OK. You've picked and chosen what you see as relevent. Let's read the rest.
"At the time, the only two solutions deployed at scale on the internet were Microsoft's DRM, and Apple's Fairplay DRM. Fairplay did not include the ability to expire content, and therefore could not meet the minimum requirements for our rights at all. Therefore the selection of Microsoft's DRM was not the complex evaluation normally associated with technology selection. The decision was made after several face to face meetings rather than formal presentations. It should be noted that the technology behind iPlayer distribution, including DRM, is not procured directly by the BBC, but provided to the BBC as a managed service by Siemens under the Technology Framework Contract between the BBC and Siemens agreed in 2004. Siemens did not propose any other DRM solution, and the BBC agreed with this approach. It was recognised at the time that the consequence of the use of Microsoft DRM for downloads would be to require the use of a modern Windows PC, and therefore prevent native access to users of older Windows PCs, Macs, Linux and other operating systems. The commitment to find a resolution to this problem was therefore included in the BBC's submission to the Public Value Test performed by the BBC Trust, and reflected back as a requirement to the BBC as a condition imposed by the Trust. There have been a number of industry developments since then on the provision of a panplatform DRM solution (including for example Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Apollo, RealNetworks Helix, and the possibility of more open DRM solutions such as Merlin or OMA2 being deployable on the internet). As you would expect, we are working with the industry to find solutions to extend iPlayer onto other platforms." So, to summarise; "we couldn't implement the player on all popular platforms then (which we realise is a problem), but we are working to do it now, and we'll get the system out to the majority of users now, hitting our initial target launch date." Sounds good to me. Rich. On 7/24/07, vijay chopra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 24/07/07, Richard Lockwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > More seriously, if there's no announcement about (at the least) a > release date for a version for Mac by the end of the year, they may > have a point, but at the moment I still say the BBC are doing > absolutely the right thing, given the restrictions imposed on them. > > Cheers, > > Rich. Today I got a reply from my month old FOI request (just in time) about iPlayer, and so we can now see the exact "restrictions" imposed on them (not the usual speculation about it that we usually get). My question: Can you please supply me with all documents relating to the choice of Microsoft DRM as the Digital Rights Management scheme for the BBC's upcoming "iPlayer" content on demand service. These documents should include, but are not limited to technical and financial consultation documents, documents detailing why any other DRM schemes were dismissed and the minutes of any meetings dealing with issues arising from any of the aforementioned documents The relevant part of the answer: "The functionality required of that DRM solution is dictated to a large extent by the restrictions associated with the rights, combined with the overall requirements of the service. This functionality can be summarised as: 1. An adequate level of protection. Adequate in this case means a proven track record and acceptance by rights holders. 2. The functionality to support the required rights framework, which at minimum is expiry a set period after the first start of playback, and expiry a set period after the time of transmission on a BBC TV channel. 3. The flexibility to extend this minimum functionality (e.g. around playback rules, and controlled transfer between devices), recognising the relative infancy of this sort of service, and the likelihood that the proposition will evolve. 4. The demonstrated ability to handle considerable scale (the iPlayer could have a significant number of users). 5. Support for multiple platforms (PC, Mac/Intel, Mac/PowerPC, Linux) in line with the standards applied for bbc.co.uk." You can see the full thing here: http://vjchopra.googlepages.com/RFI2007000558-finalresponse.pdf Vijay.
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