Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:14:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110210/16040613047/while-bbc-wants-to-kill-off-bunch-websites-geeks-quickly-archive-them.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110210/16040613047/while-bbc-wants-to-kill-off-bunch-websites-geeks-quickly-archive-them.shtml kill off a bunch of websites, including Douglas Adams' old stomping grounds, H2G2. Apparently some of the sites were going to be archived, and others weren't -- but as you may know, the BBC does not have the greatest of reputations when it comes to archiving old material. However, this is the internet. If someone announces they are going to get rid of something that other people would like saved, there are tools to save it. Glyn Moody points us to a note from Ben Goldacre about how some "anonymous nerd" archived all of the sites the BBC is set to take down (it cost him a whopping $3.99) and he's now set that archive free, so you, too, can help make sure this content lives on. The whole thing is available via a torrent file at http://178.63.252.42/, which also has a description of the project, so have at it.

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]]> internet-to-the-rescue http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110210/16040613047 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:04:44 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100616/0307399847.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100616/0307399847.shtml let Hollywood add some DRM to movies it broadcasts to television, it looks like UK regulators Ofcom have gone even further in allowing the BBC to similarly use a form of DRM to try to stop copying of HD programming. Not surprisingly, this also came at the request of the entertainment industry. But, again, this seems to be about breaking what your technology allows, just so that the entertainment industry can have the illusion of control. The reports all say things like "This will allow broadcasters to stop piracy of shows," but that's patently ridiculous. There are always ways around these blocks for those who really want to get there -- and those shows will still end up online just as quickly (or maybe a few seconds later). And at that point, the locks are meaningless... except to folks who didn't want to have to buy an expensive locked down settop box that is required to view this kind of content. It's an incredibly anti-consumer move that has little to no benefit to the entertainment industry, other than in their minds.

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]]> lame http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100616/0307399847 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:31:20 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100219/0211018236.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100219/0211018236.shtml demanding the BBC's new iPhone app be blocked. They claim that the app "will undermine the commercial sector's ability to establish an economic model in an emerging but potentially important market ... This, over the long term, will reduce members' ability to invest in quality journalism."

Really? So the newspapers are basically admitting they're too clueless to compete in the marketplace? Sure, the BBC is publicly funded, but it's just one publication out there. Certainly newspapers can create their own services that attract an audience that competes with what the BBC is offering (or is focused on areas the BBC won't do). This is basically newspapers admitting they're too lazy to compete. Technically, the newspapers are complaining that this is a "new service" that needs approval, but the BBC correctly points out that all it did was create an app out of its existing web content.

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