“Critically though, I think the BBC can, and should, do more to support the Free and Open Source community”

Ashley Highfield, Director, BBC Future Media & Technology

"Honestly, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the entertainment industry is an existential threat to the idea of free speech, open tools, and an open communications network."

Cory Doctorow. Science fiction writer, blogger, activist. [Link]

Most major web based developments of any scale these days work on the presumption that interoperablity, open standards, and platform neutrality are givens. It is not clear why the BBC design brief did not specify these requirements or if it did what technical problems – given the expertise available – hinder them being implemented.

So long as the iPlayer is bundled in with Windows/Internet Explorer it continues to run the risk of breaching state aid rules – as the benefits it thereby bestows on Microsoft (with their somewhat blemished reputation for fair competition) come via the deployment of the public’s licence money.

John Pugh MP, in a letter to Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC

“Opera has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission to force Microsoft to support open Web standards in its Web browser, Internet Explorer. We believe that Microsoft has harmed Web standards by refusing to support them; Microsoft often participates in creating Web standards, promoting them, and even promising to implement them. Despite their talent, however, they refuse to support Web standards correctly. For example, Internet Explorer is the only modern Web browser that does not support Acid2.”

Open Letter to the Web Community, Håkon Wium Lie
Chief Technology Officer, Opera Software

“Ogg provides a baseline of fully unencumbered, fully open, fully documented, fully royalty-free codecs that are lighter-weight than the contemporary encumbered solutions while offering comparable or superior performance. Ogg is not fantasy or vapourware. It is widely deployed, tested, and reviewed. Ogg has already stood the test of time.”

Statement Regarding the HTML5 Draft and the Ogg Codec Set, Christopher “Monty” Montgomery [and others], Director, Xiph.Org

“They told us the only way to avoid paying to sing the carols is if the kids are told to stick to old songs which are out of copyright.”

Margaret Hatton, Dam House
(Talking about the Performing Rights Society)

“…a W3C-lead standardization of a “free” codec, or the active endorsement of proprietary technology such as Ogg, …, by W3C, is, in our opinion, not helpful …”

Steven Wenger, Nokia
(From a position paper submitted by Nokia to the W3C)