[...and Microsoft in the NHS was a multi BILLION Pound Disaster.]
Why is the iPlayer a multi million pound disaster?
,----[ Quote ]
| Today, YouTube, Joost and BT Vision deliver video on demand to millions using
| streaming and P2P techniques that are evolving rapidly. For a large
| proportion of the web viewing public even YouTube's poor quality video is
| good enough.
|
| The iPlayer now looks like an anachronism; a clunky, proprietary client in a
| world where content producers of the Beeb's quality should be more powerful
| than ever and "platform" operators are beating a path to their door.
|
| As it turns out, the Beeb itself has proved that making shows available with
| streaming solution would have been cheaper and quicker to develop. The Flash
| player catch-up service cobbled together in response to Mac and Linux iPlayer
| interoperabilty gripes took just a few months.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/22/beeb_week_iplayer_comment/
Of course the latter would be better, but how would it help the BBC's sister
(in forcing people to buy spyware like Microsoft Windows)?
New from Heise:
Going online, public TV chooses different licensing paths
,----[ Quote ]
| Currently described as "seven day catch-up television", the iPlayer service
| allows programme downloads a 30 day content lifetime with a seven day viewing
| window, after which the content is automatically deleted. The service
| is "free for UK licence fee payers". On the face of it, this would seem very
| similar to the NDR offering, except that the the BBC has not published
| explicit license terms, but is instead relying on technological DRM. Indeed
| in a podcast interview at the end of October, Ashley Highfield, the BBC's
| director of Future Media and Technology stated "once we get to that stage,
| where the content, wherever it goes, can have all the rules associated with
| how it should behave, and once its able to tell us who's viewing it, where
| they're viewing it ... then it doesn't really matter where the content goes".
|
| The concern we have is that unlike the NDR open model under which the end
| user knows what rights and restrictions pertain to the content, the iPlayer
| approach is covert and keeps the user in the dark: "Here's a binding
| contract. You must subscribe to it but you're not allowed to see it."
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/99395/from/rss09
So it is indeed spyware. MSBBC wants to spy on people. And it wants them to use
Windows, which has back doors for governments to intrude. Yay!!11
Related:
Ubuntu Linux maker joins OSC over iPlayer campaign
,----[ Quote ]
| As the Internet becomes part of everyone's lives - we will all go online
| using more types of device. Locking access to BBC iPlayer content to phones
| and internet tablets running Windows(tm) is shortsighted and bad for
| fee-payers. Platform neutral means that we need
| a solution that supports Linux and Apple's OSX."
|
| We fully support the OSC's vital campaign that the iPlayer support Linux and
| trust that the BBC sees why this is in the interest of feepayers."
`----
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=33204&hilite=
What tricks is the BBC up to with Microsoft?
,----[ Quote ]
| The twin elephants in the meeting room will be Microsoft's Silverlight and
| PlayReady.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/16/silverlight_iplayer_playready/
BBC's iPlayer's Prospects Looking Bleak
,----[ Quote ]
| "The future of iPlayer, the BBC's new online on-demand system for delivering
| content, is continuing to look bleaker. With ISPs threatening to throttle the
| content delivered through the iPlayer, consumers petitioning the UK
| government and the BBC to drop the DRM and Microsoft-only technology, and
| threatened legal action from the OSC, the last thing the BBC wanted to see
| today was street protests at their office and at the BBC Media Complex
| accompanied by a report issued by DefectiveByDesign about their association
| with Microsoft."
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/1721229&from=rss
BBC iPlayer protest report
,----[ Quote
| First on site with me is Tom Chance, Green Party spokesperson on Free
| Software. He has organized for Dr Derek Wall, lead spokesperson for the Green
| Party to join us and make some statements about BBC iPlayer and the Microsoft
| lock-in it establishes.
|
| [...]
|
| We have 1500 fliers to distribute, that focus on the key issue with the
| iPlayer, and why $130 Million and 4 years of development don't get you much
| when you choose Microsoft DRM.
`----
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/iPlayerProtestReport
Anti-DRM Protesters call on the BBC to eliminate DRM from the iPlayer
,----[ Quote ]
| London and Manchester, England – Two weeks after the BBC officially launched
| the iPlayer, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits gathered outside
| BBC Television Center in London and BBC headquarters in Manchester to demand
| that Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) be eliminated from the BBC.
|
| The BBC have developed the "iPlayer" at a cost to the BBC license fee payer
| of £130 Million and rising.
|
| [...]
|
| FSF Executive Director attending the protest spoke about the corrupting
| influence of Microsoft, "BBC values have been corrupted because BBC
| Executives are too closely associated with Microsoft. BBC values have been
| corrupted because the iPlayer uses proprietary software and standards made
| under an exclusive deal with Microsoft. BBC values have been corrupted
| because license fee payers must now own a Microsoft operating system to
| download BBC programming. BBC values have been corrupted because license fee
| payers must accept DRM technologies that spy and monitor on the digital files
| held on their computers. We are here today to help BBC Director General Mark
| Thompson, clean up this DRM mess, and to encourage the BBC Trust to reverse
| course and eliminate DRM from the BBC iPlayer"
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/11186/anti-drm-protesters-call-bbc-eliminate-drm-iplayer
BBC iPlayer Protests
,----[ Quote ]
| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
|
| * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
| * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
| * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
|
| Right now, there is very considerable concern within the BBC that the actions
| of the Director General and his team are sending the corporation in the wrong
| direction. The BBC has been embroiled in a number of recent controversies,
| all linked back to the DG's leadership.
`----
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest
BBC Corrupted
,----[ Quote ]
| Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With
| today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of
| duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution
| of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating
| system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must
| own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital
| Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be
| allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.
`----
http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted
BBC iPlayer petition hits 10,000
,----[ Quote
| More than 10,000 people have signed an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street
| website urging the BBC to make its iPlayer available to non-Windows users.
`----
http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39167923,00.htm?r=1
EC threat to BBC over downloads
,----[ Quote ]
| However, OSC disagrees and says the next step is to make a formal
| complaint to the European Commission (EC).
|
| "We're preparing the full details at the moment and we will be
| sending a formal letter within the next week," said Mr Taylor.
`----
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6236612.stm
Open sourcers rattle EU sabre at BBC on demand player
,----[ Quote ]
| The BBC is being threatened with an anti-trust challenge in Europe over its
| use of the Windows Media format in its on demand service, iPlayer, which is
| in the final stages of testing.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/22/iplayer_osc_eu_ofcom/
Free the BBC
,----[ Quote ]
| We are deeply concerned about the BBC's use of "Digital Rights
| Management" (DRM) to manage content delivered to users over the
| Internet. There are dozens of arguments against DRM, however we
| believe these are the most important and relevant to the BBC.
`----
http://www.freethebbc.info/node/5
Save the BBC from Windows DRM!
,----[ Quote ]
| Clearly, shutting out 25% of your audience sits ill with the BBC's
| remit of serving all of its users...
|
| There is no denying that this is an extremely difficult area for
| the BBC, since it must negotiate not one but three minefields -
| those of technology standards, copyright and contract law. But
| there are still things that it could do without turning into a
| global advertisement for Microsoft's flawed DRM approach.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000183
BBC plans to lock viewers into Microsoft monopoly says Open Source Consortium
,----[ Quote ]
| The Open Source Consortium (OSC) believes the plans are anti-competitive
| and will use public money to lock viewers into the technologies of
| a repeatedly convicted monopolist.
`----
http://www.publictechnology.net/article_avantgo.php?sid=7655
Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates
,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
http://slated.org/bbc_microsoft_bias
|
|
