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Stephen Fry says the BBC is “naive”

Posted in Web 2.0 on May 8, 2008 at 2:15 pm

The First Post is reporting that Stephen Fry has been having a bit of a rant about the BBC’s iPlayer. According to him, it’s too easy for people to download and keep programmes broadcast online, watching them on devices not supported by the BBC and for longer than the BBC intended them to be available. Here’s part of the quote:

“There is this marvellous idea the iPlayer is secure. It’s anything but secure. The BBC is throwing out really valuable content for free. It shows an incredible naivety about how the internet and digital devices work. … The BBC is making a lot of enemies giving away free programmes to an internet that everyone else is trying to monetise; at the moment, it’s relying on the fact you have to be slightly dorky to record from the iPlayer; but, believe me, that will change. It will soon be the work of a moment for my mother to get an iPlayer programme off her computer and on to her iPod, iPhone, or whatever device she chooses.”

Which is all probably true, except, here’s the thing: we’ve been able to record and keep programmes broadcast on the BBC to watch in our own sweet time for donkey’s. It’s called “owning a VHS player”. Digital video recorders (DVRs, or hard disc recorders) allow you to do the same thing; it’s hardly a problem specific to the iPlayer.

You could mentally insert a rant about TV licence fees here, too, if you were so inclined.