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BBC Episodes Legally Available Via Peer To Peer
Kript writes "According to the BBC they are going to make a number of their shows available on the Azureus network. A number of old favorites will be available such as Red Dwarf, Doctor Who and even Little Britain."
I have not RTFA. I'm wondering if Warner Home Video will lay the hammer down on me if I want to watch Red Dwarf in this manner...being in the U.S. and Warner Home Video being the U.S. distributor of many BBC programs.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
It won't be available for free on Azureus, it will be a DRM-infested pay-download on Azureus' pay service, Zudeo, and they haven't even decided what they're charging.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Just how hard is it to make anything available on P2P. It just has to be digital, interesting, and you promise not to sue for distributing it. Even big companies can usually manage this much.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
But this is not what they promised to do. As a British Licensefee payer I expect them to open up their content on UK filesharing networks, as they promised. Offering DRM'd content to overseas markets is not part of their charter. Making money should be a secondary concern to their primary purpose - delivering good tv to a British audience.
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
Article implies there might be a charge for these downloads (I'm guessing an open P2P but you need to buy a key to watch it). That would suck..
The movies will be crippled with DRM, according to the article. Also they won't be free, though TFA doesn't say anything explicitly about cost except "No pricing structure for the BBC content on Zudeo has been revealed".
I already have all Red Dwarf seasons on DVD, not that expensive and more than worth it :)
;)
But that's only my opinion.
Smeghead
This is the sig that says NI (again)
"I tell you one thing. I've been to a parallel universe, I've seen time running backwards, I've played pool with planets, and I've given birth to twins, but I never thought in my entire life I'd taste an edible Pot Noodle."
- Lister, Demons and Angels
I don't have a TV license. I regularly get threatening letters from the collections agency asking me to turn myself in for my heinous crime.
/tinfoilhat
They got so bad at one point that I actually wrote to them refusing to partake in any further correspondence until they sent me a civil letter. They wrote back - with a threat about how large the fine will be when they haul me in.
The fun part? I don't have a television. But I'm not telling them that until they ask politely. Yes, it's probably stupid and it's certainly obstinate but I refuse to be intimidated.
Now, of course, with them making a move like this I actually feel like I might *want* to give them money. It's a pretty cool thing to do and I'm proud of the BBC for being forward looking and generally a great service. So that's what this is all about folks. They are just trying to shame me into paying up. The worked out what my buttons were and pushed them. As soon as I hand over the cash, the whole thing will go away. It's a freaking trap I tell you.
Fortunately for all of you I'm holding out for them to switch to ogg for their radio streams before I buy a TV license. You should be safe to enjoy this content for another couple of decades. My present to all of you!
Beep beep.
I hope they make Balls of Steel available. That has to be the funniest show I've seen in months. The Bunny Boiler, Annoying Devil, Big Gay Folllwing and Alex's games are hilarious. Check YouTube out if you haven't seen the show yet.
Well I was all set to say YIPPI till I read it will be laden with DRM snot. NO thanks shit heads.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
Hmm, there seem to be a large absence of video recorders in Britain. If someone wants to make a killing, they should convert VCR's and Tivo's to PAL format. The market is ripe!
Compu-a says........yes?
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
This would be the only way to actually deal with torrents. They're here, and they're here to stay. If they crack down on torrent sites, like they try now, something new will come into existance, if nothing else, people will post torrent hashes on usenet. It's not like you could technically stop the distribution of content.
The only way to really deal with it is to give it some leeway while trying to make some revenue, somehow, out of it all. The fact that those files will be tacked down with DRM will surely keep this from flying, but generally the idea is a good one. It could've been done with a "members only" torrent tracker (where you gotta pay the BBC to become a member), with the torrent info only available on their tracker.
THEN it is possible to crack down on sites offering that torrent, too, because the torrent hash itself is owned by the BBC, not by someone who just "allows" others to use it. It's their 'content', so to speak.
Yes, that could've been a success. Devaluating it by adding enough DRM to weigh it down certainly doesn't help it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yeah, that occurred to me as well -- in addition, going through iTunes would make it easy to allow the content free to viewers in the UK. (That is, with UK billing addresses)
The price point for iTunes is rather high, though. I can't see myself paying $2 for an episode of Red Dwarf, even though it's my favorite of the ones mentioned. Perhaps Azureus is offering a more reasonable price plan?
People here on Slashdot in various countries make a connection with people in countries where services are offered. For example, I live in the U.S. I've quite like to see the programs from Channel 4 that they have available online. But that's currently U.K. only and is not likely to change. (I WANT to see Green Wing's Xmas Special) So, if someone in the U.K. is willing, we can establish private VPN connections between our machines and route specific traffic overseas via the VPN. Then it would be as if I was in the U.K. and the other person was in the U.S. for various services they may want to access here. Simple.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
"The titles will be protected by digital rights management software to prevent the programmes being traded illegally on the internet."
Has anyone found a way to leave feedback with either Azureus/Zudeo or the correct BBC division over this deal? In addition to not buying their product, I'd love to let either company know that the DRM is the only thing preventing me from throwing money at them, which is true. I would have liked to do the same for the equally flawed Amazon Unbox service, but never found a way to. In addition to weak sales, hopefully enough anti-DRM feedback would help get the point across.
iTunes movies are DRM crippled, but I still found season 2 of LOST to be worth the paltry $2.00 per episode fee when I got behind on the show and wanted to catch up. I'd like it if Apple would allow me to at least burn the episodes to a DVD so I could watch them on my DVD player, but alas I can't. The solution is simply to hook my PC up to the TV, which is a fairly simple process.
If this service let's me download episodes of Red Dwarf for a similar or a smaller fee... I would be intrigued. I wouldn't really care if they have DRM or not, but it'd be nice to at least be able to burn a DVD for myself.
It all depends on the pricing model, whether or not it'll be worth it to download the episodes, or just go out and buy the DVDs.
Either way, more legal content available is a good thing.
OK, my first thought here was "damn, one of them guys who can't differentiate between protocols and client applications". But no, turns out they were talking about Zureo (http://www.zudeo.com/), a separate app/business model which may yet require payment for their service.
/. crew to answer:
So, there's two questions out for the
1) Was this move anticipated when the Azureus app was first released? I.e. gather a following and then move on with the name?
2) How much is a "community name" like Azureus worth these days, appearing on the news?
-DaPhil
I hope series are going to be put together into reasonably priced packages. Sometimes it seems like the BBC has one cash generating property, and they are going to milk it for all it is worth.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
From TFA: "The titles will be protected by digital rights management software to prevent the programmes being traded illegally on the internet."
Overlooking the fact that they spelled "programs" incorrectly (this is, after all, for the US market), media outlets still don't "get it" that DRM is a non-starter with many consumers.
Actually, they don't make it sound like Azereus made BitTorrent. Notice they say "for developing a BitTorrent client", not "for developing the BitTorrent client." The latter case does imply that Azereus made it.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
I think I found the thrust of your post (it was a bit like finding the pony). Basically, the problem is that the windows BT client's wind up getting sold off because most people use windows? And the linux ones never "have this problem" because they're basically worthless to anyone with money to invest? Okay, I'm agreeing with you 100%. But then you get to the part where you said this would be fixed if people would just stop using Windows, you lost me. Wouldn't a lot of people switching to linux actually make it attractive for these kinds of buyouts? Also, I'm not sure what Hitler had to do with this...
The new problem is how much software can I possibly install to watch content? I happen to use iTunes so that I can watch content on my Mac and PC. I already find it inconvenient that I can not watch content in an open source operating system. Now I'm supposed to add additional bloat to my Windows install for Amazon's service, iTunes, this Azerus pay service, along with any other vendor entering the ring. I usually watch DVDs on my PC anyway so these download services are great in one sense. I no longer have to go to the store or buy and wait. (well download time) I don't have a problem with DRM that protects content in itself, but I do have a problem with the lack of versatility in devices and operating systems which can PLAY this content.
I suppose we should just accept that not everyone likes iTunes. If you don't like windows or own a Mac, it would be rather inconvenient. Its one of the many hurdles I face with MidnightBSD and I'm sure the Linux community feels the same way.
Still it is nice they are distributing content.
What we really need are some new laws that force companies to make their content available on multiple services so that there isn't a monopoly. This would also have the benefit of possibly putting it into different DRM formats which might be more acceptable to some. Imagine if only walmart sold movies. That's what we get now. Amazon sells star trek episodes, but Apple does not. Apple has some exclusive content on iTunes that amazon does not have. (unbox) More competition *could* keep content prices low.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
I know, I know, you were mostly joking about how people in the UK don't seem to be able to record things.
But I did want to mention that they do have TiVo in the UK.
I can't say that I agree with you. I'm not sure the precise percentages, so perhaps 99% is crap, however there are many US produced TV shows that are far superior to any produced in other countries.
Some examples out of many: My Name is Earl, Boston Legal, The West Wing, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Studio 60, Futurama, Veronica Mars, Firefly (may it rest in peace), Northern Exposure, Hill Street Blues, The Sopranos, St Elsewhere (barring the finale), M*A*S*H, Star Trek (well most franchises), Buffy, Babylon 5.... etc etc etc etc. One hour TV drama in the US is as tough as filmmaking gets - no other country can deliver that quality in that timeline season over season.
The BBC has a handful of shows since the beginning of time that come close to some of these. It's inconceivable that the BBC could ever fund a show to the point that delivered the innovation and quality of the opening titles tracking shot to Hill Street Blues. I was working as a cameraman at the time that show debuted and my colleagues and I talked of little else the next day, that shot was groundbreaking. Similarly, the editing in Boston Legal, pure genius, nothing like it anywhere. Schlamme's direction on the West Wing cast drive and energy into verbose scripts. Don't even get me started on Joss Whedon, and I could go on.
US TV is the best funded, has the best writers, the best performers, the best directors and the best crew. It's just the system for the most part that sucks, as Firefly proves.
Compare if you will the two versions of "The Office". Same writer, but the US version has vastly superior production values and much better performers and much better direction. It's not simply that Gervais had the opportunity to revisit some of the writing and polish it.
I'm British by the way, not American.
I went to the Azureus networks download site: http://www.zudeo.com/
The banner says Code name: ZUDEO powered by Azureus 3.0
Copyright 2006 Azureus Inc
I don't know if this is from the same people that brought us the open source Azureus Client, but it looks like it may be.
First utorrent, now Azureus, What next.
Same writer? The US pilot was taken from the UK version (which had two writers, not one, as I'm sure you knew), and Gervais/Merchant wrote another episode, but apart from that, the US version of The Office has been written by the US team (with some oversight by Gervais/Merchant). Production values on a programme like this are fairly irrelevant - it's supposed to be a fly on the wall documentary, with deliberately shaky/on the fly camera-work, which both versions manage to portray without getting in the way. As for much better performers, I'd also disagree - both ensemble casts are very good in each programme.
I'm British, and I like the UK version of The Office, but I also like the US version, which surprised me greatly as the very concept seemed doomed from the start, but they really pulled it off. I don't view one as inherently better than the other. The US episodes don't sustain the high-octane cringeworthy pain that the UK episodes did, but on the other hand, there are more episodes of the US version, and I'm not sure we could take 30+ episodes of the sort of pain and embarrassment that Gervais and Merchant produced.
I read it, and thought wow! Then noticed the DRM bit, got a bit disappointed. Why can't we have a emusic for movies ?
Does the license fee apply to monitors as well as TVs? You could just get a monitor (no tuner circuit, thus no capability of watching BBC) and use that to watch the DVDs.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
as not enough people use them, for anybody to even offer the makers a token ammount of money for commercializing them.
So I suspect none of them will ever go 'to the dark side'
taking out your backups, exactly why can't you download the same thing again merely incurring Apple's bandwidth fees?
Possibly your bored of the documentary, why shouldn't you be allowed to sell it, as you would a DVD?
You decide iTunes and your ipod are rubbish and you want to change to another platform - why do you have to rebuy it all again (likewise VHS->DVD)?
and have no problem paying my license fee, purely on the basis of what it costs me and what I get.(although I dislike the fact I'm compelled to pay it merely for owning equipment capable of receiving the signal)
Maybe partnering with Zudeo (or whoever) the BBC should roll the license fee out worldwide - $10 a month and you get access to their entire live and archived output. For a start it would reduce my license fee.
So, will we be getting a discount by uploading to other clients? After all, it's my upstream bandwidth.
If not, what's to stop me from blocking the outbound connections or capping them at 1 byte/sec?
Hopefully (in a future "wave") we'll finally have episodes of Blake's 7 legally available in the states (instead of either bootlegging them or getting them in a PAL VHS tape or Region 2 DVD from the UK).
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
I think it would be worth mentioning that this is not a) available worldwide, and b) free (beer or speech).
Nothing to see here, move on.
Hmmm....
After seeing this article, I checked out the Zudeo program. Seemed to me to be a decent program, and if I can get Red Dwarf, even if I have to pay something for it, then I am all for it. I downloaded the program, ran it, and watched a couple short films.
Oh yeah... I'm running Mac OS 10.4.8, and the movies openend up in Quicktime.
I am really sorry if you can't run it on the OS of your choice, but you shouldn't just jump to the conclusion that it is tied directly to MS, and therefore evil.
Skeptical Limericks
Also: "...a BitTorrent client, or program..." Now this is more like the oversimplification thing, but that's just plain stupid. Was that really a neccessary clarification to make? I mean, I'm not saying that everyone out there would understand what a client is, but defining it as a program just seems unneccessary.
The vast majority of people have no idea that a "client" is something you can have on a computer. Try talking to some real people some time.
At the moment, there are major attempts to define P2P as ipso facto piracy in many countries, the US included. It will also seriously impact attempts by some US companies to cripple access to British programs in the US. As crippled and as limited as this is, I fully expect major lawsuits to follow. If the older, unprofitable material was made for free, the lawyers would be sending Polonium, not cease-and-desists.
I fully expect the BBC to migrate towards making all material below the margin of being worth selling available for free for everyone. At this time, however, there are enough media outlets abusing anti-competitive laws to guarantee their own little fiefdoms and monopolies that the BBC is probably more concerned with not getting blasted out of existence by intellectual property tyrants than it is with meeting what is likely their ultimate objective.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
You must have missed the first adjective in the phrase current American television.
The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, the Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica, Good Eats...
These are just some that I like. Others could probably name a dozen more of comparable quality. Granted, Deadwood and the Sopranos will be off the air soon. Also granted, the cable subscription required to obtain these legally from basic cable + premium cable (HBO) costs at least 6 times the BBC license fee.
Sadly, the closest US-equivalent to the BBC news is... BBC news. It's why we're going to hell in a handbasket. Even NPR doesn't compare. It doesn't do much for the credibility of a news organization when they have to begin and end each broadcast with an advertisement from their underwriters in agribusiness, defense contracting, and charitable trusts managed by the heirs of deceased robber barons.
They said 'going to' nearly a year ago.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There are many US produced TV shows that are far superior to any produced in other countries
Veronica Mars and Northern Exposure, to pick a couple, are that much better than The Singing Detective, Fawlty Towers or Absolute Power? No accounting for taste, obviously.
deus does not exist but if he does
it took me just a few minutes of guesswork to avoid having to use the zudeo software at all; I didn't install it. When you click to download, it saves a .jnlp file which is just an XML wrapper around a URL containing a torrent, then download the torrent and open it with a torrent downloader (shareaza will do nicely). It will save a file called .hdmov, which you just rename so it will open with Quicktime.
Thus who needs zudeo's spyware?
"now they've sold it to be shown on a different channel which we have to pay to receive. Bastards."
ok, so you got to see it a few times for free (subject to licence fee) and now the BBC is trying to sell it to the rest of the world and commercial networks so they can bring in more cash to fund programming.
Would you rather they left it in a basement and just charged more for the licence fee?
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
Windows only? I thought so too when I visited the site at work.
0 .0_linux.tar.bz2
I got home and went to the site in Linux, and was given a link to download the Linux client. Maybe your user-agent is screwed up.
Here it is if you don't believe me: http://torrents.aelitis.com:88/files/Azureus_2.5.
A huge number of them are already available. Google is your friend.
Makes it sound like bittorrent is currently illegitimate. But they can tell she has a heart of gold. Surely she can be reformed. Just like Miss USA.
Loose lips lose spit.
Indeed, most those references are old, and the replies to yours list cable shows, such as Galactica, Deadwood, and others.
I wish I could say I knew of a non-crap show, but I really don't. Even shows I try to catch once in a while are crap. Then again, TV has largely been crap since TV came to be. Even Galactica, my current favorite, is crap. I mean, c'mon, they didn't have any failsafes built into their 'droids? And the only way to build a networked computer system is to leave it so open that any virus broadcast over radio will work? C'mon.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
Wasn't Rome co-produced by the BBC and HBO?
To err is human, to arr is pirate.
I'm not sure we could take 30+ episodes of the sort of pain and embarrassment that Gervais and Merchant produced
We have though (in effect) if you include "Extras" - which was as far as I could see took the cringeworthy bits of The Office and relocated them, leaving behind the counterpoints (Tim/Dawn, etc) that meant that The Office was enjoyable whereas I gave up on Extras after episode 1.
Looks like a shill got mod points today...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
I believe so. And Battlestar Galactica was a coproduction with SkyOne (?) But it's first run is in the US (Or co-first-run, with the UK). So it counts. It's not like it's 10-year-old episodes of "Are You Being Served" or something.