[SWLUG] BBC's "iPlayer"

[Steve Hill]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007, Gerald Davies wrote:

> i can see why they've done it.  the only thing i find amusing is that
> a lot of people moan, but don't come up with answers/alternatives.
> what would *you* have done?

I would release the content in a Free format after the user reads a 
licence stating that they cannot distribute the content (as copyright 
would still apply) and impose an IP address based access control system to 
prevent access from outside the UK.

Sure, people can ignore the copyright.  But they can ignore the copyright 
on the original transmission or on the DVD release too.  The access 
controls could be worked around by someone running a proxy to rebroadcast 
the content, but again - that's covered by copyright laws.  They don't 
feel the need to restrict the DVB-S transport streams (and indeed, they 
are pushing for unencrypted streams) which could equally be rebroadcast 
over the internet is someone chooses to ignore the law, so why should 
they need to protect this content?

I don't see the reason why content distributed over the internet needs to 
be DRM'd but content delivered over DVB-S and DVB-T can be sent in the 
clear - both types of distribution suffer the same problems.

-- 

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence