3 ms·

Tim is as wrong in every way as he can possibly be wrong. Open source browsers where what introduced heterogenity to an IE6 monopoly on the web and it made the

by pyalot2 13y ago

Tim is as wrong in every way as he can possibly be wrong. Open source browsers where what introduced heterogenity to an IE6 monopoly on the web and it made the modern web as we know it possible in the first place. A heterogenous browser landscape is a vital component for a healthy web. Open Source browsers will not be able to use EME, because the CDM (the proprietary blob part) of it, cannot give random programs (like browsers, which need the raw bytes for layouting/compositing of the content) access. Because then the program could just dump the content in plain to disk. Hence, Open Source browsers would need to be excluded from accessing the CDM. As a result, Open Source browsers will begin their march towards oblivion as the proliferation of DRM on the web will render them incapable of serving up the content and they will become known as "those browsers that don't work".

dublinben 13y ago
Open source browsers will access the CDM just like proprietary browsers do, in a one-way fashion. The decrypted video stream will be sent straight to the display driver, likely on an HDCP protected pathway where available.
- pyalot2 13y ago
  That doesn't work. You don't seem to understand how a webpage is composited. The browser aquires all the bytes it needs to composit the page, and then it layers/animates them by whatever is a suitable compositor (software, hardware accelerated, whatever). This involves elements on top or behind other elements with various levels of alpha and/or other effects. The browser cannot do its job if it can't get access to the content.
  - dublinben 13y ago
    I certainly understand how a webpage is composited. Do you think that browsers can currently "get access to the content" being displayed by plugins like Flash and Silverlight?
    - shmerl 13y ago
      If browsers don't, your window managers surely do. So you can capture the screen with ease. In order to avoid that, Windows created a whole chain of DRM which prevents user from accessing it. This will never be possible on free software systems.
    - pyalot2 13y ago
      Yes. The embedd API defines a way for the browser to pass a framebuffer for flash to draw in (a framebuffer is just a buffer of pixels). It uses this 60x a second to composit with the page.
- shmerl 13y ago
  Open source OSes do not and will not implement "protected pathways", it violates the nature and expectations for those OSes. MS enabled this junk deep in its system. That's why the mere fact of using Windows already means using DRM.

by pyalot2 13y ago

dublinben 13y ago

Open source browsers will access the CDM just like proprietary browsers do, in a one-way fashion. The decrypted video stream will be sent straight to the display driver, likely on an HDCP protected pathway where available.

pyalot2 13y ago
That doesn't work. You don't seem to understand how a webpage is composited. The browser aquires all the bytes it needs to composit the page, and then it layers/animates them by whatever is a suitable compositor (software, hardware accelerated, whatever). This involves elements on top or behind other elements with various levels of alpha and/or other effects. The browser cannot do its job if it can't get access to the content.
- dublinben 13y ago
  I certainly understand how a webpage is composited. Do you think that browsers can currently "get access to the content" being displayed by plugins like Flash and Silverlight?
  - shmerl 13y ago
    If browsers don't, your window managers surely do. So you can capture the screen with ease. In order to avoid that, Windows created a whole chain of DRM which prevents user from accessing it. This will never be possible on free software systems.
  - pyalot2 13y ago
    Yes. The embedd API defines a way for the browser to pass a framebuffer for flash to draw in (a framebuffer is just a buffer of pixels). It uses this 60x a second to composit with the page.
shmerl 13y ago
Open source OSes do not and will not implement "protected pathways", it violates the nature and expectations for those OSes. MS enabled this junk deep in its system. That's why the mere fact of using Windows already means using DRM.