Open letter to British Telecom: please include freedom in your new music service

[FSFE]

== Open letter to British Telecom: please include freedom in your new music 
service ==

Dear BT,

British Telecom is a leader of telecommunication and digital content markets, 
and has a reputation for product innovation. Plans recently reported for a new 
not-for-profit music download service [1] for BT's 5.5 million broadband 
customers have sparked much discussion, and once again placed BT at the fore 
of the future of digital content delivery in th UK.

Amongst those speculating about the nature of the new service are the growing 
number of BT customers who use Free Software [2] web-browsers, operating 
systems, and multimedia players. Currently these and other Free Software users 
are unable to enjoy many popular content delivery systems such as Spotify, 
Steam, and iTunes, because they are not compatible with Free Software, or 
require the waiving of users' rights and freedoms in order to use them [3] [4] 
[5]. The nature of BT's new service, and the extent to which it respects the 
freedom of it's users, are therefore of particular concern.

Powerful new Open Standards [6] like HTML5 and CSS3, combined with widely used 
Free Software codecs for rich multimedia like VP8 and Ogg Vorbis, make it 
easier than ever to build powerful cross-platform applications which respect 
user freedom whilst maintaining long term accessibility. Recent adoption of 
these technologies by established content providers such as YouTube, the 
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Dailymotion, and Deutschlandradio, reflect 
a growing industry trend towards platform independence through use of Free 
Software and Open Standards [7] [8] [9] [10].

In addition to these web-based technologies exists Free Software tools like Qt 
and Gtk, which continue to be used by thousands of companies [11] to develop 
world-class desktop applications compatible with all major operating systems.

BT already makes wide use of Free Software [12], and "recognises, and welcomes 
the use of open source software" [13]. Therefore we ask that you recognise the 
value of your customer's freedom as you design and deploy your new 
subscription service, and take the opportunity to benefit from one of the many 
Free Software technologies which will allow you to achieve this.

The Free Software Foundation Europe is happy to assist you with any questions 
regarding this issue or Free Software and Open Standards in general.

Yours Sincerely,

UK Team, Free Software Foundation Europe

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/mar/28/bt-illegal-filesharing-
music
2. http://fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.en.html
3. http://www.spotify.com/int/legal/end-user-agreement/#section-12
4. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-08-12-valve-on-steam-part-two-
interview
5. http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/itunes.pdf
6. http://fsfe.org/projects/os/os.html
7. http://www.youtube.com/html5
8. http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/playogg/sites/norway
9. http://www.dailymotion.com/html5
10. http://www.dradio.de/wir/ogg/
11. http://www.digia.com/C2256FEF0043E9C1/0/405002251
12. http://opensource.bt.com/ under "products and projects"
13. 
http://www.selling2bt.bt.com/Downloads/BTOpenSourcePolicyextractsforsuppliersIssue1.pdf

FSFE UK Team homepage: http://uk.fsfe.org

== Contacts ==

Free Software Foundation Europe
E-Mail: press at fsfeurope.org

Sam Tuke, UK Team Coordinator
+44 78680 77871

Karsten Gerloff, President
+49-176-96904298

http://www.fsfe.org/contact


== About the Free Software Foundation Europe ==

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a non-profit non-
governmental organisation active in many European countries and
involved in many global activities. Access to software determines
participation in a digital society. To secure equal participation in
the information age, as well as freedom of competition, the Free
Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) pursues and is dedicated to the
furthering of Free Software, defined by the freedoms to use, study,
modify and copy. Founded in 2001, creating awareness for these issues,
securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people
Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issue
of the FSFE.