[YLUG] BBC DRM protest in Manchester

[Noah Slater]

On 03/08/07, Arthur Clune <arthur at clune.org> wrote:
> Clearly not. The BBC is paid for by UK license payers. They are
> mandated to make money overseas. If they come up with a form of DRM
> that helps that, then that's in agreement with their charter.

I could find no record of any mandate to make money abroad - the only
mention of international operations in the charter is to provide a
world service, which is provided for free.

However, DRM is by it's very nature a set of restrictions that harm
public interest. It has been shown many times that DRM does not
prevent piracy - all it does is inconvenience your average user. [1]

There are many places in the charter which expressively forbid this
kind of action that will harm accessibility of the content and the
public interest in general.

Excerpted from the Royal Charter from 1 January 2007 [2]:

    "The BBC exists to serve the public interest. "

Excerpted from the Agreement from 1 January 2007[3]:

    "[The BBC's public purpose is to stimulate] interest in, and knowledge
    of, a full range of subjects and issues through content that is accessible
    and can encourage either formal or informal learning;"

    "The BBC must do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure that
    viewers, listeners and other users (as the case may be) are able to
    access the UK Public Services that are intended for them, or
    elements of their content, in a range of convenient and cost effective
    ways which are available or might become available in the future.
    These could include (for example) broadcasting, streaming or making
    content available on-demand, whether by terrestrial, satellite, cable or
    broadband networks (fixed or wireless) or via the internet."

Noah

[1] http://diveintomark.org/archives/2001/07/29/my_crush_on_spyro_what_flash_animations_remind_me_of_and_what_the_past_will_look_like_someday

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/charter_agreement/royalchartersealed_sept06.txt

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/charter_agreement/bbcagreement_july06.txt

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