Happy Burns Day!

[McClef]

Another example would be the royalty rights to Peter Pan with the monies going to Great Ormonde Street Childrens Hospital in London.

But such examples are still indeed rare.

The issue is not the BBC trying to withhold Scottish national treasures from the world, it is the costs and legalities of content due to agreements made carried by the BBC on the internet being allowed outside the UK. In fact not everything is available even within the UK - feature films and sport for example are often not available on iplayer.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.u...availableprogs

Here the issue clearly isn't Burns but the contractual/agreement stuff with the artist performing Burns who is a member of Equity, the actors and performers union who set various terms and conditions Repeat fee issues etc could all add to extra expense without compensating income.

And it's not just the BBC - folk have often posted links that can be accessed within the USA (Hulu for example) that produce the same problem elsewhere.

Right I'm off to watch a BBC Scotland programme about Burns on iplayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...rns_Episode_1/

Frustrating I'm afraid to those with the wrong ip address.

[Lallans]

I'm saddened just now, well sort of, to hear on my other favoritie leftwing network, the CBC or CEEB, that the BBC has announced major cuts to its international and other programming, with hundreds (?) of layoffs. Perhaps they have been laying the groundwork for foreign user fees all along- which- AHA!- is what I've been suspecting.

The background of all this, and also my sincere citizen-at-large concern, is that the BBC is not functioning as an ambassador for the UK anymore; they are cutting you guys off from world exposure with these internet practices and other restrictive and pricing shenanigans.