The iPlayer is a concept which should "just work." The BBC are a massive corporation in the UK, and once led the way in both content and technological developments in television entertainment. There were the BBC cameras, Dr Who, and all sorts of wonderful programmes coming out of Television Centre. Since then bits and pieces have been sold off, and more content was being bought from independent studios.

Then, BBC Future Media & Technology started to take off. In the digital world they created Dirac, the open and royalty-free codec, designed for transmitting HD content without encryption. They also started the development of the iPlayer which enables anyone in the UK to access BBC programmes to "watch again." This is subject to a fair-use policy, and a 30 day download limitation.

The flash-based implementation of the BBC iPlayer was fairly well received, as it allowed the iPlayer to be used on both Windows, *NIX, Linux and Apple based devices - anything that was supported by Adobe Flash. The BBC later dropped their Desktop version (which was implemented for Windows and Macs, but not Linux) in favour of the flash-based one - as it meant it required programming to only one interface - flash.

Good decision BBC.

Unfortunately, now they are developing applications for all sorts of devices. Where they saved themselves from having to program for three separate interfaces by no longer coding Desktop clients for Windows/Macs/Linux - they are now creating lots of more work to be 'cool and trendy' and 'Web 3.0' as they program for specialist devices like the iPhone platform, or Android.

If there were only a platform-agnostic way of delivering the content to all these devices, without having to program for each one individually.

Well there is, it's called HTML5 - I sure hope that out of all this mess the BBC at least spend some time coding for that interface. In terms of target markets, HTML5 should be supported of 100% of the devices accessing the iPlayer. I'm not saying the BBC shouldn't develop for these platforms - but there are better ways to do it. The writers of get_iplayer wrote a brilliant wrapper for linux - so why not allow freelance developers to put the iPlayer on the iPhone, Android .etc - rather than doing it all in house. That's more Web 2.0.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

My adobe saga is ongoing. I received a further email today, which fails to address my point, and is encouraging me to go around in circles with my correspondence to Adobe.

Thank you for contacting Adobe Customer Services.
We guess your query is to amend the EULA policy, unfortunately that is not possible for now, may be in the nearest future, please stick to the policy, only install on your PC or other wise buy a full version flash media Server which you can install any where you like.
Thanks.
Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Although a side-product of my correspondence may be that the EULA for flash-player may change (or be made clearer) - my main concern is whether or not it is legal for me to use the flash-player on my initially-a-'Media Centre'-but-now-a-PC Computer.

As identified quite correctly by popey in #ubuntu-uk - there's no defintion for "Media Centre PC" - therefore I shouldn't be worried on this point.  It was my paranoia, rather than anything specifically in the EULA which led me to think I was running a "media centre."

However, reading through section 3.1 of  the EULA makes interesting reading. If we ignore the "examples list" (in italics) - then it becomes quite clear.

3.1  Web Player Prohibited Devices. You may not Use any Web Player on any non-PC device or with any embedded or device version of any operating system. For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, you may not use a Web Player on any (a) mobile devices, set top boxes (STB), handhelds, phones, web pads, tablets and Tablet PCs that are not running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, game consoles, TVs, DVD players, media centers (excluding Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors), electronic billboards or other digital signage, internet appliances or other internet-connected devices, PDAs, medical devices, ATMs, telematic devices, gaming machines, home automation systems, kiosks, remote control devices, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television systems or (c) other closed system devices.

However, I do feel quite silly in pursuing what is now a dead end.. therefore I address Adobe with the following.

Thanks for letting us use flash-player on Linux - but please make the examples list more Linux (and even apple..) friendly :)

I received an email this evening in reference to my previous post on the adobe flash-player EULA.The reason that I am persisting with this communication is that I don't appear to have been given a satisfactory response as to whether I can legally run flash-player on my PC.  I outline my situation below:

 For what it's worth the PC I bought (2 year ago) is a dell dimension 5150 - and was initially sold with Windows Media Centre on it. I now run ubuntu on it. Does this class as a media centre PC (I could easily argue it does) therefore according to the EULA I am not allowed to run flashplayer on it. However, to all intents and purposes it has many design similarities to a 'PC' therefore it is permissable (according to your EULA) to run flashplayer on it.

This was included in my latest response to Adobe.  I'm sure it could be read as me being a little "arsey" - but were some cyber-cop come and analyse my PC - I'd like to know the legal status of my software.  Using ubuntu-only repos I'm already quite confident that all my software is legally installed downloaded.  It's just this flash-player that I'm currently naive about.The last response was not very satisfactory at all - and I seem to be going round in circles.

Dear Mr. Loughran,

Can i refer you to the following URL: http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/

Adobe products are not sold; rather, copies of Adobe products so therefore everyone has to agree with them to use the products, the reasons as to why certain things are in the EULAs is not part of our workflow as they are legal agreements and i am not a lawyer. Sorry that i cannot give you a more definative answer. 

Hopefully I'll be able to report back on what constitutes a "Media Centre PC" in the eyes of Adobe.  All interesting stuff I think you'll agree. (I hope so anyway, please let me know if you think I am wasting my time). 

The iPlayer was officially launched today - as you may have been made aware by the advertising over the Christmas period.  One Problem.I sat down to watch the Top Gear "Polar Express" episode on the mac mini attached to my TV.. and lo and behold it's stuttering every 2 minutes to re-buffer the content.What a reet pain in t'arse.