Re: [Fsfe-uk] BBC's DRM Iplayer windows only

[Ian Lynch]

On Sat, 2007-09-08 at 18:06 +0100, Rob Myers wrote:
> Alex Hudson wrote:
> > On Sat, 2007-09-08 at 17:54 +0100, Rob Myers wrote:
> >>> I think there's actually three things at play here:
> >>>
> >>>      1. whether or not the player is free software;
> >>>      2. whether or not the video codecs are free software;
> >>>      3. whether or not the BBC use DRM.
> >>>
> >>> At the moment, 1, 2, & 3 are all 'not'. 1 is pretty trivial imho, and
> >>> not really worth worrying about.
> >> 1 would obviate 2 and 3...
> > 
> > In what way? Modern player software has virtually nothing to do with the
> > actual data consumed. Likewise, if the data has a free codec, who cares
> > if the BBC player is proprietary, since it's then easily replaceable.
> 
> Yes you're right. I misunderstood the relationship between the freedom 
> of the codec and the freedom of the player wrapper. I was reading 
> "player" as "entire stack" rather than just "front end". My apologies.

We need to focus campaigning on free and open protocols, free and open
data formats and free and open codecs. If that battle is won free
software can and will thrive and although not easy, its a lot easier
battle to win politically than requiring people to take up free
software.

Ian
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