[SWLUG] New protest and petition against BBC's Windows-only iPlayer

[Vladimir Zlatanov]

Sorry for the long(ish) post

> It is (nearly) the same argument as the analogue hole in DRM. The
> > technologies differ, but the pattern is the same.
>
> I'd say it's quite different to the analogue hole since you can get a
> bit-exact copy off the DVB stream.


true, but in any way you still get some copy, potentially infringing the
same copyrights.

> If they used a DRM which is open, that is anyone can
> > have the knowledge to implement it, then there would be no technical or
> > 'public contract' problem. a player would very soon exist on all
> platforms.
> > The ethical issues will still exist, but that is yet another fight....
>
> The trouble here is that DRM is fundamentally incompatible with openness -
> DRM relies on security by obscurity and as soon as you open the DRM system
> for review you remove what little security it had.


known DRM, that is.... The trouble is with the current state of technology,
as opposed to the
'general' principle .

> individual watermarking,
>
> I think individual watermarking would be a horrendous idea.


Yes, it is a horrendous idea.

> TV license number based access
>
> Here is another sticking point - you are not legally required to have a TV
> licence to receive video streams unless the streams are simulcast over
> both normal broadcast channels and IP.


true.

The specific BBC decision surrounding the technology to protect copyright of
their content is unsound and unethical, in my opinion. I can sympathise with
the difficulties of their management and legal teams, but that doesn't make
me agree with their solution. The "it needs to run on Mac. Linux, ..."
argument is a side issue, caused by their choice of proprietary technology.

The iPlayer issues highlight the sorry state of intellectual property
affairs, not in UK, but in the world at large. A lot of unjust but workable
presumptions in the current IP laws from the pre-net era got disrupted with
the emergence of new tech. There are a lot of 'private laws', i.e. license
agreements, region coding, DRM to name a few. Restrictions of common rights
in order to protect the rights of owners - usually referred to as authors,
but most commonly being labels and corporations. That debate is not going to
be settled overnight, nor with some form of resolution to the BBC iPlayer
shebang. Although it does need to be settled, hopefully in a fair way.

iPlayer - the solutions to the beeb's problems must somehow be settled
within the current framework. I would be curious on having the opinion of
the court with respect to the current decision and the possible
consequences. Including potential threats to sue the bbc for allowing
retransmission. Refusals to license content - music samples, etc... Unfair
charges....

Vlado
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