Battle brews as open standards advocates slam CBC.ca Windows Media choice

A small battle is brewing online as proponents of open source software gear up to fight the CBC’s decision to switch its streaming format to Windows Media Player. For the past week, participants in the discussion forum at www.digital-copyright.ca have expressed their frustration at the decision by CBC to abandon the Real Player format for streaming live audio in favour of the Microsoft Corp. product, while expressing hopes that the broadcaster might use an open standard player rather than support a proprietary format. They express fears that the CBC will use the digital rights management capabilities in Microsoft’s player, and highlight the security holes that they say exists in the product. There is precedent for using federal money, they say, to develop an open standard player as the BBC is currently examining. One such posting, by open source advocate Russell McCormond, reads: "You haven’t mentioned the chicken-and-egg situation. There isn’t good open standard (FLOSS isn’t really the issue) A/V codecs because there hasn’t been a motivation thus far to do so. That motivation either comes from business imperatives (large customers that demand it) or political, both of which are where government intervention for positive public policy purposes comes in. The CBC is not a private corporation, but a public broadcaster with a public mandate. While the CBC may not have the money to help the BBC develop an open code, there needs to be a political push within the Canadian government to put support into such things. Essentially, we need to direct the government to ‘buy some chickens’ to get this problem solved." CBC.ca executive director Claude Galipeau says he doesn’t understand what the fuss is about. He says the decision to begin broadcasting online using Windows Media Player is based on trying to reach the broadest possible audience base using the simplest interface. He says the decision to use the Real Player was made in the early to mid-90s, when it enjoyed the largest installed base. Since then, however, the CBC has seen the need to upgrade its servers and encoders, and is facing a mounting number of complaints related to Real Player. He notes that it has become increasingly difficult to locate and download the free player from Real, and that it is an "invasive" application with multiple pop-ups and pop-unders. The Microsoft player, he says, offers the greatest installed base today, with ease of use that he hopes will reduce the volume of complaints being generated to the broadcaster. Galipeau rejects the idea of using federal money to develop an open standards player. "I don’t know if we want to be in the business of client-side software for such a crucial tool as a media player when there are already two major companies who have been battling it out for almost, well, for at least six years. While people say the federal government could do that, why aren’t these people arguing the federal government should build a camera cheaper than a Canon? And I don’t see the compelling argument of why one would have to basically tell everyone that has Windows, which is like 90%, the highest installation base, oh, we’re not going to allow you to use Windows. You have to install a new piece of software that the CBC has devised. I don’t know about the receptivity of people to a federal government subsidized CBC player." He notes that the early Internet was characterized by a variety of plug-ins and player software that were necessary to use various components, but that soon content creators began to settle on widely used standards. "The problem in the industry is that there is no standard. Unlike in television where there’s the NTS standard. I don’t know how the open source software community will produce a player that is usable for not just Canadians, but everyone who might be streaming online. I don’t know if you remember in the early part of the Internet, there was an attempt for everyone to build their own players. There were a lot of players and plug-ins being used. And, everyone dropped that because it was just too difficult to keep up with the complexity of operating systems and file types and so on." Even the digital-copyright.ca message board is divided. Though MP3 has been touted by many on the forum as a viable alternative that plays on multiple players, some posters disagree that it would be the best solution. Poster Ross Jordan writes: "I am fairly certain that none of Windows 98, 2000 or NT shipped with a media player that plays MP3s out of the box. Redhat and several other Linuxes do not ship an MP3 player due to patent issues. Certainly, it is quite simple for most people to install their own player. But, there are still many people who are not comfortable installing their own software or who may use a computer in a restricted setting (lab, kiosk, work, whatnot) who cannot install an MP3 player." Several participants in the forum are urging readers to contact their MPs and the CBC in a concerted attempt to get the public broadcaster to reverse its decision.

Battle brews as open standards advocates slam CBC.ca Windows Media choice

Broadcast | September 17, 2004

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