BBC Offers iPhone Version of iPlayer, Accessible to Linux Users Too

smallfries writes "After a long battle with Linux users in the UK, the BBC was forced into releasing a flash version of the iPlayer streaming service to fulfill their obligations to license-fee payers. After claiming that development of Linux and Mac versions of the iPlayer would take two years, Auntie Beeb has rushed to support the iPhone. iPhone users 'can be trusted' because their platform is locked down ... so the beeb opened a non-DRM hole in the iPlayer to support them. This was guarded by the extreme security of User Agent strings! Long story short, Linux and Mac users have made their own non-DRM, non-Microsoft platform from firebug and wget. UK users can now watch (and keep) their favorite BBC shows."

Re:Why did the iPhone 'force' the BBCs hand?

[abqaussie]

You'd have to guess that Apple cut a deal with the BBC to corner the market right? If the BBC are actually converting to MP4 there's some pretty explicit support for Quicktime and Apple visible there, so I would imagine some cash or other considerations changed hands. That the implementation opened a door for all Linux users is pretty funny though, I can't expect that will last.

Flash sucks.

[lancejjj]

I understand why Apple doesn't support Flash on the iPhone: Because Flash sucks. And I say that even knowing that you love it.

Yeah, it is a great software platform for your Webkinz and your ability to deliver those super-fancy web advertisements that everyone likes. It's also a cool platform for those awesome games, like the one where if you shoot a duck you'll be a winner of a fabulous prize. And the one where you have to choose the right urinal.

For me, believe it or not, I'm not into lousy web games. I don't like three (or more) animated ads on a web page. And I don't like my CPU chugging at 100% just because a crap web site wants to deliver a singing, dancing Flash-based ad to me.

So Apple: Good for you. I agree - Flash is merely a battery killer; a misused web technology that is much more often used for junk than for quality content. On a small-screen platform it would be unbearable. Adobe needs to address these issues before Flash gets ported to the iPhone.

I turned off Flash long ago - I'm surprised more people haven't done so.

Re:Nokia E65

[rrkap]

I didn't think I was in the iPhone's demographic until my wife got one. The good web browsing experience (which requires the big screen) as well as the nicely integrated e-mail and visual voice mail are on the verge of getting me to convert from my venerable razor in exactly the way her previous smartphone (a HTC Hermes for what it's worth) wasn't.

Re:Fortunately...

[catmistake]

Perhaps they'll re-host the content so the rest of the world can watch, too. (Why, exactly, is this all UK only?!!)

Re:Flash sucks.

[Maxwell]

I removed flash from my PC and laptop *after* getting an iPhone. I didn't realzie how annoying flash is until I got a taste of life without it...

Re:How long?

[smallfries]

The article summary is hopelessly inflammatory.

Thank you, I do try my best although Zonk has ruined it in a couple of places.

The basis of the BBC's argument has been (as you've stated) that platforms without DRM cannot be trusted. But the reason that this argument is false, and why it is now weakened in the light of their iPhone hole is that you're not worried about redistribution within the trusted enironment. The point is that once something has been stripped out of its DRM covering it can be freely passed around. The idea that Linux is less capable of supporting DRM than windows is a Red Herring. They are both equally capable when it comes to running snakeoil.

The "strong" DRM that the BBC relies on is in fact security through obscurity. The annoying features (such as downloads timing out and self-destructing) can be worked around easily. The "protection" that the BBC has for content distributed through the windows platform is illusionary. Plenty of people had already extracted the FLAC containers from the streaming service before, it was just more of a pain in he arse to do so.

The real point is that it can be done, there is no real protection (only obscurity) and publically stating that there are technical barriers to Mac and Linux support that would take 2 years is laughable. I don't know if you had a look at the three source pages (they're on the second page of the reg article), but the people that are doing this have an agenda. They pay a license fee and they want support. Being told that artificial barriers have been erected to separate them from what they've paid for will not go down well. And if the beeb wants to continue support for the iPhone then they'll need to keep punching holes in the DRM that will be found and exploited.

Lastly, I've already bitched a couple of times about Zonk's incompetence but seriously: The Apple Section? This was supposed to be under YRO as it is a story about DRM being circumvented.

BBC finally admitted it counted Linux users wrong

[buck19]

the number of UK Linux users, according to their own logs, exceeds some 50,000 to the one web page. Your statement that Linux is only in the 4-600 total number of UK users of Linux is flat out wrong and was promoted by the BBC to get out of legal requirements to provide players for Linux. Even BBC late last year admitted that their low Linux count was completely false.

BBC who is embracing digital rights management and a strong push by Labour to literally block people from the internet for life if they don't comply with this system. This makes the British government and BBC by far the most viciously anti open-source in general and pro police state surveillance of the Internet to say nothing of their constant video taping of all of London. Gives me the creeps and BBC is becoming less and less of a journalistic source of information and more of a mouth piece for the government. I dare say we can all ultimately live without BBC quite well.

Re:hooray....

[wplinge]

If anyone wants a rough idea of the reliability of that site, they only need to compare its page on the BBC to the one on Fox: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=4&x_outlet=15 [camera.org]. Can't say I was surprised

Re:How long?

[Ilgaz]

And how long will this stay?

Interesting is, it is open to UK IPs only so even while you are "cheating" "hacking" user agent and taking time to do it, you are trying to get the content you already paid for.

I still think whole iPlayer thing should be reason for a huge government investigation. If it was 2002-2003, it would be OK to put a windows media only thing as a service but if they did after OS X/iPhone/iPod video/mp4 compatible zillions of devices with _very tough_ DRM (if needed) built in, some "exclusive agreement" under the table is going on.

We all keep forgetting about J2ME too. Youtube already has a working J2ME player which runs all fine on my Nokia E65. It plays better than Desktop/Flash sometimes. http://www.youtube.com/yt_mobile_app [youtube.com] . BTW I invite those iPhone guys to see it to figure what is possible with that "ugly" Java Apple hiding from them.