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Filed under: Video, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Microsoft, Open Source, DLS Interviews, DLS Podcast, Podcasts

DLS Interview: Free Software Foundation's Peter Brown



As we mentioned on Monday, the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign against DRM paid the U.K. a visit yesterday with protests outside the BBC's London and Manchester locations against the use of Microsoft DRM technology in their highly debated iPlayer software.

The BBC iPlayer has been in development for a number of years now, costing the BBC public £130 million (nearly $260 million) to date. The use of Microsoft's DRM technology has been highly contentious, especially with the appointment of Erik Huggers (previously director of Microsoft's Windows Digital Media division whose technology the BBC now employs in their iPlayer software) as controller of the BBC's future media and technology group which is managing the iPlayer project.

The BBC is a publicly funded body, governed by the BBC Trust who protect, amongst other things, open access and independence form corporate influence. The BBC has been told to make the player platform independent, however Mac and Linux users are likely to be out in the cold for some time.

Download Squad decided to visit the protest and spoke to Peter Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, about the reasoning behind the protests and what the campaigns hopes for the future. We've made the interview available either as a text transcript after the break, or via the Download Squad podcast feed.

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Filed under: Video, Web services

BBC gets approval for "catch up TV"

BBC iPlayerThe BBC Trust has approved a proposed video-on-demand service for BBC viewers. The announcement follows a public test of the BBC's new iPlayer service.

So what the heck is an iPlayer? Basically it's a service that offers BBC viewers online access to every television episode that has run on the state-regulated network over the past week, commercial-free.

10,500 viewers and organizations offered comments during the test period. I'm guessing most of the comments were positive.

No word yet on when the service will roll out. The BBC press release says it "will be announced in due course," which sounds so much nicer than "it'll be ready when it's ready."

[via NewTeeVee]

Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Video, Web services

Guba lowers prices for online movies

guba online videosOnline digital video store Guba has dropped its prices drastically on rentals and movie purchases in an effort to test the demand and impact their company can have.

Gubas Video-On-Demand 24 hour rental will drop to $0.99 for new titles, previously $2.99, and Download-To-Own titles will be $9.99 for new releases, which seem very reasonable. Guba has a large library of free viewing movies and videos as well. This price move is aimed at moving in and stealing a larger chunk of traditional rental outlets' market shares, and going head first againstother providers like YouTube.

YouTube currently has a market stronghold in the video arena, and with the new studio partnerships they are currently working on, Guba has a lot of catching up to do.

[Via TechCrunch]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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