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BBC's Plan To Kick Open Source Out of UK TV

Posted by samzenpus on from the how-can-you-have-any-TV-if-you-don't-eat-your-meat? dept.

bluec writes "Generally speaking, the BBC isn't allowed to encrypt or restrict its broadcasts: the license fee payer pays for these broadcasts. But the BBC has tried to get around this, asking Ofcom for permission to encrypt the 'metadata' on its broadcasts – including the assistive information used by deaf and blind people and the 'tables' used by receivers to play back the video. As Ofcom gears up to a second consultation on the issue, there's one important question that the BBC must answer if the implications of this move are to be fully explored, namely: How can free/open source software co-exist with a plan to put DRM on broadcasts?"

4 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Dirac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    However, the BBC would like to collaborate with the Open Source community, academics and others to produce an Open Codec

  2. The interesting question ... by FrankDerKte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Although this is /. and people are more interested in technical questions, for me the really interesting question is: How can they encrypt the "metadata" on broadcasts – including the assistive information used by deaf and blind people ?

    I mean, this basically means all of the broadcast can be copied and used in any way imaginable except for the part of the broadcast which is important to the handicapped ? This sounds sort of immoral to me.

  3. Re:Strange question by Virak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't think you quite understand. The only thing DRM has is security by obscurity. When you freely hand out both the ciphertext *and* the key to whoever asks, you can't have anything else. And if it's open source, you don't get even that. So no, you're not going to see any open source DRM systems any time soon.

  4. Re:Strange question by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    you're not going to see any open source DRM systems any time soon.

    While I can't be clear on their efficacy, it would be incorrect to say there are no DRM systems available.

    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=open+source+drm+solutions