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

[MJ Ray]

Andy <address@hidden> wrote: [...]
> I asked the FSFE about why they didn't do much (if anything) about
> iPlayer originally, apparently they have limited funds and this is not
> a priority.
>
> Apparently Public money collected forcefully by a government
> authorised agency being spent on a marketing campaign of MS Windows
> and Proprietary Software isn't important.

Happy New Year everybody!

I think the reply being discussed above was that it isn't important
*enough* to be funded ahead of other projects.  I can understand that:
it's cheaper to build new stuff than to knock down the BBC's mistakes.

I'm having more success arguing against iPlayer by pointing out the
effects of

  "Please note that you will still download your selected programmes
  even if sharing is switched off"

and

  "Some ISPs apply download and upload limits and may charge you if
  these are exceeded. Check with your ISP if you want to know more
  about limits and possible charges."

combined with the "light user" ISP packages that the typical users who
consider iplayer are on (you know, the sort of people who don't know
about all the torrents and hard disk recording yet...).
http://iplayersupport.external.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/bbciplayer.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=11&p_sid=6fTFGMUi&p_lva=21&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NyZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9ZGF0YQ%2A%2A&p_li=&cat_lvl1=#

OK, so they tell you how to turn it off if you know what you're
looking for, but many of iplayer's typical users are shocked that the
BBC doesn't tell them this, especially given all the "we're clean now"
spin about pay-per-call competition numbers from the BBC recently.

"iPlayer - making the unmissable, unavoidably expensive"
-- 
MJ Ray http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html tel:+44-844-4437-237 -
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