John on Tech...

It seems a little odd that the BBC should be so anti-Apple. Admittedly Apple isn't a British company but then neither is Microsoft. I was a little stunned but not surprised by the coverage over the last few days. It is also not a particularly blatant bias but usually pretty snidey and generally full of sarcastic asides. For example, yesterday's article headed "Apple to end music restrictions" had this curious box out:

"Apple's imposed DRM proved unpopular with users"

Now let's have a think about that. iTunes is THE leading online digital music provider. That was up until yesterday BEFORE they removed the DRM. So unpopular maybe amongst the digerati but mr and mrs internet user didn't really complain. The truth on this story is that it was the record conglomerates that have gone out of their way to ensure that Apple would be the last to get access to DRM free tracks.

They gave the facility to Amazon in an attempt to bring down the iTunes juggernaut and you know what? It mostly failed. Amazon do have some bargains but still haven't gained the foothold that Apple have in this market.

The greatest irony of course, that all this anti-DRM ranting is coming from the MOST RESTRICTIVE company in terms of rights management there is. Where I, as a TV licence payer, cannot access the iPlayer files if I am outside the UK even though I am actually paying for the programmes to be produced.

Perhaps the BBC can take a leaf out of Apple's book and perhaps, instead of restricting access by IP, giving Licence payers an account which they can log into while abroad.