Hi, Thought this list might find this thoughtful post on the FSFE-UK list to be of interest :-)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: MJ Ray <[email protected]> Date: 2009/8/19 Subject: [Fsfe-uk] Educating Ashley: was it wasted time? To: [email protected] After "BBC's DRM Iplayer windows only" http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.uk/4822 some of you may have spent time trying to educate the BBC digital divison and its leader Ashley Highfield. Jono Bacon spent some time with him, as described at http://www.jonobacon.org/2008/06/20/ashley-highfield-reviews-ubuntu/ Now, in case you hadn't heard, Ashley Highfield is back at Microsoft, while his division's embarrassing sets of expenses and budget overruns still swirl around the BBC. Unfortunately, he's still being listened to by people in the media, but is again unconvinced by the need for freedom and sharing. "There is a growing consensus something can be done. We have to protect IP for the health of our economy. We need implementable anti-piracy measures. We can do a lot more [than the Digital Britain report proposes] if there is a will to do it." -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/17/microsoft-ashley-highfield-interview Was it a waste of time convincing him at the BBC about free software and Ubuntu? Or does the message live on inside the BBC? What's the current status of get_iplayer support from the BBC? Tolerated, hated or something else? What should we learn from this? More generally, the push for free and open source software is fast becoming about more than FOSS for the sake of freedom of computing. It's becoming a struggle between public and private benefit in access to everything from Department for the Environment presentations to BBC and ITV shows. Where is this debate happening next? Regards, -- MJ Ray (slef) LMS developer and webmaster at | software www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk | .... co IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html | .... op - 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]/
