[News] MSBBC Lies, Breaks Another Promise, So Linux Users ..

Steve Jobs rescues freetards from BBC iPlayer wilderness (for now)

,----[ Quote ]
| iPhone streams start DRM-free download party
|
| [...]
|
| The BBC says an official Mac download client will be available this year, and
| a Linux one "within two years".
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/

They said it would be ready in 2008, so they lied again. They also lied about
DRM being required, among many other lies. Microsoft must have passed them the
Big Lie handbook on copyrights and DRM -- the same book used to fool
politicians who blindly give a nod to DMCA, i.e. 'make FOSS illegal'.


Recent:

Microsoft Misleads on Copyright Reform

,----[ Quote ]
| The Hill Times this week includes an astonishingly misleading and factually
| incorrect article on Canadian copyright written by Microsoft.
`----

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2670/125/


Canadian DMCA On Hold?

,----[ Quote ]
| Rumours tonight indicate that the government has again decided to delay
| introducing the Canadian DMCA.  With the House of Commons off next week and
| the budget coming the following week, if this is true it would appear that
| there will be no copyright legislation for at least another month (assuming
| there is no election).    
`----

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2694/125/


BBC iPlayer on GNU/Linux without Flash using only free software

,----[ Quote ]
| A bit of background to this. The BBC is funded by every single household with
| a TV in the UK (except old people). iPlayer is a platform for watching BBC
| shows you've missed. Initially iPlayer was Windows XP only, and we had a
| protest about it in London and in Manchester. Then, they released a Flash
| version, but as Flash isn't free software, users of free software operating
| systems were still left in the cold. Ashley Highfield estimated there were
| 400 GNU/Linux users in the UK, and was proven badly wrong.      
|
| A few days ago, they launched an iPhone version, even though they've still
| not released a GNU/Linux version.
|
| You'll need:
|
|     * Iceweasel, GNUzilla or Mozilla Firefox
|     * User Agent Switcher
|     * Firebug
|
| [...]
|
| You'll get an MP4 file which you can play in VLC, Totem, etc. No DRM. You
| might want to rename it to something sensible.
|
| Gnash is a free software plugin for Flash. If you're not already using it,
| please take this time to download and use it instead of Flash.
`----

http://exploringfreedom.org/2008/03/08/bbc-iplayer-on-gnu-linux-withou...lash-us


Feeling the heat at Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| A couple of years ago you reiterated that IBM was Microsoft's biggest
| competitor and you said not just on the business side, but overall. If I ask
| you who is Microsoft's biggest competitor now, who would it be?  
|
| Ballmer: Open...Linux. I don't want to say open source. Linux, certainly have
| to go with that. 
`----

http://www.news.com/Feeling-the-heat-at-Microsoft/2008-1012_3-6232458....l?tag=n


Related:

iPlayer coming to Macs... but no word on Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| Highlighting the marginal Linux audience is a risky move for Thomson, after
| his director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield, got himself
| into hot water with open-source advocates last year by declaring the BBC
| website had only 400-600 Linux users every week.    
`----

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/163722/iplayer-coming-to-macs-but-no-word-...linux.h


Status Quo: Can't watch the news in Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| As you can see, we had one site that improved (CBS News) and one site that
| has actually gotten worse (BBC News). Congratulations to CBS news for joining
| the 21-century. I am not sure what to say about BBC News. Apparently, the BBC
| is now using a new video player called the "BBC iPlayer", which only supports
| Microsoft Windows operating systems. Because of this, there was a lot of
| controversy about the highly restricted player, including this petition.    
`----

http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2008/01/status-quo-cant-watch-news-i...inux.ht


BBC Director General grilled by MPs on iPlayer

,----[ Quote ]
| During the meeting there is discussion of iPlayer's total cost to the licence
| fee-payer - the BBC representatives are unable to give a figure, but start
| the bidding at £20m, excluding staff costs. Thomson gives incorrect
| information - that Mac and Linux versions of iPlayer have the same
| functionality as Windows versions - and has to change his evidence at the
| end. Perhaps it was this confusion that prompted Dr John Pugh MP to follow up
| the encounter with a letter direct to Mark Thomson today discussing platform
| neutrality in greater detail. A copy of this letter has been passed to the
| Open Rights Group.        
`----

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/01/10/bbc-director-general-grilled...-mps-on


BBC Corrupted

,----[ Quote ]
| Today the BBC made it official -- they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With
| today's launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of
| duties and handed over to Microsoft sole control of the on-line distribution
| of BBC programming. From today, you will need to own a Microsoft operating
| system to view BBC programming on the web. This is akin to saying you must
| own a Sony TV set to watch BBC TV. And you must accept the Digital  
| Restrictions Management (DRM) that the iPlayer imposes. You simply cannot be
| allowed to be in control of your computer according to the BBC.      
`----

http://defectivebydesign.org/blog/BBCcorrupted


BBC iPlayer Protests

,----[ Quote ]
| Who are the people responsible for creating this mess?
|
|     * Mark Thompson, BBC director general (DG)
|     * Erik Huggers, group controller at BBC Future Media & Technology
|     * Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology
|
| Right now, there is very considerable concern within the BBC that the actions
| of the Director General and his team are sending the corporation in the wrong
| direction. The BBC has been embroiled in a number of recent controversies,
| all linked back to the DG's leadership.  
`----

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/iPlayerProtest


Why Linux Users Should Be Furious At BBC

,----[ Quote ]
| Recently the BBC had a bit of a wake up call regarding numbers and how many
| Linux users were really out there. Why does any of this matter? It has to do
| with something the BBC provides called the iPlayer. Seriously, relying on
| ActiveX is so "1990's" that it's painful, and as luck would have it, the
| Linux users who wish to use this BBC player made sure that the BBC knew that
| they were making the sought after content inaccessible to those people using
| Linux.      
|
| No iPlayer for Linux Users, But There Will Be An Alternative. Based on what I
| have been able to gather thus far, it looks like we will see an Adobe Flash
| option coming out soon. Then again, who really cares? Seriously, if the BBC
| is this foolish to ignore how much Linux growth is taking place both in the
| UK as well as the surrounding countries, then maybe people ought to be
| looking elsewhere? Is it because this is indeed, the BBC? So there is the
| belief that this is the people's media? Up until now, I enjoyed much of what
| the BBC had to offer, but this entire thing is enough to have pushed me away.      
`----

http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2731...emid=44


Beeb slammed for 'fawning' to Bill Gates

,----[ Quote ]
| BBC viewers have flooded the corporation with complaints over how it
| covered the launch of Microsoft Vista earlier this week.
|
| In one cringingly servile interview worthy of Uriah Heep, the
| Beeb's news presenter Hugh Edwards even thanked Gates at the
| end of it, presumably in appreciation at being allowed to give
| the Vole vast coverage for free.
|
| In other TV news items presenters excitedly explained how Vistac
| ould be obtained and installed - details courtesy of the BBC's
| website.
|
| But British viewers, currently forced to pay a £131.50 licence
| fee to maintain the BBC's "impartiality", were less than impressed.
|
| Scores got in touch to complain that so much was Auntie up Bill's
| bum that you could barely see her corset.
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411


http://slated.org/bbc_microsoft_bias


BBC: Death by a thousand top-slices

,----[ Quoet ]
| So it looks like the end of the unique, state-centric model for funding the
| BBC. An incoming Conservative administration is unlikely to be more
| sympathetic to the BBC, with its stifling bureucracy and monopoly control
| over a compulsory tax.  
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/bbc_top_slicing/

Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups DeleteThis @schestowitz.com> espoused:
> Steve Jobs rescues freetards from BBC iPlayer wilderness (for now)
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| iPhone streams start DRM-free download party
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| The BBC says an official Mac download client will be available this year, and
>| a Linux one "within two years".
> `----
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/
>
> They said it would be ready in 2008, so they lied again. They also lied about
> DRM being required, among many other lies. Microsoft must have passed them the
> Big Lie handbook on copyrights and DRM -- the same book used to fool
> politicians who blindly give a nod to DMCA, i.e. 'make FOSS illegal'.
>

Microsoft have *never* had any intention of providing a linux client.
It doesn't matter how many £100s of millions of our cash Ashley shovels
into the trouser pockets in Redmond, Microsoft will *not* produce a
good, working, iPlayer client for Linux. It would be commercial suicide
for themselves - why would they do it?

You'd have to be fairly dumb not to spot that, Ashley, eh?

--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |