15 May 2007

BBC iMPlayer ready to go (but internet is not international network)

Some weeks ago we exposed that the BBC was undergoing a Public Test Value to analyze the impact and suitability of their iMPlayer proposal.

Well, some days ago the BBC Trust Board has finally aproved the iMPlayer with some changes. I would say minor changes.

You can read the it here.

Two outsanding observations:

  1. the large participation of implied actors (consumers, industry, lobbies, etc.)
  2. the iPlayer will use Digital Rights Managment (DRM), although it will be under a neutrality plataform scheme, that is, they will not use a single type of DRM, as Apple used to do up to not long ago.

the iPlayer is intended to be "a
n application in development offering UK viewers the chance to catch up on TV and radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have been broadcast, using the internet to legally download programmes to their home computers. iMP uses peer to peer distribution technology (P2P) to legally distribute these programmes. Seven days after the programme transmission date the programme file expires (using Digital Rights Management - DRM - software) and users will no longer be able to watch it. DRM also prevents users emailing the files to other computer users or sharing it via disc." BBC

Of course, there is a doubt on what content will be available from abroad. Something is clashing and it is time to fix it. But who? WIPO? We will come back to that.

If you have been a iMPlayer trial tester, your opinion will be welcomed.

Here it is a good comment in the Guardian Technology Blog.

Previous post on iPlayer: iPlayer BBC on-demand service goes under Market Impact Assessment



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