy it verbatim as it will dilute our message to the BBC if
they receive 20 identical emails :-)

My objections are:

* Content will not be available on any device as Bill Gates states
unless they use Open non-patented codecs

* If content is only available to Windows licence payers that has a
social effect on under-privileged people who use GNU/Linux for
economic reasons. What about the One Laptop Per Child users in the
next few years. Are they also excluded from the BBC websites content?

* Data should be stored in free formats and not locked forever in a
proprietary format forever controlled by a foreign corporation.

We don't often get a good chance to make our feelings known so please
take the opportunity to tell the BBC that this deal isn't good news
for *all* of their fee paying public.

Thanks

-- 
~sm
Jabber: sm at jabber.fsfe.org
www: http://beerandspeech.org