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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: russell_-at-_flora.ottawa.on.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: 27 Apr 2000 08:58:43 -0400
I am forwarding this to you in the hopes that it will help change the direction that stations are taking. I already note at CBC and CKCU are broadcasting on the net using RealNetworks proprietary RealAudio format. While the article I am forwarding talks about Television, it notes that there is already software such as <http://icecast.org/> that can do Streaming MP3 audio, giving a Free Software replacement to the proprietary RealAudio format for the stations already online. As to audio players for the user, there are obviously going to be more players for a non-proprietary format than a proprietary one where only a single player from that vendor is going to exist. Even RealPlayer from RealNetworks supports MP3 streaming audio, allowing existing listeners to just upgrade their software and allowing other users much more freedom of choice, including running computing platforms which RealNetworks does not support! Choices of players can easily be linked from the audio page as we have on our own site for our PSA http://ottawa.commuterchallenge.net/media.html I am just forwarding some small cuts from the article. You can find this story online at: http://linuxtoday.com/story.php3?sn=14799 Note: I listen to most of my radio online these days, favoring listening to specific programs 'on my own time' to listening live. I don't tune into CBC, CKCU or CHUO as much as I used to any more and the use of RealNetworks software for CBC/CKCU is a big part of that. I have tended to instead get hooked on programs such as Unwelcomed Guests <http://www.radio4all.org/unwelcome/> . --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://russell.flora.org/work/> http://www.flora.org/flora.afo/2750 Canadians: more $ on cars than food http://www.flora.org/flora.admin.design/277 FLORA's future discussion tech. I'm unwelcomed at someone elses party http://www.radio4all.org/unwelcome/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- SF Gate: Open-Source TV Broadcasters should jump on the open source bandwagon, pronto "The digital broadcasting industry now emerging relies heavily on proprietary software made by just three companies: Microsoft, Apple Computer, and RealNetworks. By controlling the software used for broadcasting over the Internet, those firms have positioned themselves to control all online broadcasts." "Microsoft, Apple and RealNetworks don't control the Internet's pipes. But they do control the technology used to deliver moving images through those pipes. If given a chance, it's likely those firms will exploit their advantage the same way the Big Three broadcasters did during the decades when they had a stranglehold on the airwaves." "There's only one thing on the horizon I can see that could possibly preserve a diverse online broadcasting industry: the open source software movement." "Alarmingly, it's quite possible, even likely, that only one streaming media format will endure over the long run, just as there is only one dominant format for video recorders. If that happens, we may well look back at all the broadcasting outlets we had in the 1960's with nostalgia. "That's why the broadcasting industry and the open source movement need to start smooching it up big time real soon." Complete story. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/technology/archive/2000/01/05/opensourcetv.dtl
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