Re: Nitro API
You're assuming that they are enabling an API key for WIDER distribution of the content - they aren't! Or rather, their RIGHTS HODLERS don't want to. Remember - this is not the same BBC that used to produce most of it's own content; the production companies are profit-centric operators, and, as with anyone that creates anything, they want to limit and charge for access. The Beeb is currently a leaky-bucket with more holes than they can count and they don't even own the buckets. They have an interesting balance to hit: - Consumers who want everything for free now on every platform. - Content owners who want to sell everything to the consumers everytime they watch/listen and can hold the Beeb to ransom. - A Charter than demands open-access - Almost none of their own infrastructure; totally reliant on Akamai, Limelight, etc. The WHOLE reason why the kind of catch-up TV and radio that we have in Europe doesn't really exist in the US other than in very tightly-controlled systems such as Netflix is because few of the content producers are convinced that THEIR IPR can be managed sufficiently. Auntie may have said MANY things - such as "we want global iPlayer" - but it may not be in their power to DELIVER that From: get_iplayer on behalf of David Cantrell Sent: 03 June 2015 08:10 To: get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org Subject: Re: Nitro API On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 03:02:23PM +, David Lake wrote: > The idea of an API key is fine - the fact that Beeb has limited it to > "commercial operators" and "BBC Employees only" is not. They've said that they're going to open it up to the public, and we have no reason to doubt that. -- David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice Erudite is when you make a classical allusion to a feather. Kinky is when you use the whole chicken. ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: Nitro API
Hello You are assuming that anyone associated with get_iplayer will be granted access to the Nitro API. I doubt that the BBC will grant anyone associated with get_iplayer access to the Nitro API. Sent from my iPad terry l. ridder ><> > On Jun 3, 2015, at 9:08, Kevin Lynch wrote: > > I know there is a certain amount of negativity about the Nitro API, > but I had to use an API to get the ability to automatically upload to > my dropbox from a shell script on my unix machine. > https://github.com/andreafabrizi/Dropbox-Uploader is the tool, the > process was straightforward and simple - the first run wizard prompted > me to go to a dropbox url and provide my email address, and receive a > couple of keys. > Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API > could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the > implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly > > Kevin > > ___ > get_iplayer mailing list > get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: Nitro API
On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 03:02:23PM +, David Lake wrote: > The idea of an API key is fine - the fact that Beeb has limited it to > "commercial operators" and "BBC Employees only" is not. They've said that they're going to open it up to the public, and we have no reason to doubt that. -- David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice Erudite is when you make a classical allusion to a feather. Kinky is when you use the whole chicken. ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: [Get-iPlayer] Re: Nitro API
On 03/06/15 15:42, Jon Davies wrote: > On 3 June 2015 at 15:08, Kevin Lynch wrote: >> Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API >> could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the >> implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly > > The nature of the licensing for Nitro probably makes it unsuitable - > you need an API key to gain access, and so either that API key would > be published in the get-iplayer source, and probably abused and then > disabled, or we'd have to build some server infrastructure between > get-iplayer and Nitro (the intended approach) - which I can't see > being viable. I wouldn't rule out a centralised server approach, if that proved to be the best model (and permitted by the licence). For example, the UK Tivo community contained members willing to fund a centralised server (two, actually), phone lines and other resources. In that case, many in the community would have been happy to pay for the service but the licence on the source code we were using did not allow it to be used in a chargeable service. That arrangement has been going for a while now and none of the funders have made any noises about pulling out yet -- many thanks to them for their continued support, of course! By all means consider the alternatives first, but a centralised server might be possible if it became necessary. Graham ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: Nitro API
The idea of an API key is fine - the fact that Beeb has limited it to "commercial operators" and "BBC Employees only" is not. I can freely and openly get an API key for a myriad of other services just by signing up; it is used as a method for opening up access. Beeb are using it as a method of closing-down/controlling access. I DO understand why - the Beeb have just been through a bruising experience with the US media and their deep/selfish pockets. Although no-one will publicly say this, Global iPlayer failed because they were unable to launch in their target market which was the US, because the US networks were concerned about competition from Auntie.I suspect that Nitro was an attempt to control IPR - something US companies are obsessed with. So in the case of an open-API to, say Google, you have to ask who benefits more - you or Google ? The answer is obviously Google as they attract a lot more data that they can then sell-on.Not the case here. So we're tied-up with rights-holders who are protecting their patch and Beeb caught-in-the-middle. It's a nasty, commercial media landscape. From: get_iplayer on behalf of David Cantrell Sent: 03 June 2015 07:51 To: get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org Subject: Re: Nitro API On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 03:42:02PM +0100, Jon Davies wrote: > On 3 June 2015 at 15:08, Kevin Lynch wrote: > > Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API > > could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the > > implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly > The nature of the licensing for Nitro probably makes it unsuitable - > you need an API key to gain access, and so either that API key would > be published in the get-iplayer source, and probably abused and then > disabled, or we'd have to build some server infrastructure between > get-iplayer and Nitro (the intended approach) - which I can't see > being viable. Or, as is a *very* common model for stuff like this, users would have to get their own API keys. -- David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house. -- Robert A Heinlein ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: Nitro API
On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 03:42:02PM +0100, Jon Davies wrote: > On 3 June 2015 at 15:08, Kevin Lynch wrote: > > Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API > > could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the > > implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly > The nature of the licensing for Nitro probably makes it unsuitable - > you need an API key to gain access, and so either that API key would > be published in the get-iplayer source, and probably abused and then > disabled, or we'd have to build some server infrastructure between > get-iplayer and Nitro (the intended approach) - which I can't see > being viable. Or, as is a *very* common model for stuff like this, users would have to get their own API keys. -- David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house. -- Robert A Heinlein ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Re: Nitro API
On 3 June 2015 at 15:08, Kevin Lynch wrote: > Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API > could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the > implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly The nature of the licensing for Nitro probably makes it unsuitable - you need an API key to gain access, and so either that API key would be published in the get-iplayer source, and probably abused and then disabled, or we'd have to build some server infrastructure between get-iplayer and Nitro (the intended approach) - which I can't see being viable. But the nitro data seems to be appearing at bbc.co.uk/programmes, which describes itself as "a permanent rolling record of everything on BBC Television and Radio". Most urls there can be pulled with .xml or .json suffixes. e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres/childrens/player/episodes.xml yields a list of all (tv) episodes currently available on iplayer in the "Children's" genre. I looked briefly at walking the genre tree (for radio in particular) and it looks like a viable way of getting some reasonably good metadata in a way that would remove the need to hard-code either tv/radio channels or genres. I just keep failing to find time to do enough to build a working prototype. (I've had a proof of concept working, but never had time to build the rest of the stuff to offer a patch for get-iplayer.) I think, but I'm not entirely sure, that it would be possible to use the /programmes feeds to build the indexes, and then use the existing remainder of get-iplayer to download the actual programmes, and walking the genre tree would make it straightforward to determine the category of programmes and hence re-enable searching for radio programmes by category. Jon ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
Nitro API
I know there is a certain amount of negativity about the Nitro API, but I had to use an API to get the ability to automatically upload to my dropbox from a shell script on my unix machine. https://github.com/andreafabrizi/Dropbox-Uploader is the tool, the process was straightforward and simple - the first run wizard prompted me to go to a dropbox url and provide my email address, and receive a couple of keys. Looking at it in glass half full way maybe the use of the nitro API could be something that's easily incorporated into get_iplayer if the implementation of the API is get_iplayer friendly Kevin ___ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
