4 ms·

It will be: "You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. EME is steering f

by pyalot2 13y ago

It will be: "You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. EME is steering full steam ahead into a new proprietary browser monopoly with either Microsoft or Google coming out on top and having their position cemented by DRM, forever, thanks to the DMCA (because when have meaningful copyright reforms happened, ever?) So what's at stake here is the future of the web, as we know it, as a platform. And if you want to know how that future under EME looks like, go no further than look back at the 6 years of utter stagnation when IE6 held that monopoly.

asadotzler 13y ago
"'You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM." pyalot2, why do you think Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. Adobe and Microsoft and Google have had no problems making plug-ins for Firefox in the past, why would they stop now?
chc 13y ago
> It will be: "You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. This is not in evidence. You might be right, but since there is no obvious reason to believe it, surely you can see why others don't make that assumption. > And if you want to know how that future under EME looks like, go no further than look back at the 6 years of utter stagnation when IE6 held that monopoly. I can't understand what parallel you're trying to draw here. The IE 6 monopoly did not arise because of a DRM standard; it arose because Microsoft killed its competition by giving its browser away for free with Windows.
- pyalot2 13y ago
  > I can't understand what parallel you're trying to draw here. The IE 6 monopoly did not arise because of a DRM standard; it arose because Microsoft killed its competition by giving its browser away for free with Windows. That's correct on the cause. But the cause of why a monopoly comes into being doesn't matter. The effect is what matters, those years spent with the web standing still technology wise. Just like microsoft managed to kill other browsers because they bundled it with their OS, they're now trying to kill other browsers by bundling them with the one and only DRM that will make Netflix work.
ubernostrum 13y ago
because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. I sat in on a session on EME at the Mozilla summit this past weekend. If Firefox is going to be barred from accessing CDMs, that's news to Mozilla. So maybe you could provide some actual facts and citations instead of fear-mongering?
- pyalot2 13y ago
  Netflix supports a particular CDM (Widevine). That CDM isn't supported (yet) in chrome for desktops. It is supported on IE11 for desktops and on Chrome for chromebooks. The CDM provider (Widevine) has not made the CDM runtime available to other parties. And they aren't planing on making them available to open source projects. I know this because I asked them for a runtime and documentation, insistently, and every single integration partner refused to deliver one. Just like I will be unable to obtain a CDM and documentation, Mozilla will be unable to. Not because Mozilla is so much bigger than I am, but because Widevine does not make their CDM available for open source use. They don't make it available, because it would mean that you could circumvent the DRM in it really easy (you just tell the CDM to give you the plain content you want to dump to disk). That means that Mozilla has no avenue open to obtain CDM that works with Netflix, and they can't reverse engineer the one found in IE11 and Chrome on Chromebooks, because that would be a violation of the DMCAs anti DRM circumvention clauses.

by pyalot2 13y ago

asadotzler 13y ago

"'You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM." pyalot2, why do you think Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. Adobe and Microsoft and Google have had no problems making plug-ins for Firefox in the past, why would they stop now?

chc 13y ago

> It will be: "You can't watch this video because you don't have IE11 or Chrome" because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. This is not in evidence. You might be right, but since there is no obvious reason to believe it, surely you can see why others don't make that assumption. > And if you want to know how that future under EME looks like, go no further than look back at the 6 years of utter stagnation when IE6 held that monopoly. I can't understand what parallel you're trying to draw here. The IE 6 monopoly did not arise because of a DRM standard; it arose because Microsoft killed its competition by giving its browser away for free with Windows.

pyalot2 13y ago
> I can't understand what parallel you're trying to draw here. The IE 6 monopoly did not arise because of a DRM standard; it arose because Microsoft killed its competition by giving its browser away for free with Windows. That's correct on the cause. But the cause of why a monopoly comes into being doesn't matter. The effect is what matters, those years spent with the web standing still technology wise. Just like microsoft managed to kill other browsers because they bundled it with their OS, they're now trying to kill other browsers by bundling them with the one and only DRM that will make Netflix work.

ubernostrum 13y ago

because Firefox will be legally barred from accessing the CDM. I sat in on a session on EME at the Mozilla summit this past weekend. If Firefox is going to be barred from accessing CDMs, that's news to Mozilla. So maybe you could provide some actual facts and citations instead of fear-mongering?

pyalot2 13y ago
Netflix supports a particular CDM (Widevine). That CDM isn't supported (yet) in chrome for desktops. It is supported on IE11 for desktops and on Chrome for chromebooks. The CDM provider (Widevine) has not made the CDM runtime available to other parties. And they aren't planing on making them available to open source projects. I know this because I asked them for a runtime and documentation, insistently, and every single integration partner refused to deliver one. Just like I will be unable to obtain a CDM and documentation, Mozilla will be unable to. Not because Mozilla is so much bigger than I am, but because Widevine does not make their CDM available for open source use. They don't make it available, because it would mean that you could circumvent the DRM in it really easy (you just tell the CDM to give you the plain content you want to dump to disk). That means that Mozilla has no avenue open to obtain CDM that works with Netflix, and they can't reverse engineer the one found in IE11 and Chrome on Chromebooks, because that would be a violation of the DMCAs anti DRM circumvention clauses.