Comments

5 responses to “Use MacOS? Linux? Solaris? Stop the BBC becoming Microsoft slaves!”

1. 2007/02/01

   alecm

   my responses to the bbc

   * My answer to Q1

   In short, “yes”. I’ve ploughed through the entire 121-page document and it seems that they Trust has done its work and that your heads are screwed on right.

   * My answer to Q2

   Yes, it is a priority; further I expect the BBC to be leading in this space, especially since I find myseldf listening more and more to podcasts and the ListenAgain service rather than live radio, for instance.

   Incidentally, has anyone pointed out: precisely what difference is there between a “PVR” and an “iPod Video”; the larger report documents an expectation that with the rise of PVRs that demand for online downloads will diminish, but I suspect in this particular instance they’ve missed where the technology is headed…

   * My answer to Q3

   In truth, “indefinitely”. I work in the field of computer security and cryptography, and consider the matter of DRM to be ludicrous, it relies on a fiction that nobody will crack it and/or find another way to bypass it such as posting rips of TopGear to Bittorrent.

   If I were stuck on business travel in California for a fortnight, I would happily locate a Bittorrent of the latest episode of TopGear and watch that in order to “get my fix”; but when I am at home I will happily watch reruns on UK Gold and make the BBC Executive happy that way.

   That’s the solution to the DRM issue: make more, better and more addictive programming.

   * My answer to Q4

   Yes series stacking would be a useful feature. No, it would not stop me buying the DVDs if I felt the urge to keep the series. Why should I waste hard drive space when a reasonably priced DVD set comes in a nice box with a leaflet and a bunch of extras and other goodies?

   * My answer to Q5

   I have no viable Microsoft systems for playback available to me anywhere; I am an Apple user, and have been so for 6 or more years; more pointedly my elderly father has a Macintosh because it is easier for him to use, and a similar rationale applies to a couple of other elderly folk of my acquaintance. We all are license-fee payers, so I think I can say it is critical that the BBC not become tied to the Microsoft platform.

   * My answer to Q6

   It would be nice.

   * My answer to Q7

   I am not interested in downloads of classical music in and of themselves, for instance by analogy I am not interested in downloading specific “tracks” – a beethoven symphony or similar. I don’t really wish to listen to music that is shorn of its context.

   What I *would* be interested in would be downloads of *events* – music which has a context of its own, eg: an evenings concerto from [wherever], or a complete production of the Ring cycle.

   If upon listening it draws me enough, I’ll then go out and buy the CD.

   * My answer to Q8

   Not important. I don’t have kids, but if I did they’d learn what not to watch or listen to from an early age. It would be my problem, not the BBC’s.

   * My answer to Q9

   Neutral. So long as it’s pertinent, educational or amusing, I am interested in it.

   * My answer to Q10

   To me it depends on whether the BBC is trying to outsource its infrastructure; to me the BBC seem pretty good at maintaining the website even in the face of baying masses who consider it a “cost” not a “goal”. Online I would be worried that third-party rebroadcasters or some such would try and bring their own DRM, adverts or whatnot to thie mix, which would strike me as bad. I would prefer the BBC maintain its branding and opportunity to innovate.

   * My answer to Q11

   Reasonable, if I read them correctly.

   * My answer to Q12

   I can only re-emphasise the enormous damage that would be caused by the BBC wedding itself to a narrow, closed and proprietary technological half-solution to DRM, rather than either embracing open standards and solutions, or – more boldly – working out how to eschew the issue entirely.

   Reply
2. 2007/02/01

   Peter Harvey

   re: Use MacOS? Linux? Solaris? Stop the BBC becoming Microsoft slaves!

   DRM good or bad there is Project DReaM:

   http://www.openmediacommons.org

   I’m not sure how far that’s got but it would at least avoid being proprietary.

   Reply
3. 2007/02/01

   Nico

   let them

   become irrelevant, if they so want.

   Reply
4. 2007/02/02

   Adriana

   re: Use MacOS? Linux? Solaris? Stop the BBC becoming Microsoft slaves!

   The BBC thing seems a bit odd to me. (As does the whole license fee idea so feel free to discount my openly anti-BBC views.)

   No DRM is the only way as far as I can see. I wonder whatever happened to Cory Doctorow’s involvement with the BBC on releasing all their archives under Creative Commons license?

   I think the BBC will become irrelevant and their technology choices will speed the process up. They are firmly in the media industry whether funded publicly or not and eventually the same dilemmas, problems and fundamental cracks in the industry model will catch up with them too.

   As for DVDs I wouldn’t buy them, I much prefer to burn them from my own downloads. Hate the bulky packaging, the ‘extra’s and lots of crappy marketing material. I know what I want and I want it now. I suspect the next generation will be even more that way.

   I just can’t wait to be able to download entire Blackadder from the BBC archives under CC…

   On a personal note, I know that the BBC has earned some ‘cool image’ whist playing with new media and, dare I say, social media… but I know that the people responsible for that have long left the place. So I am not holding my breath.

   Reply
5. 2007/12/13

   Dave Walker

   It looks like Auntie Beeb has partially relented; see the beta Flash version of iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/#b-l7d . Works just fine on Firefox + OS X :-).

   The daft 7-day restriction is still in place, though, in that only content from the last 7 days is presented on the site…

   Reply