Yesterday the BBC were confronted with two iPlayer protests outside their offices in London and Manchester. We were calling for the BBC to release software that is cross-platform and free from restrictive Digital Rights Management components. I went along in my role as Green Party Speaker on Intellectual Property & Free Software, along with the Party's Principal Speaker Derek Wall:

The BBC is a public service, and a great one at that with a good history of standing up in the public interest against certain corporate and commercial pressures. But the iPlayer helps prop up Microsoft's monopoly, makes it more difficult for schools and the like to switch away from Windows, and gives new momentum to the pro-DRM movement at a time when sectors of the entertainment industry are starting to abandon it. Why not spend some of that £130m on the Creative Archive project, or working with the British software industry to develop a DRM-free, free software player? If content providers don't want to license their work for the iPlayer then tough luck, the BBC has enough muscle and in-house programming output to make a really decent service. As ORG thoroughly documented the iPlayer is just a bad decision.

Defective by Design have a nice report, along with some of the coverage and responses in the media. You can also read what the Green Party said, and Derek's blog post. There are lots more pictures here and here.

Even though the BBC Trust didn't make a sound in response, it's great to see some eye-catching activism around this issue in the UK after so many years of behind-the-scenes lobbying and responding to consultations! :) If you're in the UK and haven't done so already, sign the petition with over 15,000 signatures!