5 ms·

Can someone explain what's the point of DRM for video streaming when you can do screen recording so easily. It could make sense in books and games but why is ne

Can someone explain what's the point of DRM for video streaming when you can do screen recording so easily. It could make sense in books and games but why is netflix such a heavy proponent for it?

bawolff 5y ago
Depending on the solution,it might involve watermarking so that they can trace where the streams that end up on the internet come from and cut off those users. If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break. Although the real answer is probably: studios require it in their contracts and netflix has to play nice.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  > If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break. That would happen with or without DRM.
  - bawolff 5y ago
    But DRM would in principle require you to watch it all in real time, which would probably help with profiling the abnormal behaviour.
    - hbogert 5y ago
      Without DRM you could stream faster than realtime, but that would be even weirder right? But maybe I'm missing the point of this thread.
lathiat 5y ago
You will most likely find that your OS gives you a black square for the DRM content when you record the screen. This is facilitated by OS support on Windows, iOS, etc. It’s also why HDCP exists to prevent capture from HDMI etc.
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  A workaround for that is to put a lightweight OS onto a virtualbox VM and then record the output from the Host OS after putting the VM into fullscreen mode, or you cand buy a cheap HDMI splitter that accepts HDCP on the input but doesn't put it back on the output.
- ficklepickle 5y ago
  It doesn't on linux distros. It's dead easy to record DRM'd media, although it takes a little bit of oomph to not drop frames. This is why Netflix limits Linux to 1080p.
Mindwipe 5y ago
Any DRM solution sufficient to get high resolution content from Netflix encrypts the video path from the OS so no screen recording tool will work.
native_samples 5y ago
I think people often evaluate DRM as if it stands alone. In reality it's only one component in an integrated system of technology, economics and law. A good enough DRM system does not have to be 100% unbeatable all the time. It's sufficient to: a. Delay a hacked release until after most of the sales have already occurred. This is very often the case with successful game DRM. A crack after six months is irrelevant because virtually all the sales are in the first month or so. A crack that comes out after everyone with interest has already ponied up doesn't matter much, and in fact an unbeatable DRM that never gets cracked would suggest misallocation of resources! b. Focus cracks on a handful of specialists who can then be investigated and potentially prosecuted or bought out. A DRM so easy 100,000 people can crack it is very different to a DRM that only 5 people have cracks for and where they keep their cracks private. The latter becomes amenable to non-technical approaches. Again, an unbeatable DRM would probably represent a waste of effort. There are quite a few DRM schemes that have achieved this level of good-enough success which is why despite decades of people railing against it in online forums such as this one, it sticks around regardless.

Can someone explain what's the point of DRM for video streaming when you can do screen recording so easily. It could make sense in books and games but why is netflix such a heavy proponent for it?

bawolff 5y ago

Depending on the solution,it might involve watermarking so that they can trace where the streams that end up on the internet come from and cut off those users. If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break. Although the real answer is probably: studios require it in their contracts and netflix has to play nice.

Wowfunhappy 5y ago
> If nothing else, im sure it shows up in the analytics if someone's netflix account is 24/7 streaming every episode of every show without break. That would happen with or without DRM.
- bawolff 5y ago
  But DRM would in principle require you to watch it all in real time, which would probably help with profiling the abnormal behaviour.
  - hbogert 5y ago
    Without DRM you could stream faster than realtime, but that would be even weirder right? But maybe I'm missing the point of this thread.

lathiat 5y ago

You will most likely find that your OS gives you a black square for the DRM content when you record the screen. This is facilitated by OS support on Windows, iOS, etc. It’s also why HDCP exists to prevent capture from HDMI etc.

BizarroLand 5y ago
A workaround for that is to put a lightweight OS onto a virtualbox VM and then record the output from the Host OS after putting the VM into fullscreen mode, or you cand buy a cheap HDMI splitter that accepts HDCP on the input but doesn't put it back on the output.
ficklepickle 5y ago
It doesn't on linux distros. It's dead easy to record DRM'd media, although it takes a little bit of oomph to not drop frames. This is why Netflix limits Linux to 1080p.

Mindwipe 5y ago

Any DRM solution sufficient to get high resolution content from Netflix encrypts the video path from the OS so no screen recording tool will work.

native_samples 5y ago

I think people often evaluate DRM as if it stands alone. In reality it's only one component in an integrated system of technology, economics and law. A good enough DRM system does not have to be 100% unbeatable all the time. It's sufficient to: a. Delay a hacked release until after most of the sales have already occurred. This is very often the case with successful game DRM. A crack after six months is irrelevant because virtually all the sales are in the first month or so. A crack that comes out after everyone with interest has already ponied up doesn't matter much, and in fact an unbeatable DRM that never gets cracked would suggest misallocation of resources! b. Focus cracks on a handful of specialists who can then be investigated and potentially prosecuted or bought out. A DRM so easy 100,000 people can crack it is very different to a DRM that only 5 people have cracks for and where they keep their cracks private. The latter becomes amenable to non-technical approaches. Again, an unbeatable DRM would probably represent a waste of effort. There are quite a few DRM schemes that have achieved this level of good-enough success which is why despite decades of people railing against it in online forums such as this one, it sticks around regardless.