get_iplayer (renamed to get-iplayer for Debian naming restrictions) avoids this by fetching programmes through the iPhone channel in reasonable quality and saving them to disk. However, this also evades the DRM protection so the user is free to keep the files for as long as (s)he likes, which obviously isn't what the BBC wishes. Upstreams documentation does encourage users to respect the restrictions that would be in place and remove files after they should have expired, but there is no technical mechanism for doing so. Can you advise what the Debian position on this is? Please keep me in CC.
Not the Debian position, but more the general Free Software attitude of "respect other peoples' copyrights" ...
get-iplayer should implement a technical system whereby it downloads the expiry dates, and auto-deletes the files if the expiry date has passed. If you don't have access to the expiry dates, then default to the 7/30 day limit from the date of download. Okay, any experienced user can trivially by-pass that mechanism, but it takes a conscious effort.
At the end of the day, you should respect other peoples wishes with regard to their stuff. If other people choose not to, that's their lookout. Look at the way (I think) official Ghostscript respects Adobe's copy-protection bits. Again, it's trivial to bypass but by default the software respects the copyright holder's wishes.
Cheers, Wol -- Anthony W. Youngman - anthony@thewolery.demon.co.uk