Television New Zealand Gives Up on DRM
,----[ Quote ]
| The New Zealand Herald has an interesting article about state-owned
| broadcaster Television New Zealand's on-demand streaming of media moving away
| from DRM (TVNZ has the same scope of programming and dominant market position
| as the BBC in England, though alas not the commercial-free public good
| mandate). TVNZ's head of emerging business, Jason Paris (who was at the
| recently-ended Kiwi Foo Camp) said the ad-supported streams outnumbered
| paid-for downloads by "many thousands to one" and so they're dropping the
| DRMed downloads.
|
| [...]
|
| TVNZ has been using Microsoft's PlaysForSure digital rights management
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| software to try to prevent downloaded TV shows from being copied. But just
| days after the launch of TVNZ OnDemand last March, the protection systems had
| been bypassed by viewers using software freely available on the internet.
`----
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/02/tvnz_gives_up_o.html
Yes. Another Microsoft-BBC-like fiasco! There ought to be investigations into
this. Public money in NZ was thrown into the gutter (Microsoft) to promote
Windows and punish taxpayers.
Related:
Status Quo: Can't watch the news in Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| As you can see, we had one site that improved (CBS News) and one site that
| has actually gotten worse (BBC News). Congratulations to CBS news for joining
| the 21-century. I am not sure what to say about BBC News. Apparently, the BBC
| is now using a new video player called the "BBC iPlayer", which only supports
| Microsoft Windows operating systems. Because of this, there was a lot of
| controversy about the highly restricted player, including this petition.
`----
http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2008/01/status-quo-cant-watch-news-in-linux.html
BBC Director General grilled by MPs on iPlayer
,----[ Quote ]
| During the meeting there is discussion of iPlayer’s total cost to the licence
| fee-payer - the BBC representatives are unable to give a figure, but start
| the bidding at £20m, excluding staff costs. Thomson gives incorrect
| information - that Mac and Linux versions of iPlayer have the same
| functionality as Windows versions - and has to change his evidence at the
| end. Perhaps it was this confusion that prompted Dr John Pugh MP to follow up
| the encounter with a letter direct to Mark Thomson today discussing platform
| neutrality in greater detail. A copy of this letter has been passed to the
| Open Rights Group.
`----
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/01/10/bbc-director-general-grilled-by-mps-on-iplayer/
BBC Corrupted
,----[ Quote ]
| Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With
| today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of
| duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution
| of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating
| system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must
| own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital
| Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be
| allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.
`----
http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted
BBC iPlayer Protests
,----[ Quote ]
| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
|
| * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
| * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
| * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
|
| Right now, there is very considerable concern within the BBC that the actions
| of the Director General and his team are sending the corporation in the wrong
| direction. The BBC has been embroiled in a number of recent controversies,
| all linked back to the DG's leadership.
`----
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest
Why Linux Users Should Be Furious At BBC
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently the BBC had a bit of a wake up call regarding numbers and how many
| Linux users were really out there. Why does any of this matter? It has to do
| with something the BBC provides called the iPlayer. Seriously, relying on
| ActiveX is so "1990's" that it's painful, and as luck would have it, the
| Linux users who wish to use this BBC player made sure that the BBC knew that
| they were making the sought after content inaccessible to those people using
| Linux.
|
| No iPlayer for Linux Users, But There Will Be An Alternative. Based on what I
| have been able to gather thus far, it looks like we will see an Adobe Flash
| option coming out soon. Then again, who really cares? Seriously, if the BBC
| is this foolish to ignore how much Linux growth is taking place both in the
| UK as well as the surrounding countries, then maybe people ought to be
| looking elsewhere? Is it because this is indeed, the BBC? So there is the
| belief that this is the people's media? Up until now, I enjoyed much of what
| the BBC had to offer, but this entire thing is enough to have pushed me away.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2731&Itemid=449
Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates
,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
http://slated.org/bbc_microsoft_bias
BBC: Death by a thousand top-slices
,----[ Quoet ]
| So it looks like the end of the unique, state-centric model for funding the
| BBC. An incoming Conservative administration is unlikely to be more
| sympathetic to the BBC, with its stifling bureucracy and monopoly control
| over a compulsory tax.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/bbc_top_slicing/
Anti-DRM Protesters call on the BBC to eliminate DRM from the iPlayer
,----[ Quote ]
| London and Manchester, England – Two weeks after the BBC officially launched
| the iPlayer, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits gathered outside
| BBC Television Center in London and BBC headquarters in Manchester to demand
| that Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) be eliminated from the BBC.
|
| The BBC have developed the "iPlayer" at a cost to the BBC license fee payer
| of £130 Million and rising.
|
| [...]
|
| FSF Executive Director attending the protest spoke about the corrupting
| influence of Microsoft, "BBC values have been corrupted because BBC
| Executives are too closely associated with Microsoft. BBC values have been
| corrupted because the iPlayer uses proprietary software and standards made
| under an exclusive deal with Microsoft. BBC values have been corrupted
| because license fee payers must now own a Microsoft operating system to
| download BBC programming. BBC values have been corrupted because license fee
| payers must accept DRM technologies that spy and monitor on the digital files
| held on their computers. We are here today to help BBC Director General Mark
| Thompson, clean up this DRM mess, and to encourage the BBC Trust to reverse
| course and eliminate DRM from the BBC iPlayer"
`----
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/11186/anti-drm-protesters-call-bbc-eliminate-drm-iplayer
Microsoft Tells Apple To Stop Complaining About DRM
http://www.podcastingnews.com/2007/04/13/microsoft-apple-drm/
Microsoft launches 'PlayReady' DRM system
,----[ Quote ]
| Although digital rights management (DRM) is popular with content
| creators, it has attracted criticism. Sony was widely attacked after
| using a rootkit-like application to hide content protection on some
| music CDs, and earlier this month Apple CEO Steve Jobs called on
| the music industry to drop its use of DRM.
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6158553.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Golden Rant : Microsoft DRM's gone too far
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft appears to have hit the wrong button on its critical
| Windows XP download service late last month, pretty well forcing
| every XP user to upgrade to Windows Media Player (WiMP) 11 if
| they (like me and many others) have the automatic download/install
| option enabled for critical updates.
`----
http://securityblog.itproportal.com/?p=712
The Longest Suicide Note in History
,----[ Quote ]
| Gutmann: The genie's out of the bottle before the operating system has even
| been released! But that doesn't mean Vista users in particular - and
| the computer community at large - won't end up paying for Microsoft's
| DRM folly. At the risk of repeating myself repeating myself, yet
| another reason to move to Linux.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://blogs.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/tux-love/2007/01/the_longest_suicide_note_in_hi.html
DRM in Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want.
| These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure.
| They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will
| cause technical support problems. They may even require you to
| upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software.
| And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're
| working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM)
| features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment
| industry.
|
| And you don't get to refuse them.
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html
|
|
