On 01/02/07, Jason Cartwright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"offer very little on demand, or use DRM" - Tom L, the other week. Would you prefer DRMed content on Linux, or just the current video offerings? "I'd like all of it in a 'free' format right now please" isn't possible, at least not right now.
"all" is a key word, though. If the BBC decides to waste money on DRM at the behest of panicked proprietors, that's a dumb decision, but it does not mean that the BBC cannot make a better decision for works where the proprietary interests have no influence. I believe that the BBC should return to the British public all the work it holds the all copyrights over, since the public have already paid for those works. If that is not "all" of what the public currently perceive to "be" the BBC's, that's fine - we've been misinformed. People seem to think that since they've paid a license and see something on the BBC, they paid for it in full already. If that's not the case in all cases, let us know. But some of the time, that is the case. There are two issues in 'returning to the public' here, of code and culture. Of culture, I mean placing it under a free culture license. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_movement Of code, I mean producing it in a free software format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software A free culture license implies a free software file format. It is something of a paradox for a free culture work to only be available in a proprietary format. But also, what the BBC publishes today in restrictive culture licenses, but non-drm formats - eg, the podcasts in MP3 format - should also be available in free software formats, such as OGG alongside MP3.
Yes, IMO all DRM will never achieve its goal of complete rights management its probably impossible.
This makes much more sense if you use the more accurate term, "restrictions management." Sapir-Whorf and all that :-)
The point is that it's control is 'good enough' for the people who own the content. That isn't pointless.
But it is unethical for the "owners" to restrict people in this way. The law allows us to restrict each other, and some businesses do whatever the allows them to do to make money, but this does not make what they do the right thing to do. The law has allowed us to restrict other people in the past, and the restricted eventually overturned those unjust laws. Some of them even died in the course of those struggles. I guess the benefit of this struggle for freedom is that the only way we'll die is from old age :-)
Lets also remember that iPlayer is version 1.0 - the first stab. Let let it evolve and see where it goes.
I like it that the BBC has been letting us _involve_ and _change_ where it goes, in the Backstage projects. -- Regards, Dave - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
