Re: [Fsfe-uk] BBC's DRM Iplayer windows only

[Alex Hudson]

On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 14:36 +0000, Dave Page wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 07, 2008 at 02:12:37PM +0000, Noah Slater wrote:
> > The FSF's support of Flash is a very clever strategic position and
> > absolutely essential if we are to get regular users to make the switch
> > to a free operating system.
> 
> "are we working for freedom, or have we replaced that goal with the
> shallow goal of popularity?" - rms, http://www.a42.com/node/50

I think the point is more subtle than that; obviously, rms isn't saying
that the end goal of having free software be wildly popular and in broad
usage is "shallow" :o)

> I'm not saying that Gnash is a bad thing, or that it should be scrapped
> (especially since as free software it has the potential to do much more
> than just support the Flash format), but I do think that the FSF should
> be making open format support a priority project rather than Gnash.

As I mentioned before, I think the format is a technicality.

I do think the FSF should make a priority of supporting content-creation
software, because no-one will switch to a different format if the tools
aren't there. 

I have no idea who - if anyone - is in any way well placed to develop
such software, though.

Cheers,

Alex.