4 ms·

> The majority of the W3C membership is staying pretty quiet about it As gsnedders said, it doesn't matter. The EME spec is written and pushed by Google and Mi

by azakai 13y ago

> The majority of the W3C membership is staying pretty quiet about it As gsnedders said, it doesn't matter. The EME spec is written and pushed by Google and Microsoft, and Apple is on board. Those companies have a strong financial interest to do what hollywood asks here, and together they account for a large majority of the browser market. The only possible thing that could stop this is pressure on those browser vendors by users of those browsers - which means, for users to stop using them. So far, the public and even here on HN there is little interest in doing that.

higherpurpose 13y ago
I don't think Apple was initially on board. I think it may be there only since late last year. All of this started with Netflix, and the outrage should be directed mostly at them (but definitely at W3C and the 3 companies, too). Netflix got Microsoft (obviously, since Hastings is/was on their board), they got Google because of the Chromecast and perhaps some other previous partnerships, and also because Google is very interested in having content these days, which inevitably leads to them supporting the studios' corrupted ways to get the deals. And finally, I guess they got Apple, who saw Google and Microsoft was already on board, and thought it's a done deal, so why not? I just can't believe that Netflix & Co would rather ruin the web than try to negotiate harder with the studios and make them understand DRM doesn't work, or just get some other kind of deal that's perhaps a little more profitable for the studios. I mean Google managed to give people the same "Match-like" service for free to the users, while Apple charges $25 a year, right? And Apple managed to make their music DRM-free years ago, no? So I refuse to believe this is the only way around not using Silverlight and nothing can be done about it. There is a way - they just found it much easier to corrupt W3C, and I think this was MPAA's goal from the beginning. MPAA are the people who want to make IPSs all over the world police the web for them (ACTA/TPP), and want to be able to censor the websites they want off the web at will, with no judicial process (SOPA). So you can only imagine what they have in mind for the browser vendors. Bringing DRM to the web is merely Step 1. Protocols like WebRTC's Data Channels that can make file-sharing easy through the browser, the way https://www.sharefest.me https://www.sharefest.me does it? Well, I guess that needs to be banned and discarded now. We can't have such piracy-aiding tools in the browsers, now can we? And so on. It's clear MPAA runs the show already, if they got W3C, and 3 of the major browser vendors to do what they want. So expect more of this. MPAA member to take over after a "sudden" retiring of Tim Berners Lee from W3C in a couple of years? Wouldn't surprise me at this point.
- eridius 13y ago
  > I just can't believe that Netflix & Co would rather ruin the web People keep repeating this. How is it ruining the web to remove the requirement for crappy (and, at this point, end-of-lifed) browser plugins in order to play Netflix content? The only reason I, and I suspect most people, even bothered to install Silverlight was for Netflix. If I can get a pure HTML5 video-watching experience with no browser plugins, and get Netflix content, that is unambiguously a win for users everywhere. You're acting like DRM didn't exist on the web prior to EME, and would continue not existing without EME. That's flat-out wrong. It existed and continues to exist using proprietary software that is shoved down users' throats.
  - duncan_bayne 13y ago
    But you can't get a pure HTML5 DRM experience! All the HTML5 bit is, is a Javascript API to a CDM decryptor that is every bit as crappy, proprietary, closed-source, insecure and buggy as Flash or Silverlight.
    - pepr 13y ago
      Well, at the very least, it's a smaller piece of code :). (Don't get me wrong, I'm very strongly opposed to DRM and HTML5 DRM in particular.)
      - duncan_bayne 13y ago
        > Well, at the very least, it's a smaller piece of code :) I'll grant you that :)
      - fafner 13y ago
        Maybe compared to Flash and Silverlight because they provide much more. But a CDM module would still have to do all the decryption, decoding, rendering, overlaying the browser window stuff. So it would still be a rather large piece of code.
    - eridius 13y ago

by azakai 13y ago

higherpurpose 13y ago

I don't think Apple was initially on board. I think it may be there only since late last year. All of this started with Netflix, and the outrage should be directed mostly at them (but definitely at W3C and the 3 companies, too). Netflix got Microsoft (obviously, since Hastings is/was on their board), they got Google because of the Chromecast and perhaps some other previous partnerships, and also because Google is very interested in having content these days, which inevitably leads to them supporting the studios' corrupted ways to get the deals. And finally, I guess they got Apple, who saw Google and Microsoft was already on board, and thought it's a done deal, so why not? I just can't believe that Netflix & Co would rather ruin the web than try to negotiate harder with the studios and make them understand DRM doesn't work, or just get some other kind of deal that's perhaps a little more profitable for the studios. I mean Google managed to give people the same "Match-like" service for free to the users, while Apple charges $25 a year, right? And Apple managed to make their music DRM-free years ago, no? So I refuse to believe this is the only way around not using Silverlight and nothing can be done about it. There is a way - they just found it much easier to corrupt W3C, and I think this was MPAA's goal from the beginning. MPAA are the people who want to make IPSs all over the world police the web for them (ACTA/TPP), and want to be able to censor the websites they want off the web at will, with no judicial process (SOPA). So you can only imagine what they have in mind for the browser vendors. Bringing DRM to the web is merely Step 1. Protocols like WebRTC's Data Channels that can make file-sharing easy through the browser, the way https://www.sharefest.me https://www.sharefest.me does it? Well, I guess that needs to be banned and discarded now. We can't have such piracy-aiding tools in the browsers, now can we? And so on. It's clear MPAA runs the show already, if they got W3C, and 3 of the major browser vendors to do what they want. So expect more of this. MPAA member to take over after a "sudden" retiring of Tim Berners Lee from W3C in a couple of years? Wouldn't surprise me at this point.

eridius 13y ago
> I just can't believe that Netflix & Co would rather ruin the web People keep repeating this. How is it ruining the web to remove the requirement for crappy (and, at this point, end-of-lifed) browser plugins in order to play Netflix content? The only reason I, and I suspect most people, even bothered to install Silverlight was for Netflix. If I can get a pure HTML5 video-watching experience with no browser plugins, and get Netflix content, that is unambiguously a win for users everywhere. You're acting like DRM didn't exist on the web prior to EME, and would continue not existing without EME. That's flat-out wrong. It existed and continues to exist using proprietary software that is shoved down users' throats.
- duncan_bayne 13y ago
  But you can't get a pure HTML5 DRM experience! All the HTML5 bit is, is a Javascript API to a CDM decryptor that is every bit as crappy, proprietary, closed-source, insecure and buggy as Flash or Silverlight.
  - pepr 13y ago
    Well, at the very least, it's a smaller piece of code :). (Don't get me wrong, I'm very strongly opposed to DRM and HTML5 DRM in particular.)
    - duncan_bayne 13y ago
      > Well, at the very least, it's a smaller piece of code :) I'll grant you that :)
    - fafner 13y ago
      Maybe compared to Flash and Silverlight because they provide much more. But a CDM module would still have to do all the decryption, decoding, rendering, overlaying the browser window stuff. So it would still be a rather large piece of code.
  - eridius 13y ago