5 ms·
Boy howdy, this is one subject where I loathe saying "I told you so", but... I sure told you so.[1] HTML DRM is antithetical to the Open Web itself. It was bui
by Daiz 8y ago
Boy howdy, this is one subject where I loathe saying "I told you so", but... I sure told you so.[1]
HTML DRM is antithetical to the Open Web itself. It was built on a sham of "plugin-free" media playback, but all we did was change Flash and Silverlight for a whole range of closed black boxes, which in turn are effectively all controlled by Big Media (to make it crystal clear: EME was built with third-party decryption modules in mind, and Big Media was obviously never going to support any sort of decryption modules that they couldn't control, so even if your custom browser supports EME it's completely useless without a Big Media-approved decryption module). And make no mistake: Requiring permission from Big Media to essentially build a fully-fledged browser is a 100% intended and expected outcome of HTML DRM as conceived. Big Media would love nothing more than to turn the entirety of the Open Web into Closed Web that they control, and with HTML DRM they've certainly achieved a great step toward doing so, to the detriment of public at wide. I'm sure they're positively salivating about the thought of eventually reaching The Right to Read![2]
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7747142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7747142
[2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago> The Right to Read As interesting to read as the first twelve times.
- Ironchefpython 8y agoTo be fair, even if there wasn't a DRM-standard, he still wouldn't be able to build his application, because there would still be DRM.
- Simple_Guy 8y agothat's the important point. DRM is the price one must pay to consume BIG MEDIA content. there's no getting around it. if you want it you have to play by their rules.
- chii 8y agoWhile that's true at the moment, I had hoped that the web being such a big market, it would entice content producers to deploy without DRM for fear of losing market share to other content providers who do. But with the introduction of DRM into the standard, this is no longer possible.
- Simple_Guy 8y agoThere are still plenty of providers who don't use DRM. You just want the DRM users content but you want it without DRM. So what really happened is the content producers enticed the users into DRM with their content. It's the other way around, and the consumers voted with their wallet (and clicks)
- lugg 8y agoHow did it make it into the standard? And why would anyone follow this standard?
- tveita 8y ago> DRM is the price one must pay to consume BIG MEDIA content. It's just what big media has happened to get away with. If they found themselves without a way for their paying customers to access their content via DRM, they'd drop the requirement on the spot, with little to no financial impact except for DRM scheme licensing fees.
- Mindwipe 8y agoThey really wouldn't. They'd just move into proprietary hardware. Several of them already have. Most studios really wouldn't find blocking all PC access to their content to materially affect them.
- kibwen 8y agoHear hear. The parent commenter's I-told-you-so attitude frustrates me because it completely misses the point: Google de-facto controls the web, and the W3C is essentially irrelevant. Trying to suggest that the W3C's opposition would have stopped any of this is completely naive, and only serves to shift the blame.
- PunksATawnyFill 8y agoYeah, LET'S GIVE UP.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deepstream 8y agoSurprisingly to me the author of "down and out in the magic kingdom" and the maintainer of BOINGBOING supports web DRM and he's part of the W3C committee. he's a great author and a good person with an anti-authoritarian bent I don't understand his position on this.
- fanf2 8y agoThat is exactly backwards. Doctorow was the EFF representative on the committee, and the EFF resigned from the W3C as a result of them approving DRM. https://www.zdnet.com/article/eff-resigns-from-w3c-in-wake-of-eme-drm-standardisation/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/eff-resigns-from-w3c-in-wake-o...
- jpollock 8y agoThat doesn't sound right to me. Do you have a link where he comes out as pro-DRM? That doesn't fit with my knowledge of Cory Doctorow's position. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cory-doctorow-walkaway-science-fiction-drm https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cory-doctorow-walkaway-scien...
- tomcatfish 8y agoYeah, I believe Doctorow has multiple characters (from multiple books) say something along the lines of "no lock is there for your protection", and I'm certain I've read his opinions on DRM to be negative multiple times. Hell, I'm fairly certain he had a deal with Barnes and Noble to publish his book without DRM which was nonstandard at the time.
- Reelin 8y agoThat would greatly surprise me. He is very explicitly against DRM. https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
- sireat 8y agoThat seems uncharacteristic of Doctorow. He used(still does?) publish his books free of DRM and free to download under CC license. https://craphound.com/overclocked/download/ https://craphound.com/overclocked/download/ It would be strange for an author of Printcrime (fantastic short read from 20 years ago) to support DRM.
- profmonocle 8y agoThe saddest part is it doesn't even seem to accomplish anything. What would-be pirates are actually being foiled by this? Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime use EME, but all their exclusive content is still readily available on torrent sites. Does it raise the difficulty bar? It's hard to imagine anyone who knows how to rip video from their browser doesn't know how to torrent something.
- ndnxhs 8y agoIt almost seams entirely to please management. The local TV stations use eme and yet youtube-dl still works fine on them.
- voltagex_ 8y agoCan you provide examples? Some local stations in Australia have switched on DRM and I can't save anything. Over the air is still unencrypted though.
- antoinevg 8y agoDRM technologies are often sold to the public & content providers as an anti-piracy measure but that has never been the intent. It's _always_ been about control on the creation and manufacture of playback platforms and/or devices.
- 8y ago
- cb504 8y agoThe whole discussion revolves around video. You can't imagine a browser today that is "just a reader" (Mosaic? hahaha), no one would use a browser without video support.
- dijksterhuis 8y agoI would. I love a browser that renders everything to plain text (go Lynx!). Much less guff to download.