[Wolves] LRL Mass Debate - BBC Guidelines

[Andy Wootton]

Political Penguin wrote:
>
> I would hazard a guess they would use section 1.8 as a justification 
> not to implement systems that would support Linux users.
>
> These two criteria:
>
> 3. Are third parties being forced to deal with the BBC on terms which 
> are demonstrably unfair or significantly out of line with the market 
> context?
>
> 4. Is the proposed activity significant in terms of its scale or scope 
> (relative to competing offerings in the marketplace)?
>
> They would argue that they are keeping in line with market conditions 
> and to have systems that are accessible to Linux users would not 
> justify the additional cost to support such a small number of users.  
> They would argue that given the market share they are doing their best 
> to support the vast majority of people who use Windows and 
> subsequently Macs.
>
> Sad I know but if you're planning on complaining you need to come up 
> with a significant argument against these points.  We all know it 
> comes down to DRM but they're not going to openly say that.  Perhaps 
> we should co-ordinate a bit of in depth research first.  I'd hazard a 
> guess the best angle would be to examine European legislation.  One 
> often finds that European Union legislation seems to be a lot more 
> explicit when it comes to such matters with regard to open use of IT 
> and consumer protection, sadly not a lot tends to come from UK 
> legislation.
>
>
> Kevanf1 wrote:
>> On 08/07/07, the.lock.keeper at ukonline.co.uk
>> <the.lock.keeper at ukonline.co.uk> wrote:
>>> I'm sure I've mentioned this before...
>>>
>>> I'm not registered on the LugRadio mailing list, so can someone post 
>>> this
>>> forward for me?
>>>
>>> The following fair trade guidelines might help with a challenge to 
>>> the BBC about
>>> their single choice of format (M$) for downloadable content:
>>>
>>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/commercial_guides/text/fairtrading_guidelines_0707.html 
>>>
>>>
>>> However, they may argue that open source formats don't allow the use 
>>> of DRM.
>>>
>>> I'm prepared to complain (as a licence fee payer) that I can't 
>>> download BBC
>>> content.  Maybe we should all complain.
>>>
>>> Rob
>>>
>>
>> I'm with you on this Rob.  There is a BBC complaints site too.  I'll
>> see if I can find the URL.
Unfortunately I wasn't at that session but can I propose an alternative 
approach?

I understand that blind people are given a discount on the TV licence 
because they are not able to take advantage of the visual  component of 
the BBC's service. In these commercially focused times perhaps we should 
just be asking for a licence rebate because we have been disadvantaged 
by the BBC's decision. Why should we fund a service that we cannot use?