As Skype and KaZaA founders move into TV, BBC begins filesharing
The BBC has announced plans to start distributing its programmes for free across the filesharing network Azuerus. While the programmes available - which includes Red Dwarf, Little Britain, Doctor Who and possibly Monty Python - will be free, the files will still be DRM encrypted.
The news comes after the founders of one of the most popular filesharing programmes (KaZaA) and the Skype messaging software (sold to eBay for $2.6bn), Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis have revealed further plans about their top secret Venice Project, which aims to be the webTV's killer-ap. The service will offer full screen video, with messaging and community services on top, and allow content producers to distribute globally directly to audiences.
"We think TV is one of the most powerful, engaging mass medias of all time. People love TV, but they also hate TV. They love the (sometimes…) amazing storytelling, the richness, the quality itself. But they hate the linearness, the lack of choice, the lack of basic things like being able to search. And wholly missing is everything that we are now accustomed to from the Internet: tagging, recommendations, choice, and so on… TV is 507 channels and nothing on and we want to help change that!" Janus Friis
In a year in which the Internet has become a significant broadcast platform, with both expansion and consolidation, the likelihood of a technology provider - rather than a media company - acting as gatekeeper has increased. With American companies driving technology uptake, the BBC is at risk of being marginalised as platform and channel provider, which has made the its closeness to Microsoft, and dependence on current DRM systems - which Bill Gates acknowledges are deeply flawed - all the more questionable.
The Venice Project, which is been in a hush-hush Beta for several months, is a "secure P2P streaming technology that allows content owners to bring TV-quality video and ease of use to a TV-sized audience mixed with all the wonders of the Internet. All content on The Venice platform is provided by content owners directly, and it's all protected with the highest standard of encryption using the most recent, up to date, federally approved Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (FIPS 197) and we are working within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) framework to ensure that it complies with appropriate content protection and ownership regulations. "
See more information at the foot of the page.
From the BBC story:
Hundreds of episodes of BBC programmes will be made available for free on a file-sharing network for the first time, the corporation has announced.
The move follows a deal between the commercial arm of the organisation, BBC Worldwide, and technology firm Azureus.
The agreement means that users of Azureus' Zudeo software in the US can download titles such as Little Britain.
Until now, most BBC programmes found on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have been illegal copies.
Beth Clearfield, vice president of program management and digital media at BBC Worldwide, said that the agreement was part of a drive to reach the largest audience possible.
"We are very excited to partner with Azureus and make our content available through this revolutionary distribution model," she said.
High definition
Azureus is best known for developing a BitTorrent client, or program, that allows large media files to be easily shared over the internet. The program has been downloaded more than 130 million times.
Once you have watched a show, you can rate it, comment on it and recommend it to a friend
Earlier this month the company launched a video sharing site similar to YouTube, codenamed Zudeo. The site allows users to upload and view content.
However, in contrast to most video sharing sites, Zudeo offers high definition videos. Users must also download a program to access and upload content.
The new deal means that users of the software will be able to download high-quality versions of BBC programmes, including Red Dwarf, Doctor Who and the League of Gentleman. Classic series such as Monty Python will also be available through a BBC "channel".
The titles will be protected by digital rights management software to prevent the programmes being traded illegally on the internet.
"This will be a very different experience from traditional file-sharing networks," said Gilles BianRosa, CEO of Azureus.
Users will also be able to link to programmes from blogs, social networks and fansites.
"If you have Zudeo running it will take you to that programme; and if you don't, it will suggest you install it, like the first time you download a flash movie," said Mr BianRosa.
"Once you have watched a show, you can rate it, comment on it and recommend it to a friend."
Mr BianRosa believes the cult status of many BBC programmes will make these features appealing to Zudeo users.
Legal services
File-sharing is often associated with illegal distribution of copyrighted content. But in recent months a number of networks have tried to shake off this old image.
BitTorrent, the company behind the original file-sharing software of the same name, has recently signed a number of deals with content providers, such as 20th Century Fox, in a bid to become a legitimate download service.
Earlier this year, Sharman Networks, the owners of Kazaa, did similar deals. Kazaa uses advertising to provide content for free.
No pricing structure for the BBC content on Zudeo has been revealed.
Azureus is expected to announce other partnerships in the New Year.
Info from the Venice Project blog
We hired our first developers on January 1st - and now, 10 months later - we're ready to show the world our baby. Or at least a small part of it; most of the work will remain hidden on our servers, transcoding chains, and other backend systems.
It has been a fun ride - people from 20 or so countries descending on Leiden, and it was nothing short of amazing to see developers, both from Open Source communities such as Ubuntu, Apache, Mozilla or Subversion and from industry, hit the floor running, collaborating, re-using enormous amounts of Open Source code in large chunks and rarely stumbling.
For those who've not quite caught on to what Venice is all about - in essence the various journalists got the story almost exactly right: we're fixing TV; removing artificial limits such as the number of channels that your cable or the airwaves can carry and then bringing it into the internet age; adding community features, interactivity, etc.
But we're also bringing something back from that old TV - of having a shared experience with your friends, something you can talk about, rally around and enjoy with others.
And it is that latter part - embodied in the community tools and APIs - which we expect will play a prominent role in this early beta. Since we're based on some widely distributed Open Source software we do expect people to quickly be able to leverage it and tune it to their own wild ideas, hobbies and interests.
Our earliest betatesters have just seen 0.6.2 - and that has really helped us weed out some of the bugs, and get it tested on a much wider range of machines. We'll soon release 0.7 - which has a lot of additional shine, more community tools, and a lot more nice content.
As we're still rolling out servers across the globe, as not all fiber has been lit - we will contain things a bit - so expect us to run in an invitation style mode (where each beta tester gets some invites to give away; letting us grow exponentially yet controlled) for a little longer.