Open source activists have protested to the BBC about Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) software being built into iPlayer content.

Events were staged outside BBC buildings in London and Manchester, during which protestors in bright yellow Hazmat suits showed their displeasure at the iPlayer using DRM, and especially Microsoft's DRM.

Dr Derek Wall, principal speaker for the Green Party, who joined protesters in London from DefectiveByDesign.org, said: "For years, anyone with a TV and video could record BBC programmes and keep them as long as they wanted.

"Now, with this new service, you have to own a specific brand of computer system - Microsoft. How does that help schools and home users to move away from the Microsoft monopoly? It doesn't.

"It gives them another reason to keep buying the over-priced and insecure Windows operating system."

The iPlayer program will allow computer users to watch content from the previous seven days over the internet.

The BBC has already promised to build an open source version of the iPlayer but protestors are worried that Microsoft's DRM might exclude them.

Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, who attended the protest, spoke about what he described as the "corrupting influence" of Microsoft.

"BBC values have been corrupted because BBC executives are too closely associated with Microsoft [and] because the iPlayer uses proprietary software and standards made under an exclusive deal with Microsoft," he said.

"BBC values have been corrupted because licence fee payers must accept DRM technologies that spy and monitor on the digital files held on their computers. "