[Wylug-discuss] Re: Windows-only distribution of BBC Programs

[Gareth Eason]

Smylers wrote:
> It's disappointing.  But is there a good alternative?
> 
> This analysis makes some good points in defence of the BBC's decision:
> 
>   http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2007/06/free_the_bbc_drm_debate.php
[snip]

	To say this article missed the point, is to me an understatement. Now that 
I've got the gross generalisation out of the way, let me explain ;)

	The BBC use a DRM model, which is not available to license payers who want to 
legally use the valid content on a non-Windows system. To make it absolutely 
clear, these are license payers, who are legally entitled to watch the BBC 
material, who own a legal copy of Linux (or Mac OS X, or BSD, or in fact some 
versions of Windows) and who wish to view this content.

	The article claims that they will be catered for because they may be 
tech-savvy enough to obtain a DRM-free version of the content.  ( c.f. "Of 
course the DRM won't stop piracy, or stop the computer-savvy ripping Windows 
Media streams into their preferred Ogg Vorbis format, or stop people using 
UKNova, but it tends to make the expected level of piracy tolerable for the 
people investing in television production." )

	It's an admission of failure before we even start. The article admits that 
DRM will not stop piracy, but yet it makes it illegal for a subset of the 
consuming population (in some way, IANAL and I realise the DMCA does not apply 
to the UK - but other anti-DRM laws most likely do and/or *will*!) to use 
otherwise legal content.

	Thus, the British public has a choice: they can either not avail of the 
service, or - for an already proven pointless reason - they can ensure 
legality only through purchasing and running a copy of Microsoft Windows.

	I'm no longer resident in the UK, and so am no longer a license payer. I was 
though, for many years, and am acutely aware that places like Ireland (where I 
now live) look to institutions such as the BBC to see what so called 'Best 
Practice' look like.

	Please, make every effort to educate the BBC that their methods of applying 
DRM are fundamentally flawed, and that they are running the real risk of 
criminalising innocent people.

	By the same token, please stop accepting the flawed assertions and 
justifications for the DRM model detailed in this article. They are simply 
wrong, given the current litigious attitude of the world in which we live.

	I shall dismount my soap box now, in the hope that perhaps content producers 
and providers will learn that a DRM model which criminalises a chunk of your 
audience is not the way forward :-)

	Best regards,
	-->Gar