back to article ABC sends lawyers after iView freeware

Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, has unleashed its legal team on the creator of an alternative frontend app for ABC’s iView, issuing a stern take down notice. The offending free software, Python-iView, allows users to watch content from the ABC's iView media player, which is functionally similar to the BBC's iPlayer …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Warning: Possible incorrect use of English slang

    "Disgruntled users have pointed out that such a stance from the ABC would not be taken against commercial IPTV and PVR providers such as Tivo or FetchTV recording the FTA DVB-T broadcasts"

    The ABC are a bunch of tossers.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dear ABC

    Please rush me your free i-view player hardware so I can utilise your publicly-funded services without paying through the nose for a commercial OS I don't have any use for.

    Yours,

    A Tax Payer.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dumb lot

    I tried the Dr Who stream from the ABC. It worked really well (it was very quick) with flash on Linux.

    Unfortunately the content quality due to compression was utterly awful. I had to resort to a torrent for the sake of my eyes.

    I'm not sure how this works - for the poor-quality legal stream I paid nothing. For the torrent, I paid nothing. If someone can explain the harm in this please be enlighten me.

    I'd far rather just register that I've viewed it with the ABC (if accountability is required) and use someone-else's bandwidth to get the content.

  4. Diogenes
    Devil

    So our Auntie is claiming the copyright on ...

    Grand Designs, Time Team. QI, Thomas the Tank Engine and Sesame St ???

    Visser could get around the copyright request by removing all the ABC copyright material such as the News 7:30 report , The Drum etc. as IIRC the XML indicates actual ABC copyright.

    Now if you actually don't use the gui how would you know what the T&C's of the site are, so how could you be in breach (you are actually NOT using the site - just the API) ?? The XML is quite easy to obtain, and the only possible circumvention is making a request to get a token (also easily deduced if you use something like UrlSnooper).

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prison will do him good

    A multi-million dollar fine and five years in the slammer should get the memo thru to him.

    1. Vic

      Re: Prison will do him good

      ODFO.

      Vic.

  6. clarkyau

    ABC are Apple Fanbois

    <Rant accent="aussie" >

    They have point blankly refused to support anything other than IDevices with IView. The Android app only shows ABC24 news and not any of the other content, and that is pretty recent. The original Android app looked like it had been developed by high school intern as a joke.

    Come on ABC start providing services for the majority of Australia, not just your Apple loving hipster friends.

    </Rant>

    1. LaeMing
      Black Helicopters

      Re: ABC are Apple Fanbois

      Maybe it was the only way to get Apple to let them access their patent on the letter 'i'.

  7. Mark 65

    Couple of things

    1. Streisand effect

    2. Surely the code is out in the wild for all to use until they break it with a system change

    3. iView on iOS was shite last time I used it.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BBC

    Does this do it or is there an equivalent linux player for the BBC's iplayer?

    The flash player is a dog on Linux.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mplayer suffered the same fate.

    Its sad, the bbc did this to mplayer on android, the app worked brilliantly and they only had a serious problem with it after they decided to launched their own flash based (jerky as hell) lag luster effort.

    Now because flash for droid is on the way out, they have decided to work around it by offering what appears to be an adobe standalone 22 meg app that is most likely just a bespoke incarnation of flash/air.

    Which is a complete joke when other media players that can play xvid/x264/ac3/mp3/dts/stream from smb dont require such a big install.

    Its sad, that instead of killing such like projects they cant just bring it in house instead, make sure the download option is limited to x days, drm is not bypassed, the storage container is written into a encrypted and secure file format that only the app can read and just stop listening to adobes lies that its the only secure way to transmit video online, as it isnt...!

    Really rmtps, ha its been a wide open for ages give me a break.

    As for linux and flash, i use chrome as its built in flash support works everytime for me.

  10. Just a Framer
    Devil

    What Rot

    I had to go back and make sure it was AUSTRALIA ABC! Free to Air, no Advertising, get it anywhere ABC the one that my hard earned dollars go to ABC, it was.....There's no Copyright there, they dont make any money out of it they cost ME money, If it was the ABC free broadcasting in Patagonia central without telling anybody that would be Copyright infringement, otherwise NO!

  11. Jerry
    Boffin

    I Use iView from Linux/Firefox no problems. What's the fuss

    I've just segued to this article after watching a wide variety of iView content on my Centos 6 / Firefox platform.

    What is the actual problem this article has 'revealed'

  12. ChrisInAStrangeLand
    Facepalm

    The problem is that ABC had given copyright holders of imported content specific legal assurances about DRM being attached to their online streaming service. One of their suppliers (probably the Beeb) has complained, and If they do not cut off this app they will lose the streaming rights to that content.

    They ABC is publicly funded, and their legal team are usually not psychopaths. They would have very politely made Mr Visser aware of their needs as licensors before sending the C&D, and he has simply chosen to ignore them.

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