03.01.10
Gemini version available ♊︎MSBBC Continues to Abuse GNU/Linux Users While Promoting Microsoft Products (at Taxpayers’ Expense)
Photo by The Admiralty
Summary: The BBC — now filled with former Microsoft executives — is still blocking Free software users from content that they have already paid for and at the time time it is promoting lagging products from Microsoft
THE BBC can hardly be sued (nor can it be boycotted because of the way it collects money). For quite a few years now it has taken on board employees of Microsoft UK [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], who in turn use the BBC to exclude Free software users and maybe to invite yet more Microsoft UK employees.
Last week we wrote about the latest step in blocking GNU/Linux users from BBC, essentially removing them from content that they have already paid for. The issue has since then been covered by The H and by Ars Technica, which says:
The BBC has enabled SWF Verification for its iPlayer streaming video service. This content protection mechanism has locked out users who consume the iPlayer video content with open source software.
Here is the latest development, as published this morning.
BBC Trust won’t probe iPlayer open source gripes
The governing body of the BBC has no plans to investigate the Corporation’s decision to block open source implementations of RTMP (real-time messaging protocol) streaming in the iPlayer, despite grumbles from many UK viewers and listeners of the service.
“The decision to block open source plugins is a matter for BBC Management. The Trust has not received any complaints on this issue and has no plans to look into it further at present,” a BBC Trust spokeswoman told The Register.
This is clearly not over. What the BBC does here is without an excuse (not a valid one anyway).
Last week we showed that the BBC carried yet more Microsoft propaganda, which it only tried to correct later at the sight of typical gaps in knowledge. Here is what The Atlantic wrote about Microsoft’s propaganda; it didn’t buy it.
Do The Ends Justify The Means In Microsoft’s War On Spam?
[...]
Microsoft argued that it had linked 277 domain names to a botnet, a network of compromised computers instructed to perform a task such as denial of service attacks and sending spam e-mails. Some computers in a botnet are run by spammers themselves, but the majority are “drones” or infected computers whose owners are unable to stop or unaware of the task being performed. Microsoft alleged the domains were part of a botnet called Waledac, which the company estimates includes between 30,000 and 90,000 drone PC’s, according to The Journal.
More importantly, those “drones” are running Windows. Here is another criticism, this time from IDG News Service:
A prominent security researcher today said he doubts Microsoft’s take-down of the Waledac botnet would have any impact on spam levels, as the company claimed.
Going back to the BBC, now that Microsoft’s Natal is delayed, Jonathan Ross from the BBC keeps hyping it up:
Microsoft Project Natal demo season seems to be ramping up. Yesterday we revealed that Jonathan Ross got a Project Natal hands-on, now MTV has got its mitts on the motion-sensing system. And it claims it noticed a delay…
Watch this report: “Jonathan Ross Reveals Details About Microsoft NATAL”
The soon-to-leave BBC TV presenter, Jonathan Ross, has released some information through his Twitter account to more than half a million Twitter followers, about the launch of Microsoft’s next generation controller otherwise known as project NATAL.
This is why the BBC often seems like a marketing front for Microsoft products. Given the influx of Microsoft executives who entered the BBC, it would only be a natural thing to occur. And what is it that they promote here anyway? One of the worst consoles of all time, the Xbox 360? It not only cost Microsoft billions of dollars is losses (business failure) but it also smashed records in defect rates (technical failure). It allegedly burned down people’s houses and even killed a baby.
Based on the past week’s news, those problems persist [1, 2, 3], but Microsoft is trying to hide it. What utter negligence.
Also in recent days we found these reports about “Corrupt Mod” allegations:
Yet again Microsoft and Xbox LIVE get themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons, and this time it’s for a video that has been posted on the internet that shows an Xbox LIVE moderator taking offensive action into his own hands.
This would not be the first. And anyway, why is the BBC promoting this product so much? Because it’s associated with the United States rather than Japan? Or because Microsoft entryism has radically transformed the BBC to the point where it not only advertises Microsoft but also shuns people who use products that are not Microsoft’s? █
“We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users.”
–Ashley Highfield, BBC, now Managing Director at Microsoft UK
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