On 26-Jan-2010, at 17:20, Brian Butterworth wrote: > It should be noted that the content management approach implemented for > Freeview HD will frequently enable far more extensive copying and > distribution of broadcast content than is likely to be considered acceptable > to the majority of rights-holders or is legitimate under current UK law.
That’s a slightly dubious interpretation (well, apart from the “considered acceptable to the majority of rights-holders”). Time-shifting (which is only permitted for HD content under a relatively narrow set of circumstances, including you having purchased the “right” kit) is specifically “not an offence”. While there aren’t specific exemptions written into law allowing for space-shifting, its practice is so widespread for other media that it would be impossible to enforce now without there being massive backlash from both consumers and CE manufacturers alike: to do so would outlaw ripping of [non-DRM’d] CDs, for a start, and theoretically mean you’d have to purchase a separate copy of each media item for each device you wanted it on, even if you never consumed them simultaneously (e.g., one copy for your laptop, one for your iPod…). Given the above, and Ofcom’s wording, it still doesn’t open things up any (§A.2.3); according to commonplace and to date uncontested practice, on the other hand, it’s far more restrictive, and it certainly doesn't give anybody any *rights* to distribute. Of course, all of that’s aside from the things unrelated to the content itself, such as the licensing regime and non-disclosure terms attached to it all. One thing I have noticed about the official position is that it always talks about what the system would _permit_ you to do in glowing terms and skims over what it prevents you from doing. The reality is, we’re permitted (insofar as the hardware and broadcast chain is concerned) to do all of those things if the BBC does nothing at all. I noted with interest the publications which repeated Graham Plumb’s list of things we’d [still] be able to do if it went ahead. M. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
