On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 16:41, Kieran Kunhya <[email protected]> wrote: > I like the way Ofcom have totally missed the point about Linux/Open Source > presuming it refers to STBs running Linux.
Well, it would, and that's the easiest way to make the point about it. The fact it'll affect people running MythTV et al themselves *as well* is less of a concern for them (or the BBC). The reality is, STB manufacturers don't really have the luxury of being able to: a) ignore the licensing terms of the open source DVB stacks; b) reverse-engineer the decoding tables; c) obtain the tables from the BBC but breach the non-disclosure terms; or d) release a box which doesn't support FVHD ...even if they wanted to. Thus, open source DVB stacks are out of the running, which would push up price-per-unit and very likely discourage some from bothering at all. On the other hand, while (technically-minded) consumers wouldn't be permitted to do any of those things easier, nobody would come knocking on the door if they reverse-engineered the Huffman tables themselves and used them solely in order to make linux-dvb on their PC work. The minor snag is that this is a completely unrealistic scenario, because people who have successfully decoded them will want to (a) give others the tables or (b) give others a utility for decoding the tables, and people who can't figure it out will plead to be sent copies of it, and everyone will fall afoul of the EUCD's anti-circumvention provisions. But, neither Ofcom, nor the BBC (present company excepted), nor many Joe Consumers really care about these people (in a positive sense) and don't see why everyone else should suffer in the name of openness and principles; so, it's far easier to talk about the harm it will do to the _industry_, which is terms all of the above understand -- even if in actual fact, the underlying problems are precisely the same. M. - 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]/
