The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a Boston-based open source software lobby group, is planning to petition British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to highlight the role of software giant Microsoft Corp. in the British Broadcasting Corporation"s digital media strategy; this move comes as concern slowly mounts amongst software developers, rival technology firms and broadcasters about the MS"s role in the development of digital media services at the BBC, which is funded by a universal license fee in Great Britain and is required to provide "public service" programs and services. The iPlayer, BBC"s on-demand Internet TV software launched only July 27, 2007, came under great criticism for being Windows XP only, though the BBC promises that the player will eventually be available on other platforms including Linux and Apple"s OSX.
In a statement by the FSF, the lobby alleges that "the BBC should have chosen free and open standards that work well and are available today. They should have chosen off-the-shelf software that costs nothing and that you have complete control over. Instead, they have given Microsoft complete control. BBC programming is in the hands of a U.S.-based corporation, and the BBC has given up the fight for open access."
However, the BBC says that in order to guarantee that the rights of third-party producers making programs and services for the BBC are protected, it must employ digital rights management, stating that "a third of our programming is made by independent producers who insist that we protect (their intellectual property) because their future depends on distributing it outside the seven-day rights window. The same goes for BBC-originated content, allowing us to maximize value for money to license payers. The BBC must strike a balance between providing free access as part of the service funded by the license fee, and exploiting the secondary value of the content commercially in order to generate revenue to invest back into services that benefit the license payer."
The FSF has posted a petition, which has already garnered over 13,000 signatures, on the Prime Minister"s website and plans to mount protests outside two BBC offices next week. The lobby wants a total break in ties between the Microsoft and the BBC. MS has not yet commented on the petition.