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.
I’m not shocked at all.
So easy. Soooooo easy.
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Soo easy to detect Mafiasoft.
this is sickening.
This should end well.
This is GREAT! Seriously.
When the full scope of the fallout hits, who will come out looking bad and who will look good?
Sounds like M$ won’t be the one shining.
Microsoft’s behaviour drags the good name of scumbags thru the mud.
Here is where to voice your sentiments:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/contactus/fair_trading.shtml
go get ’em…
i bet they end up using silverlight or whatever its called.
Keep up the good work Microsoft. We’re all pullin’ for ya.
Here’s the response to my complaint to the BBC Trust re. the ‘iPlayer’ :
Dear Mr Hone
Thank you for your e-mail which was forwarded to this department for reply.
I understand you are unhappy that iPlayer is not yet available to use with Mac.
At Present, BBC iPlayer is only supporting users running Windows XP. The reasoning for this is that it has always been the policy of the BBC to start with the platform that reaches the most number of people and then roll out services from there. I can confirm that we aim to offer support for Windows Vista as well as Mac OS and Linux at a future date.
Currently we’re not able to make programmes available for download to Apple Macintosh computers.
This is because the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system we use to protect against illegal downloading and copying, which we’ve agreed with the rights holders, does not work with Apple computers.
Apple has its own rights management system which is not available for providers like the BBC to use. We regret this inconvenience and are working to find a way to include Apple computers in the future.
The BBC is committed to platform neutrality and is subject to a review on this every six months by the BBC Trust.
Please be advised that we are launching a streaming version of BBC iPlayer this winter, which will be universally accessible.
I would like to assure you that we have registered your comments on our audience log. This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.
Thank you once again for taking the trouble to contact us.
Regards
Richard Carey
BBC Information
Your “Auntie” has been a spread eagle slut for quite some time. Wake up and smell the cheap perfume.
The title of this article causes me to say, Duh…
The BBC is shit.
Apple is at fault for not providing a DRM for Quicktime, it’s as simple as that.
Understandably there is some content that requires protection. Apple made DRM for iTunes to sell iPods. Why not a DRM for Quicktime?
Better than having to download some Microsoft malware pron trojan into Mac OS X itself using a Admin Password.
LORD KNOWS WHAT THAT M$ CODE IS DOING TO OUR PRECIOUS SECURE COMPUTERS!
So us Mac users are shut out of BBC content because there is no DRM for Quicktime.
STUPID APPLE!!
The EU should make M$ produce Mac and Linux versions of their Media Player. At least then anyone can access the copy-protected content.
I wonder how Apple managed to have iTunes running on a PC for several years now and M$ with all their resources have not reciprocated.
Hold on..
As much as I dislike the incapabilities of MS products, the BBC had no choice really.
Name one other off-the-shelf, mature, good quality, supported, streaming and DRM technology, for sale by licence from a company that’s prepared to throw shit-loads of money and resource to get it to work, albeit only on Win XP.
Thought so.
The article is worth the read,
1 The BBC is looking to make big cuts but seems to find the money to pay M$ £130 million for the crappy iPlayer.
2. Calling an M$ based soln ianything is a bloody cheek.
3. It is M$ DRM to its core.
4. The Beeb is a government organisation -buying into a monopoly solution is against EU law.
5. The whole of UK government is stuffed with M$ solutions
The BBC is not shit. However it has a problem caused by people like Rupert Murdoch who are quite happy to use their “old media” power to lobby for the BBC to be financially emasculated so that Murdoch’s Sky and his newspapers can act as a single “voice of truth” for the British people.
That emasculation has resulted in a BBC that is now top-heavy with managers who will jump through any hoops to be seen to save money. I’d guess that Microsoft is providing Huggers (and any other members of the team) on a secondment deal that is distinctly non-commercial. It has also resulted in a dumbing-down of mainstream television and a lowering of standards that I personally find sickening – we are now faced with the best public-service broadcaster in the world reducing its commitment to production and factual programming in favour of homogeneous formulaic crap.
When the cultural history of the 20th and 21st century are written with the benefit of real hindsight, I hope that the Murdoch family is recognised for its contribution to assaulting the critical faculties of societies on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia. There are few people on whom I wish genuine harm – however Murdoch Sr. is on that list and I wait for his demise with genuine anticipation.
@MCCFR
Have you seen how many tv channels and radio stations the BBC has these days? I’d hardly call it emasculated. It needs to shrink and focus on what it’s supposed to be, a public service broadcaster. They have more staff and stations than they know what to do with. Instead of concentrating on quality they’ve tried to dominate with quantity. It’s nothing to do with Murdoch. Many small countries would love to have the BBC’s budget.
As a public service broadcaster it should of course make its online content available to all. I don’t think it’s good enough to say there’s no DRM solution for Macs so we’ll support them when we can. They should have either made their own DRM, waited for some to become available or commissioned someone to make it.
There are few people on whom I wish genuine harm – however Murdoch Sr. is on that list and I wait for his demise with genuine anticipation.
Couldn’t agree more. If ever there was a man guilty of rape and pillage of all things independent in the media it’s this antipodean dinosaur.
The BBC has zero excuse since there are options that are more open and less proprietary…
Project DReaM;
http://www.openmediacommons.org/
The sad excuse that Apple doesn’t provide a DRM solution for the BBC is just plain silly!
Why can’t the BBC make all their content available on iTunes, free in the UK store and for a price anywhere else?
What’s the problem.
It all started with BUSH-blair thing
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From the BBC e-mail quoted above by Ed Benet:-
“This is because the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system we use to protect against illegal downloading and copying, which we’ve agreed with the rights holders, does not work with Apple computers.”
Ed, could you reply to that and ask whether they put it to Microsoft to open their DRM to other platforms before commencing this project?
I think we already know the answer, but I’d like to see them say it anyway
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I get my Microsoft Office for free. Does that help?
MW = kept. That about sums it up.