On 20/11/2007, Martin Belam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > That is kind of the figures I was expecting. Just to be clear here, > the way I see it is that if the BBC stands up and says we believe in > "libre" not "gratis", so we don't want anything to do with software > or codecs that involve patents, pretty much at least 80%+ of the > people who own portable music players in the UK are going to turn > around and say "Chuffing hell, lads, why doesn't that work on my > machine? I mean, I *paid* for all this stuff to be made by the BBC. > Who are you to tell me which machines I should have to buy".
I'm not suggesting that the BBC have the moral courage to take a stand on this issue like that; merely that they should not contribute to the problem by only using proprietary or patent-encumbered formats. > I mean, isn't that the argument for the BBC making the iPlayer work in > Linux - because a market is there and so the BBC should support it in > the interest of universal access? Universal access is the ideal, but the iPlayer attacks that ideal because it is proprietary and DRM. So if the BBC makes the current iPlayer work in GNU/Linux in the interest of universal access, that will be tragic. Promoting proprietary software and inflicting DRM on people is unethical. If the BBC doesn't make its iPlayer work on GNU/Linux, but just makes it with DRMless patentless media formats (like the one invented at the BBC, perhaps?) and documents its protocols, that would be enough - because the free software community would write a (probably crossplatform) iPlayer-like program from that, itself, without needing any license-fee money spent. > Or, they could just make 120+ radio programmes available free to > download, for nothing, for people to keep for as long as they like, > and re-encode into any format they want.... Reencoding them with.... patent encumbered software. Mmm. -- 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/
