Certainly. >From my occasional online journal...
He's arguing that the BBC's use of DRM in its new iPlayer service will legitimise the spread of DRM - at least I think that's what he's thinks he's arguing. Actually, it's a reason-free rant against DRM from the "Everything should be free and fluffy - we're great, big business evil, woo - MEMEME! I WANT it for nothing NOW!" brigade. Mr Doctorow conveniently ignores the fact that the programme rights owners collectively insisted that the BBC implemented DRM in iPlayer, ignores the fact that the iPlayer doesn't actually stop you using the VCR that you've relied on for years to record programmes you want to keep, describes the iPlayer service as 'Ostensibly... a "seven-day catch-up service"' - implying that it's actually something different - but then doesn't tell us what he thinks it is, and claims (with no evidence or justification) that the BBC will be to blame if all video in future comes with DRM. The iPlayer isn't perfect, it's still in Beta, and yes, it *is* a seven day catch-up service, as is 4OD. I missed the Dawkins programme on Monday night and really wanted to see it - but had no desire to keep it for posterity. So I downloaded it from Channel 4 in about an hour (it would have taken *hours* if I'd got a Bit Torrent version) and watched it over lunch. Job done. The fact that iPlayer doesn't work on (Doctorow's figure) 25% of computer users' computers is irrelevent. You can't use it at all if you haven't got a computer, it won't run on your fridge - and as pointed out earlier, it's in Public Beta. It's planned to release versions for other OSs ASAP. It's not the great evil a lot of people have suggested - it's a flawed, but in Beta, additional way of watching time shifted TV which can be used by the vast majority of computer-using license payers - and that percentage will quickly increase . It doesn't pretend to replace anything - you can still watch and record DRM free programmes from the BBC. Cheers, Rich. On 8/15/07, Tim Cowlishaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 8/15/07, Richard Lockwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yes. Utter, utter rubbish, that whole piece. > > Would you care to give us a slightly more reasoned critique, Richard? > despite Cory's apparent predeliction for Soviet-Union-based metaphors (check > out his other DRM article for the Guardian), i thought he made his argument > very well. > > Cheers, > > Tim > > > -- SilverDisc Ltd is registered in England no. 2798073 Registered address: 4 Swallow Court, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN15 6XX - 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/[email protected]/
