Re: [Fsuk-manchester] BBC iplayer - " Digical Restriction Management "

[Joshua Gay]

Hi Peter,

Digital Rights Management is the original term, but Richard Stallman and 
the Free Software Foundation popularized the alternative, Digital 
Restrictions Management to stress that although it is "rights" 
management for the author, it is restrictions management for the user.

The BBC is using DRM and as a consequence they are creating many 
restrictions on how the user can stream their video content.

First the BBC iPlayer uses proprietary standards and software controlled 
by Microsoft.
Thus, people must enter a contractual agreement to use the iPlayer. 
Secondly they must agree to use proprietary software that has access to 
their personal data and personal computer with two way communications 
with a Microsoft built server system. Now, the important thing here 
isn't some paranoid trust issue that Microsoft or the BBC may try to 
exploit a user, it's that users must needlessly put their data at risk 
by using software built by a company that has continually built 
virus-friendly products that are often exploitable by third-party web 
based applications -- I hope that doesn't come across as an ad hominem 
attack, but one on the actual software track record.

Now, once Microsoft does support your operating system, and your version 
of it thereof, and they have a working installer for it, or the 
appropriate update to your system, you do not have free reign to stream 
and use the media however you wish. You are not allowed to record a show 
to watch later on or to share it with friends or a school room, like you 
might do with a video cassette. Instead, you are restricted to watch it 
at the resolution and at the time that the BBC has allowed you to. This 
may seem like a minor thing, but, the fact is if you had to buy a 
BBC/Microsoft brand television and VCR in addition to paying your 
'television tax,' you might be a little annoyed. That leads me to 
another important question: if most people in the UK already pay a tax 
for the BBC, why should their be a hidden Microsoft tax as well?

The solution to the iPlayer is simple. Just say no to DRM. Stream media 
in an open standard like Ogg Theora, which although patented, has no 
restrictions on how anybody uses it, and it costs nothing.  It's 
efficient, free, and an out of the box solution. Also, it lets people 
use whatever software they like to view it -- for instance, VLC Media 
Player works on every major operating system and supports both free and 
proprietary streaming formats. Say not to a hidden Microsoft tax.

On an aside note, most people who have defended the user of DRM and the 
deal with Microsoft have attempted to argue on a tit-for-tat platform. 
They say that it is OK to give up all these freedoms just to make sure 
foreigners and those who do not pay a tax for ad-free materials are not 
allowed the same, albeit limited, freedoms that those who do pay the tax 
are given. This argument is absurd on more levels than I care to argue 
with.

Sorry if that answer was a bit exhausting and/or confusing  :-)

-Josh
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation