Comments on: BBC goes P2P

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 18 May 2005 14:58:08 +0000

I like the idea of BBC. Though my only concern is that its is locked to one country only (or 4 because UK is composed of 4 countries).
I agree that UK people should get the programs free without ads, and the Rest of the world, might get the programs with Ads, BBC would be earning money from the ads!

But lets Imagine for a second that all (big)countries upload online their shows, and only people from those countries are allowed to watch them, then The rest of the world, (people like me who don`t live on these countries), I will have always to revert to p2p for tv shows, Because I do not live in one of the big countries and I would have no way of getting them tru the “legal” distribution system. .

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 18 May 2005 14:16:25 +0000

Being in the UK, i’m pleased the bbc is starting this – I only hope they drop this DRM muck after they start getting complants from normal users. If nothing else they need to drop the 7 day limitation – If i’m holiday for a fortnight its going to be really annoying!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 18 May 2005 05:59:31 +0000

Even if the limitations put on this uh, program are a drag I like to see big ligitimate organizations using P2P technology. It can only help in the fight to keep P2P from being made illegal by the “entertainment industry”. There’s some torrents for some of the stuff on archive.org too. Bring it on. We need more!

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 18 May 2005 05:58:09 +0000

well, uk citizens pay a license fee for the bbc channels. most countries do this – except for the usa. if there were some sort of tv licensing fee in the states – even if it was only for PBS – something like this could happen. not that DRM is a good thing, but at least people who’ve paid for it would be allowed to download it.

so the uk people have more right to be able to use this service because they’ve already paid for it.

i really don’t think that this type of system with DRM will work. probably the files will be in a useless format like wmv or whatever this iMP will be able to play. so people will be forced to watch it on a monitor.

another reason i don’t think that fee-based p2p or some other form of pay-per download p2p service (with/without DRM) can work is because there will eventually be less and less seeders in the network, and people who have paid for a specific download might not be able zo get it. if a system like BT were implimented in this way, eventually there will be a lot of dead torrents without seeds and many angry people who have paid but can’t get the files they want.

the channels that do this – especially withg a BT-based network – will have to keep hundreds of torrents continuously active at optimum upload speeds. even with a non-BT network they’ll have to keep hundreds of copies of the same files available online.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 18 May 2005 02:36:22 +0000

Yay! I thought only the United States didn’t realize that the rest of the world existed. I guess that applies to the UK as well.

Discrimination. It’s what’s for dinner.