Anti-DRM Activists Take On the BBC

[ Thanks to Chris
Fernandez for this link. ]

Binary Freedom has launched a new campaign called
FreeTheBBC, targeting the
BBC’s proposed DRM regime. The BBC plans to offer old content only
through Real or Windows Media DRM technology. DRM, or Digital
Restrictions Management, is technology that artificially limits
what users can do with media. Binary Freedom opposes the
BBC’s use of DRM for several reasons. The BBC is meant to serve the
public trust, but in using DRM they are instead supporting private
enterprise at the cost of the public’s rights. Users of free
software (like GNU/Linux) will be completely unable to use the DRM
media with free software. Everyone else will have their fair
dealing (U.K. right similar to fair use) rights eroded. For
instance, it will be impossible to extract a scene from an old show
for writing a review or even for personal study. Binary Freedom
believes that the BBC should instead be progressive, and join the
growing vanguard of companies that are supporting digital freedom
by providing media without DRM.

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