Groklaw’s Sean Daly has interviewed Mark Taylor, President of the UK Open Source Consortium, which brought to light some very interesting information about BBC’s “iPlayer.”
Q: Let’s talk about the iPlayer project. The initiative was widely criticized right from the start for excluding non-Microsoft computers and devices. What was your reaction when you first heard about it?
Mark Taylor: My first personal, emotional reaction was frankly, I was stunned… The perception of the BBC from childhood right up to adulthood is ‘Everybody’s Auntie’. And when you suddenly find your favorite Auntie who has been a part of your life and has always told the truth, when you suddenly find out that she’s telling lies, conning money out of people — these are all topical issues in the UK press at the moment — and then finally, if you imagine if you walked into a room and found your Auntie performing “favors” shall we say (laughter) with shady characters who are constantly in trouble with the law, you’d feel a little bit — kind of a bit — what’s going on here? When we started examining the issue and had a look into what was actually going on with the iPlayer project, we found that actually there’s a smoking gun leading straight to Microsoft.
Q: Now, when you say a smoking gun, what exactly do you mean?
Mark Taylor: Well, the — (laughter) — the thing is, the iPlayer is not what it claimed to be, it is built top-to-bottom on a Microsoft-only stack, the BBC management team who are responsible for the iPlayer are a checklist of senior employees from Microsoft who were involved with Windows Media. A gentleman called Erik Huggers who’s responsible for the iPlayer project in the BBC, his immediately previous job was director at Microsoft for Europe, Middle East & Africa responsible for Windows Media. He presided over the division of Windows Media when it was the subject of the European Commission’s antitrust case. He was the senior director responsible. He’s now shown up responsible for the iPlayer project.
Q: Now, when the BBC chose Microsoft, they must have known, I mean, how could they have made a choice that was so obviously discriminatory to other platforms?
Mark Taylor: Well, it’s an excellent question. One would assume that they would know that as well. Unfortunately, it’s not a question that we’ve found anyone who’s been able to answer so far. And we’ve done a trail from OFCOM to the BBC Trust, and we’re meeting up with the BBC management on the 24th, and we’re very curious to have that question answered. So as soon as we know, we will tell you.
More in the full interview here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Gandalf" for the heads up.]
As suspected. Mac users who are considering buying any Microsoft product, please think about this grubby project (and the fact that they had the unmitigated gall to call it the very-Apple-themed “iPlayer”) and all of Microsoft’s shady history before you give the scumbags any of your money.
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