August 26, 2003
Stuart Langridge notes that the BBC will make their program archives available online. Follow Stuart's links to more thoughtful discussion than I could ever hope to post, especially given that I'm still a bit thunderstruck.
It does appear that the programs will be "available to anyone in the UK", so initially I won't directly benefit, but I don't care: the repercussions of a move like this will move quickly beyond the borders. It cannot remain contained for long. Beyond the merely technical impossibility of blocking non-UK users, which is a perfectly understandable goal (they paid for it, after all), there's the far more interesting question of what influence the BBC will have on its broadcasting counterparts worldwide. Danny O'Brien writes,
While the commercial companies fret over the dangers of P2P and zero-cost replication, the BBC has realised that this is its greatest opportunity. Not to beat commercial media concerns, but to finally stop mimicking them.
With apologies for the not entirely fair comparison of the two organizations, I'd love to see PBS do this. But I have little doubt that commercial interests will intervene.
What I'd really like to see is the commercial media concerns mimic the BBC.
Anyway. Right on.
