Fry hits out at ‘naive’ BBC over iPlayer

Comedian and self-confessed techie Stephen Fry has attacked the BBC for giving away programmes on iPlayer - and to prove his point he has revealed how he regularly breaches the service's copy protection system himself by downloading material from home computer onto his Apple iPhone.

Fry accuses the corporation's executives of "incredible naivety" for believing they could control the programmes they put online (shows on iPlayer are meant to be viewable for a week only, and can be stored on a computer for up to 30 days).

Speaking in a series of lectures organised by the BBC to inform the debate over public service broadcasting, Fry said: "There is this marvellous idea the iPlayer is secure. It's anything but secure. The BBC is throwing out really valuable content for free. It shows an incredible naivety about how the internet and digital devices work.

"The BBC is making a lot of enemies giving away free programmes to an internet that everyone else is trying to monetise; at the moment, it's relying on the fact you have to be slightly dorky to record from the iPlayer; but, believe me, that will change. It will soon be the work of a moment for my mother to get an iPlayer programme off her computer and on to her iPod, iPhone, or whatever device she chooses."

Fry, of course, has good reason to draw attention to this loophole: he receives a percentage of earnings from DVD sales of QI, the quiz show he presents for the BBC.