[YLUG] Free the BBC!

[Pete Fenelon]

On Sun, Jun 10, 2007 at 01:25:54AM +0100, Robert Hulme wrote:
> As we all know the BBC asked whether the public wanted DRM wrapping up
> BBC content, the public said no, and the BBC went ahead and did it
> anyway.
> 
> Someone has started up a pressure group site to try to persuade the
> BBC to unshackle their media files: http://www.freethebbc.info


I'm sure most of us would like the right to photocopy banknotes and use
them to pay for things, too. But (A) tough luck, it's not our choice and
(B) imagine the effects on the economy if everyone was carrying around a
thick wad of hooky tenners. 

Now think of that applied to BBC content.

By asking the BBC to remove DRM from their content you're effectively
denying them the opportunity to sell it in other markets - and cutting
them off from a valuable secondary source of income. It's the money
the BBC can make from co-production deals and overseas sales that help
it to make the kind of stuff that's worth downloading.

If you want an advert-ridden BBC that broadcasts sixteen hours of
some QuizCall clone overnight and fills daytimes with several
channels of the a cheapo version of Jeremy Kyle Show, stuffing the
few remaining cracks with a downmarket Big Brother, by all means
continue to bleat on about them removing DRM from their output.
Within a few years there won't *be* any output worth DRM'ing.

If you want a BBC that continues to educate, inform, entertain and
challenge its audience, give it some respect and let it protect its
intellectual property.

pete
-- 
pete at fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"