The BBC has proposed an amendment to its license agreement with industry regulator Ofcom that will permit it to use copy protection on its high definition broadcasts meaning that much like with Freesat HD it will be impossible to record them.
Using the much maligned Digital Rights Management, the BBC hopes to encourage content producers to create programmes for its high definition platform without fear that the lucrative Blu-Ray aftermarket will be wiped out.
We’ve heard all that crap before.
When a new media type or distribution method comes out, media companies always push for DRM to be included but invariably it’s just a matter of time before the DRM is cracked or bypassed. iTunes had DRM for a good number of years despite Apple supremo Steve Jobs wanting rid of it, and only recently has it removed it from music files.
In my opinion DRM is a desperate attempt by media moguls to get some kind of control over the market. If anything, it is going to encourage people to seek DRM-free sources, be that the internet, Knock Off Nigel, or whomever. I remember when Sky first used Macrovision on their movie channels to stop you taping them and within a very short time indeed there was a box you could buy that effectively removed it.
If the platform is popular then people will make content for it; DRM or no DRM. DRM serves only to annoy the end user: it limits recordings to the actual box they were made on, so if you’ve got a sweet collection of old films you’ve taped and then your box breaks, you’re fucked unless you taped them in non-HD.
Ofcom has provisionally approved this application but it but has stipulated that the BBC must only supply high definition Electronic Programme Guides to boxes that support DRM.
Well I’ve only just got freeview recording without HD. For goodness sake I only want to be able to watch the occassional programme at a time convenient to me, not start a professional black market dodgy DVD business. There’s no way I’ll be upgrading unless I’m forced to. The money spent upgrading to freeview so far has been 4 freeview boxes for 3 sets (and that’s because the Philips one stopped working properly post the switchover but that was a replacement for one that failed under guarantee so 5 boxes but 3 paid for) plus a new recorder and multiple attempts to get the aerial right and safe (as I live in a very windy bit in winter). So doing this on the cheap I estimate I’ve binned one tv I’ve had since the mid or early 1980s with no scart, two freeview boxes) and spent about £750. And is it any better? Not really – just more stations with things on I don’t want to watch.