2008/8/8 Christopher Lees <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Just a heads-up in case you didn't see the memo from
> DefectiveByDesign.org.
>
> The ABC Shop Online now has a section where you can buy DRM'ed downloads
> of their shows. Apart from the ethical considerations with DRM, the
> software relies on Silverlight and as such you can't even look at
> previews on Linux. Mac users can look at the previews but can't buy
> downloads.
>
> I'm currently writing to the ABC to complain, if you feel strongly about
> this you could write to them too.
>
> The address is www.abc.net.au.
Oh it gets worse...
See this from todays www.crikey.com.au subscription:
Dear Sole Subscriber,
Crikey editor Jonathan Green (that's me) received a letter yesterday from
the Legal Services department of the ABC. It was marked not for publication,
but we'll summarise. It made a pair of demands. First that we remove from
Crikey's YouTube account a series of video clips sourced from ABC footage
that showed environment minister Penny Wong's 16 July address to the
National Press Club introducing the Government's Green Paper on the mooted
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (a speech as dull and long-winded as that
sentence). Second, the senior ABC lawyer also demanded that we sign a
written undertaking that in future we desist from filching the ABC's
"intellectual property".
We've taken down the video clips, and presume that the totalled 477 views
probably represent the accumulated public interest in the vision. We won't
be signing any written undertakings.
We also thought Crikey readers might be interested in this small insight
into the thinking of the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster. Clearly by
strict definition, we have infringed the ABC's copyright. But you might also
argue that the ABC broadcasts functions like National Press Club lunches
addressed by the environment minister as an act of public service conducted
in line with its legislated charter obligations. You could also argue that
we aided in that objective by promoting the ABC-watermarked footage that
little bit further through on-line links and YouTube.
The situation is of course muddier than that, thanks to a public broadcaster
that increasingly sees its primary obligation as seeking to profit
financially from its content and accordingly protecting its copyright with
fierce intent and lawyers letters. We would argue that a Minister of the
crown engaged in a significant public policy announcement recorded by a
taxpayer funded not for profit public broadcaster might produce material
that should reasonably fall into the freely available public domain. Not a
view shared by the ABC apparently. The fact that these lunches are run by a
for-profit private club and sponsored by a leading bank then packaged into
DVD form for sale, only complicates things further.
The ABC's current position seems to mark something of a Seachange (available
now in DVD boxed sets from ABC shops and major retailers). In 2007 a well
publicised prank saw segments from the Chaser's *War On Everything* removed
from YouTube after the posters received fake lawyers letters purporting to
be from the ABC. No such letters were sent and the Corporation's then head
of arts entertainment and comedy, Courtney Gibson, expressed the view that,
"(the ABC) wishes to get our content out there on as many platforms as
possible, run by as many different operators as possible."
Times have changed.
--
Ubuntu Hardy 8.04
The ancients who wished to demonstrate illustrious virtue throughout the
empire first ordered well their own states.
Wishing to order their own states, they first regulated their families.
Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons.
Wishing to cultivate their persons they first rectified their hearts.
Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their
thoughts.
Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost
their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of
things - Confucius
--
ubuntu-au mailing list
ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au
