Comedy at the British Open Source Consortium

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Well...

...why don't "off the shelf" DRM systems exist for other platforms, namely, Linux? Are you saying they should create a custom DRM scheme that works cross-platform JUST so they can support the 5% of the market that isn't Windows (not to mention adding years to the release schedule)?

Microsoft works to make it easy to release on Windows. Not surprisingly, people do that. Where is the responsibility for the open source community to create a DRM scheme that is as easy to use as what exists on Windows? Oh, silly me....the community doesn't like DRM, and makes Linux a very DRM-unfriendly place. Big surprise: content companies don't favor it, and companies aiming to release a product that is content-related aim for Windows first (and Mac a close second).

* The "content producer" in this case is the BBC. They're not being asked to "ignore the requirements of content companies", they're being asked to make available the content that our Tax Pounds pay for.

And being asked to spend a LOT more money so that that last 5% of the market can have satisfaction sooner rather than later. Typical of tax expenditures, as governments will pay $6,000 for toilet seats, and revealing the dangers of government ownership (or funding) of anything.

The BBC is owned by the British tax payer, and is funded entirely by the British tax payer. If the BBC are doing something wrong, Government is *obviously* the place to go because they are funded via tax. When Apple is nationalised, let us know.

Just so long as we are clear: you want your tax money spent as inefficiently as possible.

[p]What's also clear is that this iPlayer rubbish isn't required. The BBC have been using RealPlayer for years, which is available on all platforms, and very few people use custom players for video anyway - Flash video completely owns the video space and is cross-platform.

But does it offer the DRM guarantees that content companies DEMAND? This is the issue that the OSC so flippantly dismisses with "the BBC shouldn't be using DRM, anyway."

While I don't expect a Microsoft employee to admit this, all the BBC are being asked to do is use the same stuff YouTube or Google use.

YouTube is hardly a respecter of copyright, nor are they oriented around DRM protection of content, something content studios (still) want.

Posted by: John Carroll   Posted on: 06/27/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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