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Mar
10
2010
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The events of the past two weeks (here, here, here and here) have clarified the BBC’s stance on allowing interoperability with open-source iPlayer clients. I have therefore decided to withdraw get_iplayer with immediate effect.
Ian Hunter’s post (Managing Editor, BBC Online) provided very clear guidance on the way the BBC feels about open-source applications accessing iPlayer streams. I have no desire act against the BBC’s wishes in this respect.
The BBC iPlayer is built on many open-source products and yet, in this case, they have failed to let open-source clients access the very same service. The BBC have clearly not followed the spirit of open-source here.
From the outset, exactly 2 years ago when I developed get_iplayer, my intentions have been to never harm the BBC but to just provide a convenient way for me to watch iPlayer programmes on my TV with the hardware that I own. However, the BBC clearly considers such methods to be somehow detrimental to their service and therefore with great regret I have decided to cease development.
I sincerely hope that, in the future, the BBC will make steps to support open source given that they have gained so much from it.
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wow
that was like a brick to the back of the head
I totally love get_iplayer, but I s’pose it’ll be ok till the bbc make the inevetable changes.
In the mean time I’ll have to learn how to use wireshark and firebug and see if I can’t work it out for myself
BIG thanks from me for get_iplayer and the time you’ve put into it
I think this is a spur to the rest of us who have been using get_iplayer to lobby the BBC to change their attitude to open source (or, to put it another way, not to always put the interests of the big studios and content creators ahead of ordinary people).
Thank-you for giving us a product that the BBC should have in the first place. I am so upset that you have chosen to stop developing get_iplayer. Good luck with what you choose to develop next.
Now, I’m off to complain to the BBC.
It is not surprising you have come to this decision, although obviously disappointing on a practical level.
Without entering into a diatribe about the long term death of the bbc it must be very frustrating to get the brick wall from the bbc when you are creating something which ideally would be available from them in the first place…
Thanks for all the effort, I hope you find something else to do which is more rewarded!
Hi Phil,
Really sorry to hear you’ve made this decision, and I completely agree with your disappointment about BBC’s attitude.
I can record from Freeview or Sky+ and keep the programme forever… why should downloading it be any different?? Come on BBC, think it through.
Yes indeed. It does seem that were back in the 1970s/1980s with the VCR battle all over again.
This is indeed a sad piece of news for the world of open source. I guess this loss will make us appreciate what we had and hopefully motivate us to fight harder next time.
Thanks very much for all your work on get_iplayer - I found the documentation on this site to be tremendously well written and helpful.
All the best,
Jim
This is a shame, but I can perfectly understand why you have done what you have done. Many many thanks for the all hardwork you have put into this project.
A sad sad day. Thank you for all your work. All we can hope is that the BBC will negotiate future rights to include storage beyond 30 days. To be honest, it is their only hope if they which to maintain a digital archive of all the content they produce.
Come on BBC, see the light of decentralised, crowd-sourced storage for your archive - we paid for it, we own it!
For me storage beyond 30 days is a different argument. I’m willing to accept a strict retention limit, but the final straw as far as the beeb’s own iplayer was concerned was when (on more than one occasion) it deleted unwatched programmes at <= 7 days. I could not trust it.
Anyway, a huge thank you to Phil, and hoping this is not really the end.
Many thanks for your efforts, it has been a real joy to use your software.
Take the survey or email the bbc in support of get_iplayer here:
https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-on-demand-offerings/consultation/consult_view
simple. I will NEVER pay a licence fee again, for ANY of my properties.
I am truly sorry to hear that you’ve taken the decision to discontinue get_iplayer. It’s a very valuable program, and makes an otherwise excessive license fee justifiable.
However, I should point out that it’s still working perfectly well for me, and the programmes that are failing with get_iplayer are also failing with the official iPlayer desktop client. I would call it more a balls-up than anything else, on the BBC’s part.
Whether or not you change your mind - and I very much hope you do - I’d like to join everyone else in thanking you for months and months of convenience and enjoyment.
Many thanks for your previous wonderful efforts. It is a great shame when big corporations grind down the small guy.
I feel like letting my licence lapse when it comes up for renewal.
I am really sorry to here this news. Well done for all your efforts despite our so called ‘public service’ broadcaster.
The BBC are currently holding a consultation on the iPlayer service which closes in a couple of days (12th March). Get it off your chest here.
https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-on-demand-offerings/consultation/consult_view
What is your position on people continuing to distribute and/or build upon your existing code?
The code is distributed under GPL v3, so you can modify it and redistribute it as you like, as long as you adhere to the licence.
It was all released under the GPLv3 license so I cannot stop anyone doing so.
What was the last version you made available? I wonder if you might make it available for download for a short time so that anyone who wanted to continue development could do so?
“Brick to the back of the head” just about covers it. Thank you for all your hard work - it’s a brilliant product.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can download BBC radio programmes without having to play them one at a time from the iPlayer, i.e. a playlist function?
I like to record all the programmes I am interested in and transfer them to my MP3 player to listen to when I’m out and about. It’s only really the Today programme that I listen to live. It’s not going to be very convenient if I have to keep coming back to my computer to start a new programme playing and it’s going to take a lot longer if I have to record them in real time.
A great thank you for all the effort that went in to get_iplayer. I wonder how long it will keep working?
BBC suck big time. And the licence fee is hanging by the finest of threads
I’m truly sorry to hear of your feelings in this matter, and I can’t help but say that I’d feel the same way. I’d like to thank you for all of your hard work, providing all of us with years of entertainment.
I know you’ve decided not to carry on development, but I hope that somebody does. My computer’s so old, the only way I can watch iPlayer programmes is by downloading them like this; all that Flash encryption (”public service” hah!) is making them unwatchable for me now.
I should also add that I’ve filled out the consultation (link above) and submitted a comment to the BBC Blog where they talk about this stuff - please do the same, everyone!
I am a licence payer and I watch most of my BBC content using the fantastic get_iPlayer. I work away from home so do not have access to my PVR, so being able to download BBC content as a video file, then watch it on my iPod Touch or laptop, suits me perfectly. News that get_iPlayer will not work is devastating. I will be on an domestic flight at Easter and was looking forward to catching up on programmes on my iPod while in the air. This is terrible news and will decimate the amount of BBC content that I will be able to watch. Not much point in me continuing to have a licence.
Thank-you for your fantastic effort over the couple of years you have been developing this. I am very sad to see it go.
I was wondering whether you had considered removing the download element from the script and transforming the script into one that simply informed users when a program matched their parameters was available to view on iPlayer.
This is how I have been using your script for months… I have a number of search terms that I look for every day. I used to run your script and it would tell me how many programmes there were and where to find them on the iPlayer site that matched my multiple search terms. It was simple and quicker to use than the official site which is why I used it.
If get_iplayer transmogrified into something like this I would certainly continue to use it.
Well I suspect that use case will not break in a hurry. Anyone can fork the code and change it as they see fit within the terms of the GPLv3 of course.
That’s really bad news. This is one of the most useful pieces of software ever. I must admit to be very dissapointed that you are completely discontinuing the software since it still works fine for radio streams.
The beeb are in a bit of a pickle here.
I don’t personally believe that “appeasing the content creators” is such a terrible thing, bearing in mind that they are broadcasting their programs over the internet. Regardless of what people think, the BBC have a legal obligation and I can understand perfectly that they’re not willing to shirk this responsibility for the sake of a few thousand plugin users that in 99.9% of cases have another option to access the iPlayer (albeit not their first choice).
They *could* leave their files unprotected, but how many of these TV studios do you think will be willing to license their content in the future if they know the BBC is letting people run wild with it?
I have faith that they will open it up to 3rd party plugins when and if they can. There is no reason for them not to, other than legalities, so we’re just going to have to wait for it to happen. Until then, I’m happy to watch iPlayer on my PC… or my Wii… or Virgin TV… or my nokia phone.
“but how many of these TV studios do you think will be willing to license their content in the future if they know the BBC is letting people run wild with it?”
Did you not consider that the BBC already free-to-air broadcasts this stuff and it’s recorded by probably 100,000’s PVRs every time perfectly legally??
Yes I did, but TV studios have no control over this (as they had no choice if people wanted to VCR programs in the 80-90’s)
But they *do* have a choice about whether they want to allow the BBC to stream their content over the internet.
Do you not think these TV studios would have taken steps to prevent VCR recording if there had been a technical way of doing it?
This doesn’t make the BBC’s stance on giving in to the rights holders any less pathetic given their size and the nature of the BBC as a public entity.
The use of VCRs for recording TV was judged to be legal - not because they couldn’t be technically stopped but because the overwhelming usage of VCRs was judged not be be for infringing copyright (at least this was what the Sony case concluded in the 80’s in the US)
This is not really about the BBC’s ‘legal obligation’ as it’s purely a contractual matter between the BBC and the rights holders. The BBC can/could have chosen to change or renegotiate contracts when they were agreed in the past and future.
“This is not really about the BBC’s ‘legal obligation’ as it’s purely a contractual matter between the BBC and the rights holders.”
Pardon me if I’m misunderstanding, but how can it not not be a question of legality, but still be a question of contractual obligation?
If the BBC sign a contract says they can/can’t do something, it is enforceable by law. Same difference.
Saying can/could means nothing really. Realistically, its not their choice. They just need to hope that the benefits of providing their programmes over a streaming service tempts the content owners into playing ball.
Yes of course contracts are legally enforceable - but then you misunderstood what I said - I was referring to the fact that the contract terms that supposedly prevent the BBC from streaming without DRM should not have be agreed to in the past few years. The BBC are just being spineless in this matter over negotiations with rights holders. The BBC should just say that they are going to allow such streaming and they have to either then not sign the contract or put up with it…
Thanks for backing down, dude!
You, sir, are and idiot. Go troll somewhere else.
Well, I’m ballsed.
Seriously though, thanks for all of your hard work here.
Oh no!!!!
I just came here to mention a little bug/feature, and I found the party is almost over :((
Thanks for all your excellent hard work and for providing me with an iPlayer solution that actually worked on Slackware.
You have earned much good karma, can’t say the same for the Beeb in this matter, grrrhhhhh.
Again, thanks!
How depressing. I only started using get_iplayer because the BBC’s own Adobe Air based “iplayer desktop” software ran so uselessly on my netbook - watching a video would consume 100% of the CPU time, and still stutter horribly. Movies downloaded with get_iplayer play perfectly in VLC and use barely any CPU time at all. I’d be happy to use their official software if they’d make it actually work!