

BBC blocks open source video players - anigbrowl
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/02/bbc-blocks-open-source-software-from-iplayer-video-service.ars

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tsally
Isn't the BBC funded by the taxpayer? Is it even legal to block the public
from receiving something they paid for? Seems like flash is forcing them to go
against their charter.

EDIT: Yup, definitely against its charter. I think its reasonably practical to
provide a streaming method other than flash. Right now there is one way to
access streaming content, not a "range of ways".

"The BBC must do all that is reasonably practicable to ensure that viewers,
listeners and other users (as the case may be) are able to access the UK
Public Services that are intended for them, or elements of their content, in a
range of convenient and cost effective ways which are available or might
become available in the future. These could include (for example)
broadcasting, streaming or making content available on-demand, whether by
terrestrial, satellite, cable or broadband networks (fixed or wireless) or via
the internet." [1]

[1]
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/agreement.txt)

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alextgordon
A rather pointless action considering that they host DRM-free H.264 versions
of the same videos that are trivially downloadable (they're used on the iPhone
site).

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ZeroGravitas
All of the files are downloadable and free of DRM. This only affects people
trying to watch live via non-adobe software. Who have now all found out that
it's better to just download and totally ignore the limitations imposed by the
BBC.

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jrockway
Very nice when combined with the mandatory TV-licensing fees that the BBC
gets. Might as well just cut out the middleman and give your money right to
Adobe.

I don't know the details of the streaming algorithm, but if a key is only
needed at the beginning, why not setup a web service that lets a real Flash
client running in a VM handle starting the stream? A Free player would query
this webservice (perhaps multiple times) to get the right keys, and then just
stream manually.

Or, just download the TV show off Bittorrent or Usenet instead of getting it
legally. (LOL @ anti-piracy measures. Have any ever worked?)

~~~
axod
Come on. The BBC is ridiculously good value for money. I'd happily pay 10
times the license fee. If they want to waste a miniscule proportion of it on
Adobe, I'll let them off that one.

It takes a 2 second search on google to find out how to download videos from
iplayer (The H.264 versions they host).

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fendale
The TV license is already £142 a year, or about £12 a month. I think even that
is expensive never mind suggesting paying them £120 a month _whether you watch
the BBC channels or not_.

When you compare what you get from Sky (if you are into sports and movies and
the US shows on Sky 1), the BBC license fee is steep enough.

That said, they do provide a good service, and wouldn't be able to if it was
not for the license fee model, but it does annoy me that I cannot opt out of
watching BBC and waive the license fee and yet still watch Sky Sports becasue
its a against the law!

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petercooper
Meh, just grab <http://github.com/threedaymonk/iplayer-dl> and then download
anything from iPlayer that you want in an open(ish) format (MPEG 4 or MP3).

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impeachgod
DMCA takedown notices? Why can't such software simply be hosted and run
outside the US? I'm in Ukraine, for example, and I'd be happy to host any
DMCA-violating software.

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yason
The U.S. DMCA seems have been causing enough trouble of unnecessary kind that
I'm seriously wondering about that, too.

By now, there should have been at least one web service for hosting software
threatened by DMCA, possibly distributed over a number of countries with
reasonable copyright legislation.

What's the catch?

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yason
At least on Linux, the original Flash plugin simply writes the .flv video file
to

    
    
      /tmp/Flash*
    

where I've successfully just cp'ied to some other place anything I've ever
wanted.

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yanw
another reason to not like flash.

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kierank
Flash becomes the enemy when they add anti-download features in response to
what the industry wants?

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ZeroGravitas
I think it's the baseless threats of lawsuits against those implementing
something that is claimed to be an open spec that puts them in that category.

