BBC does gritty DRM podcast

Those brilliant chaps at backstage have been exceptionally brave/clever and put out a podcast exploring the myriad issues around the use of DRM on BBC content delivered over the web. The luminaries engaged in this admittedly long 'cast include Tom Loosemore, Miles Metcalf and many others.

http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2007/02/bbc_backstage_p_1.html

The reactions have been gerally positive- though boingboing seems to have reacted more to the crcumstances than perhaps the actual content of the 'cast.

The one point I'd make.., the two points I'd make are:
The law is behind the times and will have to change, and it should be opne and clear about the new rights and responsibilites of creators and users of media- a clear fair law is a better barrier to priacy than any encyption.
Secondly, a good drm system need nt be proprietory- there is o theoretical impediment to fully robust open source DRM- only the keys must be secure, all else can, and really, for a public service, should be open.

Erm, can I have a third point- DRM has two parts, hard (technical managment of access and security) and soft (definition of rights and managed allocation thereof) and by and large we, the world at large, are a bit weak at both.

Pain at both ends

Had a great weekend of adventurous geekery- huge game of toy soldiers, big long bike ride on brand ew shiney red bike and tried to get some new stuff to happen on this Nokia thingy. Best not to dwell on the toy soldiery (it's the nadir of my geelery) but the bike ride was brilliant- it was really cold with the misty clouds bowing off the downs, but the ride was great. I think I might need t make some adjustments to the bike before taking it out along that type of route again- road style slicks were tough to get much grip with, and the rear wheel jammed up totally with the snug (and very practical) mud guards. The 'penny farthing' or 'gentleman's velocipede will need some serious adaptation in order to get it full of roadable.

Thinking of maybe getting a second set of wheels. Maybe. Dunno.

Ah, so why the other end hurty? Well I'm trying to get this 770 to do some interesting stuff and now my brain hurts trying to understand how I got a lib conflict on automatic repository synching. or something. Maybe. Dunno.

Flickr Merge- I'm really not keen

I have a flickr account, I enjoy flickr. It's a pleasure to use flickr and I really like the interface and the community feel and the, well, the general flickr thing. I like it so much that I pay them for it. Not a lot, but it's the only thing I pay for on the web (ain't the internet cool!).

You've seen the news- Yahoo accounts only from the 15th March. I'm not happy. I don't really like the yahoo experience- it's just nowhere near as nice. So, I don't really want a relationship with yahoo jammed into the flickr thing. Flickr is pure and clean and focussed and just right, yahoo is cludgy messy complicated overwheening and not something I want to pay for.

Ok so I have been paying them for ages- ever since I signed up for a pro account, but that was still a relationship with flickr, not yahoo. Oh it make s me mad.

On the upside, I know the person who wrote the BBC news online story today!