Interesting Stuff 02.05.2008
Post categories: round up
| 01:06 UK time, Friday, 2 May 2008
from SecurityRatty [Correction 1243 - the comes from Stuart King at Computer Weekly].
"The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Digital Media Initiative is perhaps the biggest change project on Little's agenda." From in IT Week about the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Chief Information Officer, Keith Little.
"One in seven visits to online radio websites are to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio One" .
from .
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Dan Taylor tv character blogs. Dan's also created .
And finally, some people are passionately opposed to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer's use of Microsoft Windows on its download service. So I was intrigued by this thread on the iPlayer message board. "smppms"'s anti-Windows arguments are comprehensively scrutinised by "The_Phazer".
Nick Reynolds is editor, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Internet Blog.
Comment number 1.
At 2nd May 2008, _Ewan_ wrote:'smppms' certainly made some errors of fact, but his core point is still good; the Windows iPlayer is a waste of money (what percentage of iPlayer usage was it again? About 10?), it does lock users into a proprietary platform, and it does support a convicted monopolist. The 'most people have Windows' argument completely misses the point - it's the fact that most people have to have it that makes it a monopoly in the first place.
There's also the more basic principle that we now know that the underlying motivation for using Windows DRM was a mistake; the case made was that the rights holders wouldn't stand for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ making programmes available in a DRM free standard format. Now, thanks to the Flash iPlayer and the iPhone iPlayer, we know that actually, they will.
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has a responsibility to make it's services as widely accessible as possible, and a single, open, standard format would enable that by allowing players to be created for every platform. Windows included.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 2nd May 2008, Sam Jacobs wrote:It's interesting that rather than trying to further prevent the use of tools like xbmc-iplayer, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ instead invite its creator, David Johnson, to speak to staff.
Obviously the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ aren't going to be supporting this sort of thing, but this sends out the signal that it *is* acceptable. I for one would love to see an iPlayer plugin for MythTV or Front Row, for example.
Sam
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 6th May 2008, The Phazer wrote:"'smppms' certainly made some errors of fact, but his core point is still good;"
No, it isn't.
"the Windows iPlayer is a waste of money (what percentage of iPlayer usage was it again? About 10?),"
So, used by a bigger percentage of the using population than all the non-Windows operating systems put together then. Are they a waste of money too?
"it does lock users into a proprietary platform,"
I think it's safe to say that "locking" users into a proprietary platform for all of the remainder of their seven days isn't very significant.
"and it does support a convicted monopolist."
Who cares?
"The 'most people have Windows' argument completely misses the point - it's the fact that most people have to have it that makes it a monopoly in the first place."
That's not really a point, more a whinge.
"There's also the more basic principle that we now know that the underlying motivation for using Windows DRM was a mistake; the case made was that the rights holders wouldn't stand for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ making programmes available in a DRM free standard format. Now, thanks to the Flash iPlayer and the iPhone iPlayer, we know that actually, they will."
No, they won't - that's rubbish. Streaming already has the best DRM in the world - it's streaming, and thus it expires the second the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ takes it down. That IS DRM. No one has to the best of my knowledge managed to capture the Flash content yet. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ have take all the actions it can to stop the iPhone player being downloaded (as it is illegal to do so and puts the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ in breach of it's licence conditions). The only reason the iPhone player streams in mp4 is because, used legitimately, there's no way on an iPhone to capture the stream.
"The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has a responsibility to make it's services as widely accessible as possible, and a single, open, standard format would enable that by allowing players to be created for every platform. Windows included."
No, it wouldn’t - because it's impossible rights wise. An open, standard format allows it to be captured, and if it can be captured easily the service gets a court injunction from rights holders that day shutting it down. That simple.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)