The BBC's upcoming iPlayer service is being targeted by the UK's Open Source Consortium. The iPlayer in question is a BBC service that will allow viewers to watch any show that they have missed for up to a week after it airs on television. BBC Trust has decided to require DRM on the downloads: the shows will expire after a few days. The BBC chose Microsoft’s DRM to protect the downloads, which means that Mac and Linux users are excluded. This didn't sit well with the Open Source Consortium, which has just written a letter to the BBC.
"This action from the BBC effectively promotes one operating system vendor at the expense of others. It is very disturbing that the BBC should be using the license payers' money to affect the operating system market in this way. Imagine if the BBC were to launch new digital channels, but only make them available on a certain make of television—there would be uproar," said the group's CEO, Ian Roberts. The BBC has already expressed its support for the Mac and claims that something will be done as soon as possible (which will probably involve a RealPlayer system).
News source: Ars Technica
"This action from the BBC effectively promotes one operating system vendor at the expense of others. It is very disturbing that the BBC should be using the license payers' money to affect the operating system market in this way. Imagine if the BBC were to launch new digital channels, but only make them available on a certain make of television—there would be uproar," said the group's CEO, Ian Roberts. The BBC has already expressed its support for the Mac and claims that something will be done as soon as possible (which will probably involve a RealPlayer system).
News source: Ars Technica
Channel 4's 4oD service is Windows only also, and ITV don't even do on demand, so be grateful that the BBC are making all of this effort to go digital without significant increases to your TV license.
Compare these two screenshots I took, one in the iPlayer, the other from a standard ~350MB torrent I downloaded (both resized to full screen):
iPlayer: http://misc.opencoding.net/doctor_who_iplayer.png
Torrent: http://misc.opencoding.net/doctor_who_illegal.png
Notice the aspect ratio is wrong on the iPlayer version too!
I'm generally supportive of the BBC, but they need to get rid of the DRM - it took me almost 3 hours of messing around with Windows system files to get the iPlayer installed.
anyway, how would open-source DRM work? surely if its open source then you can edit the DRM to always validate? (this is a geniune question, i'm actually curious as to how it could work)
Either way, they can bitch all they want about this, the BBC owns those shows, it can use DRM if it wants to or not, if you don't like it, then don't use it. Go d/l the episode you missed off of a torrent side, wait for the DVD or something. Better yet, don't use DRM services at all, show them that people don't want DRM. Maybe then this won't be a problem.
Either way, they can bitch all they want about this, the BBC owns those shows, it can use DRM if it wants to or not, if you don't like it, then don't use it. Go d/l the episode you missed off of a torrent side, wait for the DVD or something. Better yet, don't use DRM services at all, show them that people don't want DRM. Maybe then this won't be a problem.
I have no idea how free to air TV works in the UK but i know in Aus the consumer does not pay a cent, advertising pays for it all, i fail to see how they can "charge" a licence fee for free to air, unless of course the bbc is not free to air, are you saying a fee is put on the price of a TV set or is it payed for in taxes of some sort. I just want to understand how you actually pay this "fee"
I have no idea how free to air TV works in the UK but i know in Aus the consumer does not pay a cent, advertising pays for it all, i fail to see how they can "charge" a licence fee for free to air, unless of course the bbc is not free to air, are you saying a fee is put on the price of a TV set or is it payed for in taxes of some sort. I just want to understand how you actually pay this "fee"
If you own a TV you must pay a TV license, The BBC is not free-to-air, it is paid for by the TV license, The BBC do not have any advertising, all the other channels in the UK (ITV, Channel 4/5 etc are free-to-air as they have advertising)
I also heard something about the BBC trying to get the law changed so that you need a license if you watch TV over the internet.
I havent paid a license for years tho
That though has little to do with the DRM issue, you pay the fee to watch the shows ON YOUR TV, not your PC. It'd a different device even if it can be used in the same way. I don't like DRM either, but the content can be DRMd if they want to do so, since they own it to start with.
Now, my original post still holds, they can have a working cross-platform DRM player so people who use *nix can view these files just like they can on Windows. It doesn't have to be open sourced or GPLd, You'll just have to go and d/l it like you do with the iPlayer for Windows.
The TV license you pay doesn't cover your PC from the way I see it. So arguing that because you pay you should be free to watch these shows on your PC also, holds little water. Plus this is a on-demand service, that in itself is different, and I don't know one station/service provider who has that for free either.
Yes DRM is evil, but the fact is, you have to pay for things, the tV station can charge you a fee, or they can try to make money from ads, either way, money needs to be made or you get no new tv shows to watch.
I also heard something about the BBC trying to get the law changed so that you need a license if you watch TV over the internet.
I havent paid a license for years tho
Now i see, although i am still confused as to how you actually pay the license?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6568163.stm
But we can't have a bad word said against Apple, can we!?
Microsoft's format is proprietary too...
Not if 90% of homes had one make of TV, and the difference between that make and other makes was format.
Hence, some companies supporting Blu-ray vs HD-TV. Would there be uproar if BBC only released in one format?
I think BBC should release in a format available to all systems, since they can, but maybe they opted Windows DRM because they think hey need DRM and chose one format to trust.
I'm just saying the open source consortium should choose less forced analogies
whatever way you look at it DRM is BAD for the consumer, the only people it benefits are the corporations
1) Using the lowercase "i" in front of theiur product name and not paying Apple for the privilege.
and
2) Having the gaul to go with Microsoft's DRM instead of Apple's DRM.
I'm questioning it becasue:
1) I've never heard of this "Ian Roberts" or his "Open Source Consortium" before.
2) I'm a huge cynic.
...
(Disclaimer: I am mostly a Windows user)
But that's what their site is using at the moment. Look at their sister site, CBC, and almost every other corporate site out there. They're all using Flash player, a much more reliable and user-friendly format.
Windows Media Player enbedded on a web site is slow, petulant, bad tempered, lives in a permanent state of PMT and hardly ever words! And when it does decide to work, the picture is UP-SIDE-DOWN! I don't get sound half the time! And when the sound does work, I get no picture. It constantly tries to "buffer" when steaming, and I get the entire video in stuttering-pausing-every-2-seconds mode for the whole duration. And then when you go to replay it from the start, it seems as though it's deleted all the content you;ve just downloaded and starts a fresh new download, thus making it play, once again, in stuttering-pausing-every-2-seconds mode!!! AGGHHHHHH!!!!
Come on BBC, update your site! FLASH PLAYER is the way forward!
I think they want the users to be able to use portable devices, hence the move. They should, at the very least, offer support for both Apple and Microsoft "products."
Is there any standard for DRM video on the Linux platform?
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