Regarding the July 19 article "NHK to be first here with programs on Net": NHK appears to have fallen into the same trap that the BBC has. It has swallowed the DRM (digital rights management) "snake oil."
No DRM system in widespread use has remained uncracked for more than a few months at best. In addition, high-quality digital broadcasts without any restrictions are already available, with copies available online on peer-to-peer networks within an hour of broadcast for popular shows and within a day for less popular material. Any "catch-up" service offered by broadcasters directly is likely to be of lower quality than these online versions. Applying the flawed DRM systems to this lower-quality official online system is likely to lead to continued viewer reliance on the "darknet" rather than the official provision.
Broadcasters should be working with the best, not the worst, possibilities of new technology in fulfilling their public service mission. They should not be wasting their funders' money on expensive DRM systems whose only benefit is to make official-service use more awkward for viewers rather than offer significant protection to rights holders.
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