The national Italian television, RAI, unfortunately uses silverlight for its streaming site, and even if Linux and Mac users have repeatedly asked to guarantee technological neutrality as stated in its published mission, to date still hasn't quit the use of this Microsoft product.

This has prompted several users to look for alternative ways to connect to RAI streams (which by the way are financed by Italian taxpayers).
This has been a long struggle including cryptoanalysis and deobfuscation of code. To make a long story short, presently RAI can be seen on Linux devices, until some kind of stronger cryptography eventually will be used from server side. (N900 enclosed )

Having silverlight could be useful to see RAI streams without reverting to hacks - even if one has to accept yet another binary from Redmond.