British readers: action required.

[reddragdiva]

Danny O' Brien (and Guardian article):

If people give it the sort of excited support that we see online for the wider ideal of the Creative Archive, then it will happen. There are people in the BBC - high-up people - who really do understand the Net and will do this if they see it as a potentially popular idea. If people expect a smaller, weaker, Archive, and expect a more compliant, fearful BBC that thinks more about cutting a penny off the license or aping the commercial networks than it does about providing a brand new approach, the ideal will wilt on the vine, and that's exactly what they'll get.

GET WRITING AND FAXING NOW. The address: BBC, attn: Greg Dyke, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W12 2EB. The fax: 020 7765 3000. That's the fax for the Chairman's office - please be very polite and to the point.

(Don't use email. Your target audience can't work their email.)

You should probably also send a cc: to your MP, indicating your strong support for the idea.

Urgent action and direction is required. Labour may be on the rocks, and the Conservative Party is considering shutting down the BBC website altogether if they get in.

The idea, alien to most TV execs, that the file-sharing networks can have a function beyond simple piracy. The idea, alien to most TV execs, that everything the BBC should do should be free because we have already paid for it. And the idea, alien to most TV execs, that DRM-unencumbered works are better, not worse, than copy-restricted systems. These ideas are so common online, and so alien everywhere else in the media world, that I sometimes doubt that the two worlds can be bridged. The media world cannot conceive of anyone thinking that pirates are actually customers; that free is good; that DRM is not a beautiful gift from the technogods. The online world has long since despaired of anyone understanding the opposite.

Please also circulate this appropriately.

Comments

[poggs.livejournal.com]

I'm voting anyone but Conservative next time.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I do rather suspect that anything that makes the BBC money at present (e.g. Doctor Who, old Goon shows, Palin's travels, etc.) won't get into the Creative Archive anytime soon. But then, that's not what I find exciting about it - it's the availability of material you could wait forever to see on DVD or video, with a very small potential audience, but which some people do want to see. For instance, there's a lot of BBC comedies featuring the Pythons before they went on to do Python, such as The Frost Report, Broaden Your Mind, Twice A Fortnight, which would never generate enough interest to be put out on video, but which I for one would love to have the opportunity of seeing.

As to the other point, the "free-market" approach is, of course, merely attempting, as BSkyB's boss proposed last week, to weaken the BBC. take away it's ratings-earning and popular services, because someone else does them just as well, and then six months later attack the BBC because they're unpopular and no-one watches them. They speak with the voice of Murdoch.

[reddragdiva]

Your insinuation that the Conservative Party is a mere mouthpiece for large corporate interests is utterly scurrilous. The Conservative Party's mandate is to preserve the essence of British culture - the very nature of what it is to be British!

[wednesday]

O Canada!

[mirukux.livejournal.com]

"That's true - and I bet that when the first parts of the Creative Archive appear, it'll be easy to see it as just that. You'll get nature documentaries, educational programmes, old news footage"

even if that was the case (as first anyway), i'd be absolutely delighted to have access to such programs, being able to view old eps. of horizon, and watch things like historical (and sentimental) news broadcasts.

its a shame that technology doesn't exactly allow for the streaming (and encoding? not to hot on that atm) of video at a quality the same as the original. i remember seeing the new wonder technology of cable (or was it adsl?) on tomorrows world, where viewers could order and stream archived programming from a big wear-house packed from floor to ceiling full of servers straight to their tv. fucking vapour.

[moomintroll.livejournal.com]

Agreed. But Murdoch and his minions will tout two rather fallacious arguments against -

*Why should the television licence fund a web-based service that not all licence fee payers will use?

*Why should British licence fee payers pay for services that anyone around the world will be able to access?

Of course - there are very good answers to both questions. But it might be hard to convince some voters why this is a good use of their licence fee money.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

P2P file distro means the BBC doesn't have to pay for the bandwidth the send the files that many more people. Ask Arkady how much it costs to get a 200meg DivX to 100 people. (:

[reddragdiva]

Note that Mandrake, for example, has used BitTorrent as a distribution mechanism commercially. It would be perfect for the task.

[arkady.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Just remembered I ought to be sending you an email. But the answer is basically "Yes please!"...!