BBC and DRM

A while ago everyone was excited that the BBC was going to completely open up their archives for everyone. Everyone thought it would be open to some license like creative commons, or similar (probably created by the BBC) free license structure. People thought this because it’s what the BBC said.

Over the intervening months and years, it’s become increasingly obvious to anyone watching that they have no intention of doing that. Lately they seem to even be planning on using Microsoft DRM for all the content.

Now, this is disappointing sure, but for the British people, they are paying a tax for the production of this material, then the BBC is turning around and limiting their use of it! I have never understood other country’s people’s acceptance of anything other than public domain for the products anyway. I mean, you all paid for them, why wouldn’t you require that you can use it however you want. I’m glad the US government does this, for wikipedia’s sake.