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What's Actually Wrong With DRM In HTML5?

kxra writes "The Free Culture Foundation has posted a thorough response to the most common and misinformed defenses of the W3C's Extended Media Extensions (EME) proposal to inject DRM into HTML5. They join the EFF and FSF in a call to send a strong message to the W3C that DRM in HTML5 undermines the W3C's self-stated mission to make the benefits of the Web 'available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.' The FCF counters the three most common myths by unpacking some quotes which explain that 1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man. DRM is about limiting the functionality of devices and selling features back in the form of services. 2.) DRM in HTML5 doesn't obsolete proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins; it encourages them. 3.) the Web doesn't need big media; big media needs the Web." Also: the FSF has announced that a coalition of 27 web freedom organizations have sent a joint letter to the W3C opposing DRM support in HTML5.

447 comments

  1. What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It exists...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      DRM in HTML5 doesn't obsolete proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins; it encourages them.

      The only reason any thinking human ever made a conscious informed decision to install Silverlight was to watch Netflix.

    2. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly.

    3. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The only reason any thinking human ever made a conscious informed decision to install Silverlight was to watch Netflix.

      I've always assumed the name "Silverlight" was chosen precisely because it was a platform designed primarily to allow you to watch movies.

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix, so I'm all for DRM in HTML5. If it's not embraced in some way by the standard, it will happen anyway, and be platform specific and even more annoying.

      There is no "movies without DRM" option available to the standards committee, sorry.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    4. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Minwee · · Score: 5, Funny

      Really? I always thought they chose that because "Silverfish" was already trademarked by someone else.

    5. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 0

      I watch Netflix and I never installed Silverlight. It's only required if you're nerd enough to watch movies on your computer screen, using a Web browser.

    6. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If it's not embraced in some way by the standard, it will happen anyway, and be platform specific and even more annoying.

      And this is why circumvention is important and necessary.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    7. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by larpon · · Score: 2

      I second that. The simple look, feel and maybe even taste of the phrase "rights management" gives me the creeps. Rights are supposed to free - no matter to whom they belong.

    8. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've always assumed the name "Silverlight" was chosen precisely because it was a platform designed primarily to allow you to watch movies.

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix, so I'm all for DRM in HTML5.

      Have you read the proposed standard? All it provides for are some javascript bits and pieces for interacting with the 'CDM', a totally unspecified piece of software and/or hardware that handles decryption and optionally on-screen rendering.

      They don't call it this, of course; but it's a plugin, albeit one that is invoked in the 'video' tag rather than the 'object' tag.

      No CDM for your platform? No playback. That's the thing, this isn't even some 'well, pragmatic compromise to gain greater functionality' thing: it constitutes absolutely no improvement over the current 'proprietary plugin required to playback DRMed movies' situation, it just changes 'plugin' to 'Content Decryption Module' and slightly changes the mechanism for talking to it.

      Platform independent? Absolutely nothing in the spec about that(indeed, 'CDM may use or defer to platform capabilities', so it's explicitly OK for CDMs to have design features that require certain platform specific features).

      An improvement in the integration of video into the page, DOM access, etc? Well, requesting the encrypted video is handled in javascript and HTML; but the CDM blackboxes everything from decryption to (optionally, probably mandatory if anybody is worried about the browser just grabbing decrypted frames) painting onscreen. Totally opaque blob embedded in the page, just like a plugin.

      Other than giving the "HTML5!" stamp of approval to absolutely whatever CDMs people wish to use, the proposal really isn't "in" HTML5 at all. The CDM, the only important part of the game, is 'HTML5' in the sense that Java Applets, or flash objects, or ActiveX controls, are HTML: they can be embedded in web pages using HTML tags. That's it.

    9. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How does it feel?

      To be this cool?

    10. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by jakimfett · · Score: 1

      Actually, I first installed it (under great protest) when WotC discontinued their DnD character builder application for the Windows desktop.

      --
      Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
    11. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Miros · · Score: 2

      What? There are a lot of different 'rights' out there - are you arguing that there shouldn't be notions of property and 'property rights?'

    12. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      If only there were some way to hook a computer to an HDTV, but that would be impossible right?

    13. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix

      Bullshit. If for whatever reason it was physically impossible for DRM to be implemented*, you can bet your ass that Netflix would still exist, with all the same content available on it today. Movie companies wouldn't simply pass up the additional revenue.

      *Ignoring for a second the fact that DRM is already impossible because, at its core, it means disallowing access to Brad but allowing access to Carl, when Brad and Carl are the same fucking person.

    14. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's "nerd" to watch movies on a computer? Grow up you antiquated moron. I set up exactly that kind of thing for friends and family because they found it easier to type out a movie name into Netflix search despite their horrendous point and peck typing. Their TVs are plugged into their PC's second monitor port and set for clone so that the TV and monitor get the same picture. Not much "nerd" about it when this is people that are pretty dumb when it comes to computers and technology in general.

    15. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by the_B0fh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just so you can watch netflix, we ought to fuck over HTML5?

      No, fuck you and your overly endowed sense of entitlement.

    16. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Dahamma · · Score: 2

      I think you need to brush up on your logic statements... a converse is not equivalent ;)

      "If you have installed Silverlight, you must watch Netflix" != "if you watch Netflix, you must have installed Silverlight"...

    17. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      So as long as you get netflix, people can impose whatever restrictive scheme they want?

    18. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is one reason I think HTML5 is just a joke. HTML used to be about presenting information, but in HTM5 it's being turned into an application platform. Sort of like the difference between a Postscript viewer and the latest Adobe Reader.

    19. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you need to watch movies in the browser? Why not a Netflix, or some other movie player application?

    20. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no "movies without DRM" option available to the standards committee, sorry.

      Perhaps our standards for a markup language shouldn't be based around the convenience of streaming movies.

    21. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with that snark is that web based video streaming on a PC still sucks. It's a variation on the "Flash sucks" meme. Silverlight isn't much better. You're still going to be going about the task in the least efficient manner possible. You will need more machine than what's really necessary.

      This is why a $60 speciality appliance can manage the task better.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    22. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      The only winning move is not to play. If it doesn't bring DRM free movies to all platforms then it's not worth doing at all.

      HTML5 should not facilitate abusive business models. It should display media as best as possible.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    23. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > It's "nerd" to watch movies on a computer?

      Pretty much.

      You can set up an HTPC but it's still something that's intended to behave like a Tivo or a Roku. Anything else is going to get end user resistance from "normal people".

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    24. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Free free to write all the standard that you want that will be of no interest to consumers - no one will notice, so have fun. Standardizing the presentation of video on the web is the primary gain of HTML5 from the consumer's point of view, and without that it would have been as successful as XHTML.

      And "presentation of video on the web" means DRM. Yes, that blows goats. Doesn't change the truth of it.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    25. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Eventually the content providers will just provide DRM free media anyways. Do you know why? For the same reason why they still allow content to be broadcast over the air DRM free:

      In spite of making threats that they wouldn't permit broadcasts of their media without a broadcast flag, none was ever implemented so they permitted it anyways because it was too lucrative to not do so.

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    26. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by gr8_phk · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is no "movies without DRM" option available to the standards committee, sorry.

      Actually, the video tag works just fine without DRM - go watch YouTube with HTML 5 and no DRM. The reality may be that there is no netflix in HTML 5 without DRM, but there will certainly be a netflix plugin or standalone app with DRM if it's not in HTML5. There really is no purpose for it in the standard - it's just a standard way to embed non-standard stuff in the web, and that's not good for anyone.

    27. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix, so I'm all for DRM in HTML5. If it's not embraced in some way by the standard, it will happen anyway, and be platform specific and even more annoying.

      THEN LET IT BE. The HTML standard shouldn't suffer because of your lack of willpower.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    28. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 2

      The ability of people to impose whatever restrictive scheme they want persists regardless of the recognition of the existence of DRM in the HTML5 standard. There's nothing the W3C can to do prevent DRM on streaming video.

      A standard is only useful and relevant to the extent that it standardizes what actually happens. Wishcasting has no place in a standards body.

      Netflix streaming is a significant part of the internet. Netflix will have DRM, like it or not. A standard that simply ignores the reality of a significant part of the market just isn't a very good standard.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    29. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is not a political action committee. Your personal desire for this DRM-free fantasy land that will never exist has no relevance to the goals of a standards body.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    30. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by brillow · · Score: 1

      So if that's all it's doing then what's wrong with it?

      If its such a minor and inconsequential thing, who cares?

    31. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And it doesn't belong in a standard that will be implemented in the W3C reference source because the DRM won't be allowed in open source code.

      It can't work there.

      So it shouldn't BE there.

    32. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      The issue is whether or not that DRM should be enabled by the standard, or even a part of the standard, or whether the standard should remain open to the original idea of enabling the viewing of content in an open manner.

      Adobe Flash is a significant part of the internet, but it would be ridiculous to have HTML include it as part of the standard or to have a standardized "flash" tag.

    33. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you arguing there should be an NGO *managing* one's rights in regards to property? Yes, "Property Rights Management," as in extrajudicial or extralegislative processes to oversee that I am properly authorized to utilize my property.... that creeps me the hell out too.

    34. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Microlith · · Score: 2, Informative

      Doesn't change the truth of it.

      That's not the truth. The truth is that a banal bunch in Hollywood think DRM is actually useful, and are trying to force their twisted view of reality on everyone else.

    35. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      larpon is clearly not arguing that. He's saying that the word 'rights' isn't the right word to use in this context. Maybe we should instead call it DAUM, Digital Allowed Usage Management. Because "Big Media" would have you believe that you have no 'rights' related to the content you've leased, except how they allow you to use it.

    36. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Actually, there is. the tag works with DRM free files and formats just fine. Movies can be put into those formats and hosted on the same servers as the web pages. What's being excluded is the legal access to that media via major websites. That's a legal problem, not a technological one, so the solution would be a legal answer, not a technological one.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    37. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The point, lgw, is that the STANDARD shouldn't be written around supporting PROPRIETARY implementations of DRM. The standard should certainly allow flexibility, so that those wishing to implement DRM or other content related actions can implement them (which it would be anyways).

    38. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      No, it doesn't. You can watch video on the web just fine without DRM.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    39. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, he's arguing that there should be no mechanism to "manage" your rights and decide if you have crossed some imaginary threshold of how far your rights extend. It is equivalent to the government (or in this case, corporate collusion) dictating you may only own one physical real estate property at any one time, and if you ever acquire another one, your PRM invalidates your previous property by automatically locking all entrances and changing the lock permanently. That's what rights management is about.

    40. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Currently, Web DRM is something only proprietary vendors need to care about.
      Make it part of the HTML standard, and makers of real browsers will have to care too.

    41. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is no "movies without DRM" option available to the standards committee, sorry.

      You're mistaken and there's a standard which is over 20 years old. It works extremely well, better than HTML5 or Flash. It's called a "href" attribute of the "a" tag. I challenge you to put forth any movies-on-the-web solution which works half as well as that does.

      The reason we didn't just settle on that solution and move on, is that various parties decided they hated the standard, because the standard is too pro-user. It works too well. But don't pretend it doesn't work and isn't available. It's Netflix's fault they didn't use the right tool for he job, not the standard body's fault. You can make excuses and rationalize it if you want to, but at least lay this blame where it truly belongs.

      Actually, though it's rare, some people do use the standard. Louis CK's website uses the standard. And as a result, Amazon and iTunes ("technology" giants!) are relative usability nightmares, trivially one-upped in the tech game by a comedian. Louis CK is hilarious, but effortlessly beating the tech giants at delivering a bullet-proof web for-pay video site is especially hilarious.

      Seriously, go to the web site, pay the $5, and tell me Netflix isn't a totally anachronistic embarrassment next to that.

      The reason "DRM means I can watch Netflix" is that you didn't say "no" when you were supposed to. If you had abstained from Netflix, you might have modern tech today, and be wathcing your movies using that. Instead, you've got some bastardized proprietary software that nothing else can talk to, doesn't integrate with any other components, and whose feature list is made up of the dreams of the whole inter-- oops I mean -- the dreams of one single marketing department. Not even techies. Not movie-lovers. Just some group who makes decisions about what you're allowed to do.

      You can begin today, though. Just say no. Pirate until they open for real business, and throw your money at the few who actually deal in good faith and deliver the very best video products. LCK showed it can be done. Who else wants some money? Nobody? Ok, we'll keep our money for now. It's here and waiting for whoever uses the video standard: the "a" tag.

    42. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix, so I'm all for DRM in HTML5. If it's not embraced in some way by the standard, it will happen anyway, and be platform specific and even more annoying.

      THEN LET IT BE. The HTML standard shouldn't suffer because of your lack of willpower.

      Yes, and we'll return to the web of the mid 2000's where everyone assumed you have flash, because anyone who wanted to see the web had flash, and if you wanted to see the web, you needed flash.

      In which case, the HTML was just to launch the flash player.

      Same thing here - if everyone assumes their target market will watch Netflix, they'll make the assumption that whatever Netflix requires, they have on their PCs and thus be free to use it.

      Face it - most people will have Silverlight installed, and the only reason they have it installed is Netflix. If web developers needed "rich" tools, they're going to assume you have Silverlight installed.

      The only reason we broke from requiring flash on the web was one platform didn't ship with flash despite much protest.

    43. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      You won't be able to legally watch Hollywood movies without DRM anytime soon. Netflix will stream them with DRM, because it's contractually required to.

      So, this significant portion of all internet traffic is contractually required to use DRM. A standard that describes reality is far better than a standard that describes fantasy.

      Do people really not understand that there's nothing the W3C can do about DRM? That there's no moral point being made either way? A standard is not a moral decree, it's a clear description of the technology people use.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    44. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      How is this different than putting it in the standard, other than the spread of Silverlight (or whatever the popular DRM plugin of the future will be) being accelerated through universal browser support?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    45. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      The truth is that Netflix is contractually required to use DRM for streaming that will constitute a significant portion of internet traffic. How twisted Hollywood is remains completely unrelated to that simple fact.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    46. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      The Gleemax debacle and the travesty of what happened to D20 Modern still get me angry to this day.

    47. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      You present a false dilemma: the standard can both enable DRM and enable viewing of content in an open manner.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    48. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could also standardize on security though. If it is "standardized" to provide an impenetrable black box that software can do whatever they want to millions of computers and the users have no recourse whatsoever than to accept the uncomfortable object making a home in their rear, then you are standardizing the reality that there WILL be shady sites implementing DRM'ed content that instantly get a bulletproof permit to inject any and all malware they wish into the user's system.

    49. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Which is fine, because it mirrors the use to which it's being put. People used to display information on websites, now they run applications on them.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    50. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 2

      You won't be able to legally watch Hollywood movies without DRM anytime soon.

      Fortunately, bits don't care about the law, so legally watching a movie and illegally watching the movie can utilize the same process.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    51. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The legitimate technical goal of any standards committee is to describe what will happen in the field in such a way that anyone can interoperate. You have the power to be descriptive, but you lack the power to be proscriptive. The vendors will act in in their self interest, and if the common result is something that doesn't match the standard, you've written a bad standard. The W3C has a bad track record for doing exactly that, when compared to your typical ISO/ANSI technical standards committee.

      Here's an example of a good standard. In the early days of PCs, Shugart Associates had a nifty interconnect protocol: SASI. INCITS formed T10 to standardize it, and insisted the name be changed, and so it became SCSI. That change worked, because it conformed to the vendor preference not to use a standard named for a competitor (plus it's a basic rule of ANSI). Then Apple came along and did their own thing, making their own flavor of SCSI that wouldn't work with a standard device. Apple proceeded to dominate that market. The standards committee, lacking the arrogance of the W3C, and having the blessing of Apple revised the standard to conform with reality. They knew they couldn't force Apple to change, nor should they, so "SCSI 1b" was born. They changed to standard to conform to the preference of the dominant vendor, and SCSI went on to be one of the most successful technical standards in computing history.

      For the portion of HTML5 that relates to streaming video - DRM will be common. Netflix and company don't have a choice here. Ignoring that reality because you don't like it is just childish, and inappropriate for a standards committee.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    52. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I would rather download a standalone Netflix program on the OS of my choosing than have a standard for delivering content bogged down with unnecessary and unwanted DRM 'features'.

    53. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      Are you being deliberately obtuse here? Seriously: do you really think a "standard" that ignores what is actually standard in the field would be better because it makes some philosophical point that you like?

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    54. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by makomk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The CDM isn't necessarily even a plugin; it can be integrated into the browser. So for instance Microsoft could decide that Internet Explorer will have a built-in implementation of their PlayReady DRM as the only CDM it supports and that they won't allow other browsers to use that CDM or other CDM implementations in their browsers, and that'd be entirely compliant with the HTML5 ECE specification. It'd also be entirely non-interoperable with any non-Microsoft browser or platform.

    55. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      The law sometimes cares about the bits, though. Do you fancy having a "three strikes" procedure initiated against you, or being a defendant in one of those RIAA/MPAA multi-million dollar lawsuits?

    56. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by jakimfett · · Score: 1

      I'm regretting spending my mod points earlier today, as this is exceptionally insightful and informative, cutting through the BS and posturing normally surrounding the DRM discussion and focuses on reality.

      --
      Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
    57. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Netflix streaming is a significant part of the internet. Netflix will have DRM, like it or not. A standard that simply ignores the reality of a significant part of the market just isn't a very good standard.

      Netflix is just one of many web sites out there.You really want HTML standards built around what one web site does? If so, let's also include the Pirate Bay / bittorent model of content distribution into HTML 5.

    58. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by foniksonik · · Score: 1

      But then the question is how much info needs to be presented? Not very much apparently. So what is the point of it if it only covers a few percent of the need?

      Sorry the modern web is about interacting with information, not just reading text or looking at a page of pictures.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    59. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by maccodemonkey · · Score: 2

      They don't call it this, of course; but it's a plugin, albeit one that is invoked in the 'video' tag rather than the 'object' tag.

      No CDM for your platform? No playback.

      So it sounds like we're replacing the current system of platform specific plugins, with a new system of platform specific plugins.

      I fail to see the controversy.

    60. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just so you can watch netflix, we ought to fuck over HTML5?

      No, fuck you and your overly endowed sense of entitlement.

      What an intelligent response. With informed, reasoned comment like that, who needs opponents?

    61. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by devent · · Score: 2

      Fine with that. But please make a DRM _standard_. Not an API to access DRM but the DRM itself.
      That means, describe the DRM standard so that anyone can implement it. Even in Linux I can implement any DRM, just like I can implement any encryption, but give me a standard.

      All EME is doing is to describe a API to access DRM. That's it. Don't believe me? Go to the EME proposal. See that big one: Content Decryption Module (CDM)? That is the DRM. All around it is the EME.

      Just to make it clear: the EME will not standardize the SCSI. All EME is doing is to standardize what cable you use for SCSI. That's it.

      --
      http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
    62. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by colinrichardday · · Score: 1

      Excuse me, but when did browser makers ever care about standards?

    63. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Insightful

      HTML is supposed to be platform agnostic. This is explicitly balkanizing it.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    64. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by thereitis · · Score: 1

      With all the activity around compiling C++ code to JavaScript, isn't a plugin-free implementation of DRM inevitable?

    65. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by coliverhb · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is one reason I think HTML5 is just a joke. HTML used to be about presenting information, but in HTM5 it's being turned into an application platform. Sort of like the difference between a Postscript viewer and the latest Adobe Reader.

      As someone who works with HTML5, I have no idea what you are talking about. Most of the things you may consider HTML5 are actually javascript + html5 + css HTML5 is litteraly about structure, with sane defaults, that's it. Javascript handles the client side decision making, animations, etc., css handles the styling and some animations (It's just beginning to delve into that). HTML5 is absolutely about presenting information in a simple, standardized way - you're bemoaning the marketing dept. of most web solutions companies, which are taking a leaf out of the 'Cloud' and 'Green' marketing handbook.

    66. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone didnt get their nap in today. Go fuck yourself, neck beard!

    67. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1, we need HTML 3.2+ browser that will actually work without javascript enabled.

    68. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

      You're missing a key point. In order for DRM to work, everything needs to be a totally opaque blob, including your browser, your graphics drivers, and your operating system. Any sensible CDM (yes, Flash is not a sensible CDM) is going to require the browser be tested and signed that it will uphold the restrictions of the DRM. Your signed browser will require your operating system be signed before it allows the DRM bits to operate. Your signed operating system will require all your hardware drivers be signed, and so on...

      It's a huge clusterfuck with the end result that free software loses out. And if anyone mentions that CDMs don't have to be for DRM, they're an idiot. If all you want is conditional access and security, there are plenty of openly usable and widely implemented encryption protocols that can give you that.

    69. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The truth is that DRM actually is useful, but not for what most people are misled to believe. DRM is not to prevent piracy. Its long track record of being completely impotent in that regard is plenty argument for that fact. DRM restricts what the honest consumer is allowed to do with their purchased content. That allows the content producer to sell the same content to the consumer repeatedly. That is the ONLY purpose for DRM to exist, and the sooner the public begins to understand that, the sooner the public will refuse to accept DRM, and the sooner DRM will die.

    70. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

      DRM is not a standard that can be openly implemented. It necessitates a central licensing group that oversees product that touches DRM'd content, and verifies that it will uphold DRM. Who do you suggest should run this ultimate authority on who is allowed to write web browsers? It has nothing to do with morality, it has to do with going against the core foundation of openness on the internet.

    71. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      A DRM standard would necessitate that it can't be successfully performed by any party on any device. Open interoperation is not a possibiilty If it's an open DRM, and the DRM itself is part of the standard, then its not going to be even slightly effective DRM. As it stands, the DRM itself is likely going to be a proprietary add-on if not multiple, competing proprietary add-ons, so there's no purpose of having it be part of HTML. Other elements won't be able to freely interact with it, or else it could be circumvented with simple javascript.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    72. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Technically, when it comes to what is standard in HTML video, it is DRM free because there is no DRM implementation of video in HTML. That some form of DRM is common in video doesn't make it a standard, especially since it isn't standardized. I think it's also worth noting that a substantial amount of video traffic is illegal downloading and streaming, so its worth taking in mind as to what is standard.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    73. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by bemymonkey · · Score: 1

      Is anyone else here plagued by stuttering issues with Silverlight video? All my machines (mostly Win7 Pro 64bit with relatively potent hardware) have the same issue - when I fullscreen a Silverlight video, the motion is never entirely smooth - it stutters ever so slightly about once a second. CPU and GPU load are below 5-10% on most machines at this point, so I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. I've also tried both Chrome and Firefox, and it's all up to date (browsers, plugins, drivers, Windows updates)...

      Is it because Silverlight is just inherently crap?

    74. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by maccodemonkey · · Score: 1

      HTML is supposed to be platform agnostic. This is explicitly balkanizing it.

      But haven't we passed that already? You have the many years old plugin support which isn't even browser agnostic on the same platform, and we also have the video tag which does not define an agnostic codec. Heck, Google is trying to add native code support to HTML5 which is actually PROCESSOR specific.

      A LOT of the HTML spec already is browser or platform specific bits. People seem to be suggesting that somehow HTML5 DRM support is somehow a worse solution than every site implementing it's own plugin (or using Silverlight, or using Flash), when it appears it's the same difference. Even the current HTML5 video support everyone here is pining for is already browser or platform specific due to the codec.

    75. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The video tag already does that on its own.

    76. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Right back to "Best Viewed With...", is what you're saying.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    77. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The truth is, many don't give a fuck about Netflix or what the sheeple do with their bandwidth because they choose what they want to watch, then treat acquiring it like any other engineering problem that is already solved.

    78. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They'll ban you from the Internet. They'll also ban you from Sneakernet. Or having a computer. Or cable TV. Or even an over-the-air TV. Or a telephone. Or...

      Wait. They won't do any of these things. Not to any extent that actually matters.

      And the lawsuit business has already peaked.

    79. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is not a political action committee.

      Neither is it intended simply to provide a conduit for the products of the media cartels.

      Your personal desire for this DRM-free fantasy land that will never exist has no relevance to the goals of a standards body.

      Ooh. Feel the burn.

      Now it's my turn: Your personal desire for an Internet that resembles 1960s television has no relevance to the goals of those who are actually doing something interesting and/or useful with the Internet, as opposed to using it for the mere making of money.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    80. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, sure, and Microsoft is gonna put that luin into open source software of my choice too? Like, some Gnome or KDE specific browser? If yes, I am all up for it.

    81. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Netflix streaming is a significant part of the internet. Netflix will have DRM, like it or not. A standard that simply ignores the reality of a significant part of the market just isn't a very good standard.

      Email, over UUCP and bang-paths, is a significant part of the... whups.
      NNTP is a significant part of the bandwidth on the backbone of the - oh, wait, it still is, and it has no DRM. Never mind. Let's go to corporate solutions.
      UU.NET, even after being taken over by WorldCom, operates a significant portion of the Internet's routers. Who's WorldCom, you ask? Never mind.
      AOL still is the entire Internet for some people, but it's been September for the better part of two decades.
      PointCast! PointCast is a significan-fuck.
      RealMedia's .RM video format is a sig...aaw, c'mon, that one even had DRM!

      A standard that is geared to one particular company, at one particular point in time, is not a standard at all.

      A standard is only useful and relevant to the extent that it standardizes what actually happens. Wishcasting has no place in a standards body.

      You're absolutely right, but the only Wishcasting going on here is by you, on behalf of Netflix. At this point I'm convinced you're either trolling for them or shilling for them.

      Netflix is great. I'm a subscriber. But Netflix has only been streaming since 1999. They weren't the first company to be important to the Internet's evolution, and as that list of long-forgotten dead dot-coms should remind you, they won't be the last.

    82. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Doesn't change the truth of it.

      That's not the truth. The truth is that a banal bunch in Hollywood think DRM is actually useful, and are trying to force their twisted view of reality on everyone else.

      The truth is the people actually in control of the video content all want DRM, and are unwilling to release any of their content without it.

    83. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      They'll ban you from the Internet. They'll also ban you from Sneakernet. Or having a computer. Or cable TV. Or even an over-the-air TV. Or a telephone. Or...

      Wait. They won't do any of these things. Not to any extent that actually matters.

      No, they can just get you banned from various ISPs.

      And the lawsuit business has already peaked.

      They have something far more efficient now anyway -- agreements with all the major ISPs. You can find yourself quickly banned from the only broadband provider in town.

    84. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      Since the first browser war.

    85. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is. Because you will be wasting money and effort helping DRM to entrench. DRM won't have a standart? Good. It will provide poor UX ? Even better. I am against buying lube at victim's expence. W3C should focus on providing good standart and reference implementation for DRM-free content distribution. That would be much more usefull.
      If someone wants us shacked, I sure as hell ain't wasting time and resources on coming up with ideas on how to pad them with cushions and making them comfortable to wear.

    86. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's like saying Windows 8 is a joke. Windows used to be about working on information, but in Windows 8 it's being turned intoa an information amusement park.

      You see.... It's what the people want!

    87. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      It's "nerd" to watch movies on a computer? Grow up you antiquated moron. I set up exactly that kind of thing for friends and family because they found it easier to type out a movie name into Netflix search despite their horrendous point and peck typing.

      Oh I see, so you like only being able to find the movie you want to watch one fifth of the time due to Netflix's incredibly shitty selection.

    88. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Pi1grim · · Score: 2

      "And "presentation of video on the web" means DRM."
      No it doesn't. Seems like you've been brainwashed into thinking that some corporation's sense of entitlement trumps basic human rights to obtain, process and share information.
      Content can and should be available DRM free, because the only thing DRM does - screws the customers and makes pirates gloat. Because any DRM can be broken by definition. And hoping that you can prevent information from being copied by some people who have access to it at the same time being able to copy it by others having access to it is just like hoping you can make air breathable by some people and not breathable by others by your own arbitrary choice.

    89. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      It doesn't mean we should help them restrict our rights. On the contrary, we should make DRM as expensive and financially taxing, as we can. Hopefully, it should be made so expensive, anyone touching it should go out of business.

    90. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Pi1grim · · Score: 1

      DRM by definition is not GPL compliant and will require a blob doing the decrypting, otherwise it will be as good as double XOR encryption.

    91. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM means I get to watch Netflix, so I'm all for DRM in HTML5.

      Do you really think that if DRM didn't exist, the people who own Netflix would be flipping burgers at McD, instead of accepting peoples money?

      Do you think that without DRM, including Macrovision and DVD CSS, the MPAA studios would be willing to accept earning only what they can earn in cinemas?

    92. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM in HTML5 is their way turn the ship from moving away from plugins (Java plugin is essentially dead, Youtube is testing video without Flash), to moving towards plugins.

      That's what the controversy is about.

    93. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      oh bullshit, we're perfectly fine with hollowood not putting anything on the web

      As it stands I've yet to be able to play anything other then trailers from the stuff hollywood puts on the web, they keep telling me 'content not available in your region', directly after giving me a link to watch/buy/download

      Between youtube, google filetype:torrent and the piratebay I can get all the content I want. I don't need Hollywood to get on the web, they can keep their proprietary delivery mechanisms to themselves and stick em where the sun don't shine.

    94. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by dkf · · Score: 1

      DRM by definition is not GPL compliant

      Has anyone written a GPL HTML5 browser? Even one that only implements an early draft and completely omits video rendering? (I don't think HTML5 requires that browsers actually be able to render video, merely that they know what a piece of markup intended to render video looks like in the document and what they are going to do about it if they encounter it.) If there is no such browser, grumping about the problems with licensing isn't very helpful, since there's only a very abstract problem.

      There's also no technical reason for a video renderer that supports DRM to not be licensed under at least some versions of the GPL, provided that the key cryptographic secret involved is not code but rather some sort of key; the GPL does not and never has required that one builder of a piece of software be able to impersonate another (and that would be fundamentally a dishonest thing to do). The problems you have persuading someone else to give you a crypto key for your build are not technical in nature. OTOH, DRM that is compliant with the spirit of what the GPL represents would be prohibitively expensive for service providers as they'd have to encrypt the content with a per-user key, which explains why GPL-licensed software isn't popular in that space. Nevertheless, it is necessary to distinguish between the letter of what is stated and the general intent.

      But it's all theoretical. There's no GPL browser worth the name, and so there's neither a presence of nor a lack of a DRM video rendering component within such a browser.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    95. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 1

      Which is why an unencumbered standard video format is needed.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    96. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Heck, Google is trying to add native code support to HTML5 which is actually PROCESSOR specific.

      Actually, the PNaCl stuff that Google is pushing defines an ABI for LLVM IR, which is platform independent. It defines a 32-bit address space and a set of calling conventions that don't match any host platform, so you need some adaptors for calling into native libraries, but that's fine because you should only be able to call into native libraries via well-defined interfaces anyway for security.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    97. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      And that means that they will always be unwilling to reach all of their potential market. And that means that there is a market opportunity for companies that are willing to release without DRM.

      As TFA says, the lack of DRM on CDs made it possible to sell portable music players like the iPod along with software to rip all of your CDs. And that increased the demand for recorded music. Now, a significant fraction of the big record labels' income derives from selling DRM-free music downloads. The weak DRM on DVDs was thoroughly circumvented, but it was still strong enough legally to block the sale of set-top boxes that ripped your entire DVD collection and exposed it via a nice menu. It was still strong enough that applications like iTunes and Windows Media Player never got the ability to rip DVDs to play back on your computer. It strangled technological innovation in an entire sector.

      Most depressingly, it actually acted against the interests of the people pushing it. I'd love to subscribe to a service like Netflix that let me download films in a DRM-free format (it could even limit it to, say, 30 hours a month). I'd love to have an easy source of films to stick on my laptop or my tablet to watch while travelling. I'd even have liked to be able to buy a DVD at the airport to watch on the plane, but half the time the region locking on my laptop's DVD drive would prevent me from being able to play it back, so I don't even bother trying.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    98. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      HTML5 is not a political action committee

      No, it's a (draft) standard. It is being standardised by the W3C, which is a technical standards committee with a mission statement. The goals of the W3C are inherently incompatible with any standard that defines portions that can not be implemented in a compatible way by any vendor that wishes to participate in the market, and that includes DRM.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    99. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      You probably don't have much contact with people under 35. Watching DVDs (or, more recently, streaming services) on a laptop is something that has been very common among students for around a decade. Around 2000, it was still a pretty geeky thing, but it became mainstream very quickly.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    100. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... non-interoperable with any non-Microsoft browser or platform.

      Um, try the Java, Flash/ActionScript, MP3 protocols. Now compare that with VBscript, .Net, SilverLight. Which are popular? Not the Micro$oft owned ones.

      Unless Microsoft has patented the streaming/codec protocols, a crowd-sourced movement can decode their integrated CDM and create a non-IE plug-in.

      The rise of the ipad/linux/Android hardware, disadvantages Microsoft in a major way: They cannot enforce vendor lock-in. In fact, many people will put their tablet/iPad first for connectivity and data sharing. Since content providers want you to watch videos on mobile devices, enforcing Microsoft-only devices means deserting a nice revenue stream.

      If the costs of piracy are real, a built-in DRM will compensate content providers for the loss of customers.

      A closed source streaming/codec protocol means either Microsoft releases developer tools for iOS/Android/linux, or all those LOLcatz publishers continue using .MP3 and Flash protocols. Thus making Microsoft DRM irrelevant to the individual.

    101. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      some corporation's sense of entitlement trumps basic human rights to obtain, process and share information.

      No, you're the one with a sense of entitlement, thinking you should have free access to anything you want. A movie is not "information", it is a product. Why do people here find it so hard to understand? It cost money to make, the producer wants to make a profit on it.

      If you want to make everything in the world available to everyone equally, that's fine by me. It's called socialism/communism/anarchism. But I don't think all the free market rugged individualistic tough guys here would want that somehow. But there's nothing magical about digital products: they don't appear from nowhere for zero cost.

      Hollywood films and major studio singers/groups are entertainment products. If you don't like the product, don't fucking buy it. But you have no more "right" to get it for free than you do a designer suit, house or car.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    102. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Now it's my turn: Your personal desire for an Internet that resembles 1960s television has no relevance to the goals of those who are actually doing something interesting and/or useful with the Internet, as opposed to using it for the mere making of money.

      Who's stopping you doing interesting and/or useful stuff on the internet?

      Hint: illegally downloading a film to watch at home is neither interesting nor useful, neither is copying large chunks of something and passing it off as your own.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    103. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You probably don't have much contact with people under 35. Watching DVDs (or, more recently, streaming services) on a laptop is something that has been very common among students for around a decade. Around 2000, it was still a pretty geeky thing, but it became mainstream very quickly.

      That's probably because most people under 35 don't have nice big houses wih nice big rooms and nice comfy sofas to put a nice big TV in.

      Seriously, do you think Mark Zuckenberg watches films on a fucking netbook?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    104. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You are totally missing the point that the "rights" belong to the owner not the consumer. As a consumer, you have the right to not buy something you don't like (and the right not to be defrauded and so on). You do not have the right to demand free products from people.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    105. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      Unless you are just a freeloader that isn't the problem at all, the problem is they don't know where to stop.

      Take the company I often use as an example because frankly they are the ONLY ones who have gotten DRM right...Valve. why do you think it was so easy for Valve to get Steam running on Linux, even though they can't put kernel level DRM hooks? Because Valve knows DRM isn't there to stop piracy its there to stop Billy Bob from just handing out a copy of his steamapps folder to all his buddies on a flash drive. Can you bypass Steam? Sure you can, in fact a good number of the game cracks out there work just fine on Steam games but do you see Valve cracking down and making steam a DRM nightmare? Nope and because of this they have doubled their profits 7 years in a row.

      So the DRM itself isn't the problem, done right it would run on Linux or Windows or your grandma' lawnmower if it had a supported chip, nope the problem is they always go batshit with DRM so the consumers can't use what they bought while the pirates laugh their ass off. Lets be honest folks if the DRM ran just as good on Linux as it does on windows this wouldn't even be an issue except for the batshit brigade that think "The web should be free herpa de derp!" yet I don't see them on a street corner giving away THEIR labor for nothing, talk about hypocrites. if you want to give away YOUR work that is fine and dandy, give it a CC license and call it a day, but those that don't want to give their labor away should have the right to try to make a living same as you do.

      In the end it comes down to two and ONLY two choices, either some form of DRM so those that create content can get paid for it (since obviously the honor system alone ain't gonna cut it) or we stick with the whole "Have to sell to a multinational megacorp so they'll have the money to sue everybody" strategy, pick one. Maybe if both sides could come to the table like adults instead of making it political we could sit down and work out a nice compromise, but sadly what we'll get is either locked down tighter than a nun's thighs or nothing at all, and that is just a damned shame.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    106. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      OK, that's all fine, and I agree with your sentiments, but all that is beside the point. The point is that, that "open foundation of the Internet" that you speak of is of no consequence to the regular user, nor for mainstream use in general. The Web has taken off during the past decade and a half not necessarily because it is "open," and not necessarily because it is a standardized platform, but because it provided convenient access to certain activities that invite and excite the masses.

      Shopping, goofing off, meeting people, and yes, watching movies and entertainment in general, are all the key reasons people have adopted the Web. Face it, the dream of the "Information Super Highway," where all knowledge of mankind can be found, a world in which everyone is empowered by instant access to all information, is just that: a dream. We have engendered the world's largest shopping mall and amusement park.

      It's Television 2.0. Except without most of the show, and with more annoying commercials.

      Sure, there's information, loads of it, but a lot of it is apocryphal, and most of the time it's hard to tell the difference. However, access to it is secondary at best to most people.

      DRM exists, and it is part of life. We can cry and whine about it all we want, and vow to overturn the status quo.

      In the meantime, however, if we abolish DRM completely, nobody gets to watch Netflix or TV on their computers.

      That's fine, if that is what you want. You fight for your ideal world. There is always a chance you might win. (If that happens, I'll be sure to send you a thank-you post card!)

      However, I believe the W3C is fighting for its own relevance. They know that without adopting some sort of DRM, people will just switch to proprietary "native" applications and be done with the Web. In fact, this is what is happening in the mobile space already.

      I believe the W3C feel that at least standardizing access to the DRM black box is better than the free-for-all, amorphous plug-in system we currently have. By defining common interfaces, it may even facilitate the creation of such CDM's in additional platforms--especially if the communications infrastructure is already built into the browser.

      Personally, I abhor DRM, but I also don't care much for the Single, Unified, All-Encompassing, One True Platform that is being cobbled from HTML and JavaScript. So, I don't care either way.

      In the meantime, I and plenty of others, will continue to enjoy Netflix and iTunes from my AppleTV, and all other manners of evil-sanctioned eeky-DRM'ed entertainment from my other devices. You go ahead and fight to remove them from the Web. Good luck.

                dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    107. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      Neither is it intended simply to provide a conduit for the products of the media cartels.

      Actually, if the primary purpose for which people want to use a platform is to consume the products of the media cartels, then the specifications of that platform should most definitely intend to provide a conduit for such products.

      I see your idealistic "Open Web," and raise you a Netflix and interactive entertainment.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    108. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world is not filled with Mark Zuckenbergs, though.

    109. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Right back to "Best Viewed With...", is what you're saying.

      Oh, but much better: "Best Viewed With" was optional, in the sense that browser makers were free to attempt to duplicate one another's quirks and features. The results were often imperfect; but also often good enough.

      The CDM, by contrast, is explicitly a DRM system, so any unathorized-but-interoperable clone of a given CDM would fall afoul of the DMCA or analogous laws(Think 'about as legal as libdecss', only potentially much less available because at least some of the CDMs won't be as shitty and non-upgradable as CSS was).

      Plus, unlike browser 'quirks' modes, which often achieved somewhat broken but still usable results, a decryption module pretty much works or doesn't. Either you get the plaintext, or you get garbage indistinguishable from noise.

    110. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 1

      Yes we all know that like locks on doors, DRM keep honest people honest. However the existence burglars doesn't justify the elimination of locking doors. Some people would take this to the next logical step of securing the windows.

      My point being that DRMs apparent inability to eliminate piracy isn't justification enough to eliminate DRM.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    111. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      The $60 appliance will then require a bunch of subscriptions. Show me a $60 appliance that can play Hulu without one. Any PC hooked to a TV can do that job without additional monthly cost.

    112. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by devent · · Score: 1

      DRM is just software so I don't know what can not be "GPL compliant".
      I agree that an open source DRM will not be very functional. But that is not the problem with any open source license, that is a problem of DRM schemes.

      So that is my point: EME is a "non standard". It leaves the most important part out and in the current proposal it's just a few APIs to access DRM. To compare EME to an actual standard like SCSI is a "straw man argument".

      --
      http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
    113. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also requires that no one knows how to debug an application at the assembly level and is willing to go thru it and figure it out.

      There is always someone who will do that.

    114. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by tofarr · · Score: 1

      Here's an example of a bad standard, as prescribed by the W3C - the original CSS box model - Specifically the fact that borders,padding and margin are considered additional to the width and height declarations for an element. Engineers at microsoft developing IE4 took a look at this and decided that it made no sense, and decided that the width and height should include borders, margin and padding. From a purely engineering perspective (absent of politics) the MS way actually made a lot more sense, since otherwise it is a lot harder to specify widths and heights as a percentage of available space. The was also one of the main reasons for the quirksmode was introduced in browsers. The W3C stuck to their guns even though MS had over 90% market share at the time, and the result was all those websites in the early 00's that only used 800 pixels of width no matter what the screen size. It was only in CSS3 that this glaring issue was finally cleared up.

    115. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      er... so what use is html5 being put to...? seriously, wtf...? the fact that people are still talking about it is ridiculous.

      video is an area it should just have stepped in and kicked flash to the curb, but maybe you guys haven't recently been to youtube, vimeo, ustream...

      it's pretty much the definition of a still-born technology. get over it.

    116. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      No you cannot. DRM has to be closed to function.

    117. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by T-Bone-T · · Score: 1

      Lets's take your lock analogy farther. If a company could get away with it, it would would sell you a $20 lock and charge you $.10 to lock or unlock your door or perhaps a subscription of only $10/month to operate your lock as often as you'd like. Don't pay? Your lock can no longer unlock. That's what DRM does. It is used not to enforce "no pay, no play" but "no recurring pay, no play". It keeps you paying for access to something you already have.

    118. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      Firstly: Firefox's license is GPL compliant. And before that switch it was tri-licensed under both GPL and LGPL and Mozilla's license. I consider Firefox to be a browser worth its name. [citation]

      Secondly: If I have a keyfile in my possession and the software to decode it is open source it wouldn't take much work to write a compliant keyfile reader that spits out a decrypted stream. It is not possible to have an open source DRM scheme without also a system of signed binaries for every OS that wants to access the DRM system. The owner of the machine has to be locked out in some manner because if the computer knows how to decrypt the stream then the computer can decrypt the stream.

    119. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      No, JavaScript runs in a VM with the ability to break and inspect. Plus the client has full control over it. All I have to do is overwrite their function with one that saves the stream to a file.

      There is a very old rule in computer security: don't trust the client.

    120. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      Locks are not supposed to keep people out. Anyone in the security industry will tell you that. Locks exist to keep people out long enough that they will still be there during your next security sweep. They are merely a delaying tactic.

      Now one could argue that DRM is the same thing. It's a delaying tactic to allow the copyright owner time to get those first sales, before the content makes it into illegal distribution. The trouble is that while DRM systems themselves may take a while to crack, they can always be bypassed, and bypassed immediately, by someone who captures the raw content. That means the lead time for the content owner is on the order of minutes to hours. Often times, the pirated copies are released BEFORE the official ones.

      On the other hand, if someone wants to make the claim that those few hours of difference in release time are actually the most meaningful to a distributor, it could be argued that six orders of magnitude between that and copyright expiration must certainly be absurd.

    121. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      Your PC can watch subscription services without a subscription?

    122. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Hulu is free for use on the PC.
      There are lots of these things that are free to view on a PC but they charge for access by appliances.

    123. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't purchase a lock that charged me every time I locked or unlocked my door.

      I'm more concerned about patent laws designed to limit free market options than I am about the existence of DRM. In other words, I rather have the ability to purchase a traditional lock than worry about someone else choosing to have your subscription based lock. More so since we are really talking about media (e.g. music, movies, or books) that I can do without.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    124. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - Youtube is testing video without Flash

      youtube has been testing video without flash for years and the results speak for themselves -

      they've explicitly stated they've no intention of moving away from flash anytime soon, in fact that they're busy adding features which use it! same goes for all the other video sites.

      wishful thinking is one thing, but HTML5 is turning into one of the biggest jokes in the history of the web.

      unless you bothered to invest any time learning it - that's not a laughing matter at all.

    125. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 1

      Again the determination of thieves alone isn't justification enough to eliminate locks.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    126. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      DRM is not a standard that can be openly implemented.

      DRM certainly can be openly implemented - like all good crypto, making the details public will only make the system "better". When I was doing standards committee work, there were TPM / "trusted computing" meetings going on at the same time, but they were seen as a joke because they had an NDA. Given how long (almost) every computer made had a TPM onboard without any of them being used, I'd say that's pretty good evidence of how secrecy ruins a standard.

      I've been on standards bodies that were incorporating crypto stuff: you have to do a lot of it as (conceptual) plug-in components, because the preferred algorithms change quickly compared to the speed of a standards committee. But the standards were still completely "open", and the framework for exchanging keys and proofs of identity and so on well described.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    127. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      Because the key to security is obscurity? Not so much.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    128. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      You can fully describe the standard for a crypto system without the value of the encryption key being part of the standard. I've worked on such standards. You describe the protocol by which the endpoints will prove their identity, negotiate the algorithm to be used, and securely exchange session keys. Obviously the values of the keys aren't part of the standard, but also the specific algorithms used aren't part of the standard: each would have it's own, separate standard, and you wouldn't want to limit the choices to a fixed list anyhow.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    129. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      Not thieves, necessarily, but criminals, yes. You put a lock on something you do not want people to access, and have not given them access. By very definition, attempting to access that object/room is an act of trespassing, a criminal action. The lock is there to delay a criminal from committing that criminal action long enough that you can spot it and prevent it.

    130. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by maccodemonkey · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is. Because you will be wasting money and effort helping DRM to entrench. DRM won't have a standart? Good. It will provide poor UX ? Even better. I am against buying lube at victim's expence. W3C should focus on providing good standart and reference implementation for DRM-free content distribution. That would be much more usefull.
      If someone wants us shacked, I sure as hell ain't wasting time and resources on coming up with ideas on how to pad them with cushions and making them comfortable to wear.

      You're applying an idealism to HTML5 that was never there to begin with. HTML5 has never been about DRM free content. One could even argue that the codecs themselves are a form of DRM. If you were against HTML helping DRM entrench, you should have jumped off the HTML train years ago when Netscape introduced plugins, or when Java applets appeared. It's a bit too late to be crying about proprietary content now.

      It's especially late when stopping DRM in HTML5 won't actually stop the content problem. Sites will just keep using plugins like Flash and Silverlight, and we'll still be in the exact same situation. At least writing the DRM in Javascript means it should run multiplatform, but it seems people would rather fight a small advancement if they can't have the large advancement they want, leaving us in the current miserable situation we're in.

    131. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      The source can be open, but the application itself cannot. If the user tries to compile their own version of the application, it will be lacking the private keys necessary to authenticate with the CDM. If the user cannot compile a working version on their own without going through the same lengthy, costly review process, then DRM cannot be openly implemented.

      Implementing crypto openly is easy. All you have to do is publish the standard. While traditional crypto protects content from third parties, with DRM, the user IS that third party. The crypto is protecting the content from the user.

    132. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      The crypto is protecting the content from the user.

      Sure - but that has nothing to do with whether a standard is an "open standard". Crypto done right relies on keys being kept secret, and all other parts of the system being open. A (freely available) standard that describes everything but the keys is an open standard, by any reasonable definition. Though realistically it won't detail the crypto algorithms either, since they each have their own standards.

      Any user can create a working implementation - the keys are just an input value to that implementation. Standards these days avoid defining lists of constants wherever possible anyhow - no one wants to be a registry.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    133. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      "at least writing the DRM in Javascript means it should run multiplatform"

      The proposed standard allows the CDM to be implemented in Javascript(and provides one trivial version as an example); but explicitly provides for CDMs that are wholly opaque and platform specific, so long as they can be given a few specific parameters from javascript on the page.

      Since anybody who actually cares about DRM isn't going to use the javascript-implemented system(since that leaves the key trivially exposed, any actual implementation will be a platform specific binary blackbox, as always, leaving you pretty much exactly where you were with Flash and Silverlight.

    134. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Silverlight not popular? Maybe not by name, but isn't like 103% of Internet traffic Netflix nowadays?

    135. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      Well that is dumb; I wouldn't have expected that. Sorry, we don't get Hulu way up here so I don't have any experience with it.

    136. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by ickleberry · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't let some ould foreign company known as Netflix decide on what worldwide standards are going to be and what sort of crap is going to be running on everyone's computer from now on.

      DRM is giving up control of your own device, so it may work against you to try and make Netflix in this case more money

    137. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      You've misunderstood what the person you replied to was saying. HTML 5 already includes video with DRM, so he clearly wasn't talking about HTML 5.

      What the person you replied to was referring to is that most movie studios refuse to provide licenses to stream movies unless the streams are DRM protected. It doesn't matter if it's a stupid idea or that it doesn't work, it's the way the studios choose to operate.

      Also, the 'a' tag is not in any way, shape or form a video standard. Go read what an anchor tag is and maybe next time you open your mouth, you won't sound so goddamn stupid.

    138. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      video with DRM

      That was supposed to be "video without DRM"

      Of course nobody will read this and multiple idiots will respond "no it doesn't!" because they can't grasp the concept of making a mistake, even though they're in the process of making one.

    139. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      You could send over https now. However, that would allow the end user to freely share the content when it is decoded on their end. That wouldn't be DRM. DRM has to give you the keys at some point, but prevent you from using it. You need collusion with the makers of the end user equipment against the end user to do that.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    140. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Deviate_X · · Score: 1

      HTML is supposed to be platform agnostic. This is explicitly balkanizing it.

      But isn't HtML5 already balkanized with vendor prefixes and the video tag.

    141. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      The key to drm is. I think you should look up the details on how drm works.

    142. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point. Users CANNOT create a working implementation, as that implementation is supposed to be protecting against the user. If the user is not trusted, how can any code written by the user be trusted? How would the CDM be able to verify that the code is actually doing what it is supposed to be doing, protecting the content from the user, rather than dumping it unencrypted to the hard drive? The only way DRM works is if every piece of code is authorized and signed by a central authority, and every piece of code will only interface with other signed code.

    143. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      Beyond a certain number of customers, I think it becomes harder not to go batshit with the DRM, because there's some DRM salesman with an estimate that multiplies the percentage of theft by the size of the customer base and says "look at all the money you could have if you use this DRM software. Buy it now!" The sorts of people who make the decisions are usually business school graduates who are trained to believe that maximizing the money is the only goal, and so they sign up to go batshit with the DRM (and sell phosphorous on the side).

    144. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Linktoreality · · Score: 1

      Well, that and in order to use Wizards of the Coast's D&D character builder. http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Tools.aspx

    145. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know exactly what he's talking about.

      Nobody I've met claims to have a clear understanding of where HTML5 stops and modern javascript+css begins. When I was applying for jobs earlier this year, HR people would ask me about whether I "knew" HTML5, and I would have to answer that with the exception of and tags, most new material in HTML5 requires javascript to actually *do* anything. Is this wrong? What am I missing?

      Oh, and the DOM is now formally part of the standard as opposed to being an ad hoc convention.

    146. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Web based streaming doesn't suck. It's marvelous. Thirty years ago, my dad excitedly brought home a color printout of a bitmap image to show my mom. "Look, we got a color printer at the University!!!" Now, I can stream music videos from youtube over 4G while I ride around town with friends.

      We have the technology to make it better, sure, but for streaming content I think DRM is appropriate if it brings the content producers to the table. There's no reasonable expectation of portability with a streaming movie.

    147. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      But that is easy to prove its bullshit, all one has to do is compare valve to ubisoft. One went batshit with the DRM and one did not, so what happened? One has doubled their profits 7 years in a row, the other is backpedaling and releasing patches that remove the DRM in a hope to get a few sales to stop the bleeding.

      The bitch is that time and time again we have seen that a common sense approach will maximize profit while minimizing casual piracy. The problem comes in when companies foolishly believe that every pirate is a lost sale and decide they are gonna get zero piracy or bust. I've known a LOT of pirates, was even one myself for awhile back in the day but if they would have cranked the DRM to 11 I still wouldn't have bought because I was broke and while I'm sure there are some pirates out there that are just cheap bastards and don't want to pay from what i have seen most pirates fit into one of two camps,

      1.-Don't have the money, in which case like Gates said its better to have them pirate your stuff as you can get them liking your stuff and when they have money will then lean towards you, and 2.- Those that collect stuff simply because they can and those people aren't gonna buy no matter the price because its not the object itself they give a shit about, its simply the getting stuff part. I knew a guy that had every single ROM for every single system out there...he played MAYBE 12 games out of the entire bunch, he just downloaded them and filed them away in case some day he MIGHT want to play them. I've known guys that did similar things with music or movies, have drives just full of the stuff...just to say they have a drive full of stuff.

      But as long as they insist on going batshit with the DRM there simply can't be any compromise, we have to fight them every step of the way. because these guys won't just use HTML V5 DRM for movies, nope they'll push to have it on everything so that they can be sure that nobody is getting to see or hear anything that didn't come with a dollar value.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    148. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 1

      What's Actually Wrong With DRM in HTML5?

      Well technically speaking... the fish scales get stuck to the bicycle seat, the oil and guts gum up the brake lines and go rancid, become embedded in the gear train and the bones slide off the rotating spokes and poke you in the eye.

      I think it would be a lot smarter to embed HTML into DRM. That way people who insist on DRM could throw a huge DRM on their screen and watch little web pages inside of it.

      --
      <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    149. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      My point is: anyone who knows the keys can create a working implementation. The fact that some end user won't be given the key for some vendor's stream/validator has nothing to do with the completeness of the spec in describing the implementation. If Netflix DRM and Amazon DRM work the same way, except for the keys, then it's a standard.

      It's no different from a spec for e.g. disk drives that perform encryption. The spec won't say what the key is, or where it comes from, but it will describe what to do with the key to recover the data (and how to authenticates the endpoints and so on).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    150. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by lgw · · Score: 1

      NO, not at all. DRM doesn't rely on undocumented algorithms for security: as long as the keys are secret, the stream is secure. DRM often adds a signing key for the client code to other keys involved in securing the stream, but it's still just a matter of keys.

      You could completely describe the requirements and protocol in an open spec and still have perfectly secure DRM, for any vendor that kept its keys secret.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    151. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      Not if you want "untrusted" (like open source software) to be able to interface with it. If the entire chain is not trusted and locked from the user drm cannot work. Because otherwise the user can just reroute the stream to file. The user can have no way of getting the key.

    152. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      Where there's a strong conceptual tie between the distributor and the content, I think you're right. I've read that HBO is relatively unconcerned by piracy of their exclusive TV series because the piracy boosts subscription. However, where you're talking about distributors of music and movies, I don't think such a tie exists. If I see a good movie from one studio, the name of the studio is still far from the first consideration I give towards whether I'm interested in some other movie. The same with music, I'll be interested in more music from the same artist, but I don't give a damn about the brand name under which that music is distributed. These people have been doing business since before their customers owned computers, and keeping a stranglehold on the distribution channel has always been very important to them. I don't think they will have the sensibility that software companies do about DRM for a long time to come.

    153. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      But that again can be easily fixed, it all comes down to marketing. Look at how Marvel got back the rights to their characters and now do their own flix under Disney, people see that Marvel logo and know that even their B list stuff is frankly entertaining so the brand HAS become worth something, even to those that don't read comic books. Hell my dad is 71 and never read a comic book in his life and when I brought over the Avengers for us to watch when he saw the Marvel logo he said 'Oh good, they make good movies" because they had put out several titles like Ghost Rider he really enjoyed.

      So again not hard to build brand identity, just have a catchy opening logo and make a good product. But again the bigger point is they have ZERO evidence the batshit DRM is helping them and plenty of evidence from pissed off customers that the DRM is hurting them. I have a LOT of HTPCs out in the field, in fact its one of my more popular builds, yet not a single one had or will most likely have a Blu Ray drive, even though they are hooked to 1080p sets...why? Because with DVD its easy for Joe Normal to just rip the movie he has bought to his big fat hard drive and thanks to a couple of freeware programs I hand them they can then just thumb through their movie and TV collections virtually, with the box art and synopsis all being downloaded and loaded automatically.

      The bitch is that the Real corp had a product that would have made it easy for users to do this that didn't even remove the DRM from DVDs or even the commercials but the studios have such a fucking hard on for DRM that even that teeny tiny bit of convenience, end result? Not only will my dozens of HTPCs not have Blu Ray any time soon thanks to its nastier DRM but more and more of the customers are asking me to show them how P2P works and buying media tanks because they heard they can bypass the bullshit and just download a MKV already ripped with the subtitles and in full 1080p.

      So it all comes down to that saying which any retailer will tell you is practically law, which is the customer is always right. Give folks the products they want at a fair price point and a minimum of bullshit? They WILL buy, again look at how Steam has allowed Valve to double profits for 7 years in a row, their DRM doesn't cockslap the user constantly and frustrate the hell out of them so the users are happy, actually happy, to hand Valve money. But look at EA and Ubisoft for what happens when you go batshit and care more about the pirates and squeezing every penny than in what the customer actually wants, EA sunk a ton into origin which is a mega-flop, both EA and Ubisoft spent fortunes on DRM only to watch the sales dry up, you have to give the customers what they want or at the very least make them feel they are getting a fair value for their money but instead all this DRM cockslapping does is make the customer feel cheated so naturally they won't buy from you in the future.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    154. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      I think you have the better idea, but I also think that current ownership may have to die off before some studios adopt it. Perhaps this model will develop elsewhere in the world and then arrive here when the domestic entertainment market gets disrupted by compelling products coming from those who have a better understanding of how to manage the product in a world of direct digital distribution.

    155. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Hell it ain't even a new idea, not only would every little shop owner like me say the same thing but that goes all the way back to Henry Ford, give the customers a good value for their money and you WILL end up with a loyal customer and repeat business, on the other hand treat them like shit? Watch them go out of their way to avoid giving you business.

      Hell I won't even buy non Steam games anymore, because even the DRM free stuff like GOG doesn't give me as much value as Steam does. With steam i can simply drag a single folder to another drive to back it up or move my games, no dealing with CD keys or backing up registry settings, and unlike GOG I don't have to play "Find the patch" because Steam takes care of all that FOR me, even tells me when there is an update for my GPU drivers.

      So I would say THAT should be the goal that the media cartels should be striving for, make it so damned simple and easy to use and give it features that give the users MORE value, not less, and watch the money roll in. hell with digital fingerprinting there is ZERO reason for not having something similar to Steam for video, where I can just register my DVD movies and box sets and be able to access them at any time or download them from the service in whatever format I need but thanks to their hard on for batshit levels of DRM the pirated version is better as you can just get that in MKV or AVI and use it on anything from that $39 Nbox player (Great product BTW, I have gotten several of those for customers and even family and they all love how simple and easy it is to use) to that $1000 laptop and not have to deal with bullshit.

      I mean here we are in 2013 and the ONLY way I can legally play my Joss Whedon boxset is to drag around a USB DVD player for my netbook? Or have to pay for some service that has limited selection and won't even play if I'm at say my doctor's office (where I might actually WANT to watch because of the long wait times) because there isn't an Internet connection? I'm sorry but that is just bullshit.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    156. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      Exactly. The system has to be closed to the user. You could not have an open source browser because the user cannot compile it themself and hope to use this drm module. Because then they could redirect the stream. The key to drm is hiding the method of unlocking the data from the person the data is for. Something somewhere has to be obscured from the user.

    157. Re:What's Actually Wrong With DRM...? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      In this horrible trail of tears created by the OP, a single flower blooms...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  2. Bias by bradgoodman · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As much as like the concept of "open and free", blah blah blah - I'm not really buying the argument. I don't want to swallow "big media's" load of tripe on the issue - things aren't all black-and-white. I don't necessarily swallow the arguments made by the OP about wanting to "sell back services" and "limiting functionality of devices". "Big Media" doesn't care about your device or what it does - it *does* care about piracy, though. So let's call a spade a spade, and admit that it *is* about copy protection (whether you like/agree with it or not).

    This is like the old DIVX argument from years ago. Just because your device is *capable* of playing protected content - it doesn't mean you *have* to play (or pay for) protected content. It would be nice to be able to offer the functionality for services like Netflix, Amazon, or whoever else you want to watch, in a standardized, cross-platform manner, without every media provider having to build some hokey Java or Flash player into every browser, TV, DVD player, Game console, etc etc etc - and still have wonky support for only half the devices, and no support for "new" services on "legacy" devices.

    But I digress - I'm not trying to sway anyone's opinion on the matter - let's just call a spade a spade - it *is* about copy-protection.

    1. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. Also:

      the Web doesn't need big media; big media needs the Web.

      It's entirely mutual. I want licensed big media content. They want my dollars. If they provided me with good cheap DRM'd service, they'd have my dollars. As of yet they don't quite get there.

    2. Re:Bias by denis-The-menace · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For DVDs, at least, it's about forcing makers of DVD players to respect the "can't skip commercials" features of commercial DVD discs.

      That way the commercials are force-ably watched. (at least on hardware players)

      As copy protection goes, it's as good as ROT-13 for encrypting text.

      --
      Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    3. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many times it is about maxing out rev. For example DVD is carved up into regions. Why is that? So they can see a DVD in china for 2 bucks and the same DVD for 20 in the states. It is about slicing your customers into ranges that will max out your rev.

      To think it is protecting anything? If it can be watched it can be cracked. It is just a matter of time and knowledge.

    4. Re:Bias by bradgoodman · · Score: 0

      What does HTML5 standards have to do with DVDs?

    5. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The proposed standard is not a cross-platform manner. It involves downloading and executing a binary blob that will decode the content for the browser. What are the odds that binary blob runs on many different OSes and architectures...

    6. Re:Bias by Minwee · · Score: 1

      Sometimes you're forced to watch commercials on the web too.

    7. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it *does* care about piracy, though. So let's call a spade a spade

      Let's do that, so I can take off this stupid eye patch and we can honestly debate what my rights should be with content I've paid money for. It's about far more than copy-protection. Can I pause? Can I skip advertisements? Can I watch the show after the company dies? None of those issues are copy protection.

    8. Re:Bias by bradgoodman · · Score: 1
      Yes - I *am* forced to do this, despite the existence of an HTML-standard DRM. But today I'm forced to do it via some very device-specific plug-ins that only work on a fraction of my devices. For this reason, so many devices won't even let me play the content at all - so I am left with *less* choice as a result, and I *still* have to sit through crappy ads.

      If you don't like the ads - don't use the service - but don't think you're going to prevent the publishers/distrubutors/whoever remove them altogether - except maybe with your pocket-book. Patronize services who give you what you want.

    9. Re:Bias by lorenlal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "If they provided me with good cheap DRM'd service, they'd have my dollars."

      And I guess that's where this is really irritating. Because, as of yet, there hasn't been a "good" nor "cheap," let alone "good and cheap" DRM service. Really, DRM has been about making sure you have to fit a very specific set of conditions to view content that you probably paid for. Usually those conditions involve "viewing from Device P, running Operating System Q, with Browser R," even though it has nothing to do with the content you're viewing.

      So, we look at Netflix as the opening case. To watch a movie in Netflix on my laptop that is running Linux, I have to jump through a large number of hoops... Or, I can fire up my Xbox 360, or my PS3, or another machine running Windows. Why is that? Certainly it's not about stopping piracy... Because I can still jump through those hoops and get there.

      DVD regions... Why did they exist? It was certainly not to prevent piracy, because you could easily copy the bejeezus out of them. Rather, it's to prevent you from buying a copy cheaply in one region, and bringing it home... Because their content is overpriced here. BlueRay? Same deal right? Again, not about piracy.

      Really, DRM has always been about soaking legal users as much as possible, or it's been about shady corporate deals to force users onto particular platforms to make them have to pay their partners. That is all it accomplishes, and that's perfectly fine with them.

    10. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Big Media" doesn't care about your device or what it does...

      "Big Media" cares about generating profit. Why do you think they care about piracy? If they can profit from controlling your hardware and what you can and cannot do with the devices you own, they will try to do that. If that includes limiting the functionality of devices and selling it back, then they will try to do that.

    11. Re:Bias by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      DVD's had DRM built into their standard just like they're proposing to do with HTML5.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    12. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Protected content needs to go away.

      of course you might not agree if you've never lost your protected content because the provider went away.

    13. Re:Bias by bradgoodman · · Score: 1
      Then if you are faced with purchasing content with such restrictions: don't.

      However, if someone wants to have a video service that let's you do all that - maybe you'd elect to patronize them.

      Give people the choice and the means to create and offer products and services that will work in a standardized way. Then it's up to the consumer to device what they'll use.

    14. Re:Bias by blackiner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about you guys actually think about it for more than five minutes?

      If making sure the video stream was encrypted was the big deal, it can just as easily be down with javascript. AES is not some mystical impossible to implement technology. The purpose of DRM in HTML5 serves only one purpose, to add a "black box" to websites. So how is this DRM actually implemented by the browsers? Who the hell knows. If it relies on software, then it will simply be cracked instantaneously. There will be no point to it. Firefox is open source, you can just recompile it to direct DRM streams into a file or something. If it instead redirects the DRM stream to hardware, well, then you are basically fucked. It will only work with certain computers/devices. You end up in a situation similar to websites requiring flash currently, where some sites simply don't work with your tablet or such.

      The implementation they seem to want is to have the browser redirect the DRM stream to a software blob that will decrypt it and do "something". God knows what. But it will work on most devices, provided they cross compile plugins. This is the same crappy situation as activeX, where you will are forced to install plugins where you have no idea or control over what they do. If you don't install them, entire pieces of websites will not work. And they will pop up EVERYWHERE.

      This is the worst possible outcome, there is a good reason people are fighting this.

    15. Re:Bias by Shompol · · Score: 0

      I want licensed big media content. They want my dollars.

      No, they don't. Web has been a major thorn in their side for many years. Big Media wants 100% control or they want it to die. They want you to go back to their $100/month cable TV with 50% time dedicated to ads, 40% garbage that you WILL watch because of no choice, and 10% heavily censored and biased information they call "news". They want you to pay $16 per music track (with another 9 "filler" tracks). They want you to read stuff they approve you to read, not some "out of print illegal to distribute" editions.

      Big Media has been working on control of the Web relentlessly, buying legislators, pushing international agreements on unsuspecting countries, sneaking into UN and Trade agreements. At this point of time the ISPs are at their command (for free, mind you), and so are file share and video streaming. The only area where they did not mark until now was the "Open Web" standards....

      Very soon you will find yourself in the DRM'd Big Media Interwebs, where you can [ONLY] watch Disney Channel or FOX upon payment of a modest $100/month premium, never mind the advertisements that you will also HAVE to watch. Everything else will be declared infringing non-approved, taken down by FBI or otherwise dissapear under questionable circumstances.

    16. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      So let's call a spade a spade, and admit that it *is* about copy protection

      If it was about copy protection, you would expect DRM to actually protect things from being copied. But I can find copies of anything I want easily, no matter how much DRM has been piled on. Therefore, it cannot actually be about DRM. QED.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    17. Re:Bias by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      This will not change that. The CDM will still be hardware and likely OS specific.

    18. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, we look at Netflix as the opening case. To watch a movie in Netflix on my laptop that is running Linux, I have to jump through a large number of hoops

      Bad example, because Netflix runs on just about every other platform besides desktop Linux out of the box.

      Windows
      MacOS
      iOS
      (some flavors of) Android
      Various set top box / game consoles (Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, etc.)
      Various "smart" tv brands via built in apps;

      That they don't happen to support your specific niche platform is unfortunate, but given the wide range of devices & operating systems they DO support, it's pretty hard to argue that they're not pretty goddamned permissive with where they allow you to view content.

      Eliminate DVD regions, and what you'll see is that the prices in "rich" places stay the same, while prices go UP in poorer markets. That the cost of producing a copy of a DVD or CD is low says nothing about the cost or *producing* the data on that disk in the first place.

    19. Re:Bias by MozeeToby · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Here's the thing. It takes one guy, anywhere in the world, to break DRM and post it somewhere. Does your DRM eventually decode to a format that a human being can see and hear? Then it will be broken. Someone will use audio/video capture devices if nothing else and all you've done is piss a bunch of people off. DRM for movies and music is fundamentally broken because at some point you've got to end up outputting all the information to the user (at least with SW it is theoretically possible to prevent unauthorized access).

    20. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DVD's had DRM built into their standard just like they're proposing to do with HTML5.

      And the media industries won't use a DRM system like that of DVD. They will instead use a DRM system like that of Blu-Ray that requires continuous updates to be useful. So you'll end up just as with Flash. Update the media component to the latest release else your content on websites a/b/c won't work. We don't need this kind of bullshit in the HTML 5 standard. Companies that are worried about their precioussssssss content being stealed can petition Adobe to continue developing that shit plugin called Flash.

      And just as with Flash that doesn't work everywhere, a proprietary DRM solution in HTML 5 will still not work everywhere. So what have you gained ? Nothing at all. Use the old shit to protect shit content. New generations know the value of audio/video content and how to monetize it without resorting to paranoid DRM schemes.

    21. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      If they provided me with good cheap DRM free service, they'd have my dollars.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    22. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like this form of argument - it allows you to "prove" things regardless of their actual, objective truthfulness!

      Here, let me try: "If it was about preventing violence, you would expect gun control to actually protect people from violence. But I can find instances of people shooting other people easily, no matter how much gun control has been piled on. Therefore, it cannot actually be about preventing violence. QED."

      YAY!

    23. Re:Bias by silas_moeckel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Big media cares about a lot more than copy protection. They care about reselling you the same content in multiple formats. They care about restricting where, when, and how long you can access content. They want to limit sharing of content. They want more rights than what copyright gives them for longer than the already insanely long copyright term They want to force there content to check in so they have an idea who and where somebody is accessing it. They want control over what operating system and what hardware you access the content on.

      DRM is not just copy protection it's a slew of rights the content owners that they never had before. Copy protection can be as simple as watermarking each copy sold, that gives them about what they had in the dead tree age. It's flawed sure but keeps the status quo.

      You have to realize that you can keep adding more and more security along the path but it just hampers lawful users. Today's best consumer DRM is still vulnerable to "simple" attacks like emulating a LCD display since that's after the HDCP decoder. Watermarking only gives you a good idea of who to sue not all the rest of the bits.

      As to HTML5 it should include a robust media streaming framework. That frameworks must be open. All the DRM systems I know of can not exist without some sort of secret that's obfuscated from the end system but still accessible, that's the antithesis of open.
       

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    24. Re:Bias by bradgoodman · · Score: 2
      I agree. But if a service elects to use it anyway - why not just give them a standardized way to do it - that will work across all devices, rather than making them jump through hoops, creating different plug-ins for all sorts of devices, many of which are less-trivial than others. (Think writing a Firefox plug-in vs. a Tivo or Wii plug-in).

      If the services deem this as "sufficient" protection, give them a way to do it. If you're "pissed-off" by the way a particular service choose to implement it, and the restrictions they impose, you are welcome to not use their service. But at least you would be able to run a service that you *did* choose to use on a wide variety of HTML-5 compatible devices.

      As it stands today - they can still design DRM that pisses you off, but have less options on what to view them on.

      Great example: DVDs are a PITA - they don't let you rewind, or fast-forward through ads. I don't like them - so I don't buy, rent or watch them. With Netflix, I don't "own" the content - but they don't force me to watch ads. For the price they charge, It's a good service and a good deal - so I use them. Netflix is a big enough of a company that they've put their plug-in into my DVD burner, my Tivo, an app on my iPhone, and plug-in's for my browser. Great.

      If some other company or service started today - they'd have a VERY steep curve to go and create plug-ins for all such devices - and they would NOT work across any OLD devices.So I'd argue the lack of DRM standards are helping incumbent services maintain their monopolistic market dominance.

    25. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then if you are faced with purchasing content with such restrictions: don't.

      The problem is that copyright doesn't exactly make for a good free market (being a government-enforced monopoly over ideas and all). If you use DRM to 'protect' your work, you shouldn't be allowed to have copyright on it; no one is necessarily entitled to the ability to force the government to enforce a personal monopoly.

    26. Re:Bias by ADRA · · Score: 2

      So big media sits in a vacuum in the web for your argument to hold water? Sounds pretty flimsy.

      Put another way, if media companies didn't care about controlling media in any sort of effective way, why not remove all artificial limitations on skipping and have unlimited region support for the media in question? By your argument, these mechanisms cause zero benefit for them, and substantially reduce the enjoyment of their viewing public.

      When we have the panacea of web DRM, will that mean I'll have first day access to new shows anywhere in the world? Will I be able to fast-forward, pause, rewind, skip, bookmark, comment on, etc.. these videos? Will I be able to legally transfer my right to watch purchased videos to a peer? Legally take excerpts from the video for humour / reviewing / commenting / archival purposes?

      Put more pointedly, why would I support a framework that grants no new rights, and restricts ones I still currently have away? People bought into steam because they 'did it right', and the platform offers value. People bought into Google to browse and share data, because generally Google adds value to your browsing experience. You think Bing or Google's numerous past competitors couldn't catch up to Google eventually? Sure. But Google continually uses the data that YOU give it to make the service a better one.

      Media corps on the other hand continually ask for more and give less, so I (and many others it seems) have decided to stop supporting their business model.

      --
      Bye!
    27. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 2

      The difference is that gun control has actually been shown to reduce gun violence, whereas DRM has never actually prevented anything from being copied.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    28. Re:Bias by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Have you actually ever bought a DVD in a "poorer market"? Not a pirated DVD, but one properly licensed and imported? You actually think it is cheaper than the $5 bin at Walmart?

    29. Re:Bias by Miros · · Score: 2

      I feel like reasonable people can disagree about both sides of that statement.

    30. Re:Bias by robot5x · · Score: 2

      Hey guys - we live in a global capitalist economy, what else do you expect?!

      These are money-making enterprises, and they can and will do everything in their power to squeeze as much money out of us poor consumers. I actually don't have a problem with this, even though I'm politically on the left - it's the flip-side of being able to have cheap shoes and clothes imported from China, and so I can buy cheap consumer electronics.

      What always interests me is exactly how consumer sovereignty gets lost from this debate. We don't HAVE to watch these movies, and we don't HAVE to take up cable subscriptions. Without us voluntarily handing over our hard-earned money these corporations are NOTHING. If they can screw the consumer and the consumer keeps paying, what incentive is there for them to stop? Vote with your wallets!

      --
      Hej! Nasi tu byli!
    31. Re:Bias by Miros · · Score: 1

      I dont think purveyors of DRM systems view them as being flawless. The point is not to make it impossible to pirate content but to make it inconvenient enough that the average consumer wont do it. HDCP, CSS, FairPlay, AACS etc. have been very effective at that.

    32. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hell it isn't about limiting your devices. Just look at the aereo case.

    33. Re:Bias by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Big Media cares about piracy, slightly. DRM does slow down piracy, slightly. However what scares Big Media is that loss of control, and DRM is designed to fix that. DRM is all about preventing you from reselling media that you have bought, or lending the media out, or making backups, or viewing it more times than you are authorized for, or viewing/listening/playing on media that's not properly locked down to prevent illicit copying, etc. Piracy is just the excuse Big Media uses to get naive people to accept DRM.

      It is *not* about copy protection. Pirates will copy this stuff the day it's made available, while legal purchasers will be the ones stuck with the disadvantages.

    34. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM has never actually prevented anything from being copied.

      False. If DRM had never actually prevented anything from being copied, people wouldn't give a shit about it. What you REALLY mean is "I don't like DRM, and DRM makes me work a little harder to make copies of things."

      DRM HAS prevented things from being copied, and gun control laws HAVE prevented people from getting shot. DRM doesn't prevent all unauthorized copying, and Gun Control doesn't prevent all gun violence. That doesn't mean either measure is completely worthless and never works.

    35. Re:Bias by kwerle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, they don't. Web has been a major thorn in their side for many years. Big Media wants 100% control or they want it to die.

      That may or may not be, but netflix, amazon, hulu, apple, microsoft, google, etc disagree with you. I think all of 'em would love to ship you copyrighted data over a standard DRM'd channel supported by many browsers.

    36. Re:Bias by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The problem is that what you describe allows evil to fill in the cracks. If i vote with my wallet and abstain, but 50 other people still buy the Bad Thing, it doesnt mean that Bad Thing is moral or just or should be allowed to prosper. It just means 50 people parted with their money, allowing Bad Thing to grow. There are times when this philosophy breeds True Evil, and that is where capitalism needs to wane and social ideas need to surge.

      * Bad Thing and True Evil are relative terms, set your own goalposts on those.

      --
      Good-bye
    37. Re:Bias by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      It's still the same thing as Flash and Silverlight.

      It's a wolf in sheep's clothing. All you're really accomplishing is hiding the fact that you're still using proprietary crap. There is no value in subverting an open standard so people can kid themselves that things have improved when they really haven't.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    38. Re:Bias by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That's just silly.

      I will just get the disc through Netflix or wait until it goes on sale. That's assuming I'm not the sort of user that just goes straight to TPB.

      I can even go the old school route and just wait until it makes it onto one of my local network affiliates that I can capture with a pair of rabbit ears.

      Free media is nothing new. It's been the default state of thing since the introduction of radio.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    39. Re:Bias by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      The "DRM" on DVDs was so lame you couldn't really call it DRM but merely a limited copy protection. The region encoding was just the tip of what DRM wants to do. Despite the triviality of DVD protections they are still a major headache today for those who don't have hacked region-free DVD players. Certain shows are not available in the US region, others not available in other regions, you have to be sure you get the right region when giving DVDs to friends, etc. Even Obama messed up by giving the wrong region of DVDs as a gift to David Cameron.

      So imagine how much more stringent later DRM stuff is, even more than the highly restrictive BluRay.

    40. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If DRM had never actually prevented anything from being copied, people wouldn't give a shit about it.

      No no no. The reason we hate DRM isn't because we want to copy stuff; it's because we don't want to have to run a VM just to watch Netflix.

    41. Re:Bias by thedonger · · Score: 1

      Which is exactly why I am politically on the right (at least, what the right is supposed to represent; let's be honest - both sides allow corporations to affect the legislative process because we don't kick them out for doing it). Kraft can place their Mac-n-Cheese in my favorite TV show. They can fill every commercial slot with unusually loud (volume) commercial spots. They can lie and tell me I am going to die if I don't eat their Mac-n-Cheese. But unlike when the government tells me I have to eat Gub'ment-Mac-n-Cheese, Kraft can't throw me in jail for choosing a salad. Or tossing the salad, if you're into that sorta thing.

      That said, I don't like DRM, but I also don't care because, as you said, I can choose not to watch. Will someone declare they have the unalienable right to Must See TV?. But what is the end game here? We continually add DRM to everything to cover how people get around it? In the distant future a requirement of citizenship will be an electronic implant, and on that implant...DRM! (When I watch pirated movies my brain interprets the images and sound as a government-sponsored message about the evils of pirating!)

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    42. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great example: DVDs are a PITA - they don't let you rewind, or fast-forward through ads.

      Buy the right dvd player and you can skip ads entirely. No need to even fast-forward through them.

    43. Re:Bias by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      No. You have to be a pretty determined idiot to hold onto the idea that DRM ever stopped copying. All it takes is one motivated pirate on a planet of 6 billion to enable the other 5,999,999,999 thieves to completely have their way with something.

      It's a MUCH more simple issue than gun control by far.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    44. Re:Bias by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      > . But if a service elects to use it anyway - why not just give them a standardized way to do it - that will work across all devices

      That's a nice fantasy.

      Unfortunately, the reality is much less ideal.

      It is not standardized. I will not work across all devices.

      It's really just like the current solutions (Flash, Silverlight).

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    45. Re:Bias by gr8_phk · · Score: 1

      Have you actually ever bought a DVD in a "poorer market"? Not a pirated DVD, but one properly licensed and imported? You actually think it is cheaper than the $5 bin at Walmart?

      Ummm yeah. You can buy legal (if you can find them) versions of newer movies in foreign markets cheaper than at Walmart. Don't compare new stuff in those markets with old $5 stuff - keep it apples to apples. And then there are titles that are sold only in certain regions - there is no reason those shouldn't work on players in other regions.

    46. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pirates will copy this stuff the day it's made available, while legal purchasers will be the ones stuck with the disadvantages.

      Which is why we should buy from pirates. They add value.

    47. Re:Bias by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      When we have the panacea of web DRM, will that mean I'll have first day access to new shows anywhere in the world? Will I be able to fast-forward, pause, rewind, skip, bookmark, comment on, etc.. these videos? Will I be able to legally transfer my right to watch purchased videos to a peer? Legally take excerpts from the video for humour / reviewing / commenting / archival purposes?

      The pirates will be able to do these activities, though the typical consumer will be blocked.

    48. Re:Bias by Miros · · Score: 1

      there is no reason those shouldn't work on players in other regions.

      Other than, of course, that the company which produced the content wants to sell it that way and today has the right to do so.

    49. Re:Bias by brillow · · Score: 1

      Apparently you like running Linux more than watching Netflix.

      Or do you just want to have your cake and eat it too?

    50. Re:Bias by Miros · · Score: 1

      I dont think purveyors of DRM systems view them as being flawless. The point is not to make it impossible to pirate content but to make it inconvenient enough that the average consumer wont do it.

    51. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Capitalism doesn't involve paying off the government to help you screw consumers. That's corporatism/fascism..

    52. Re:Bias by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      The problem is that once this is in place, everyone will use it.

    53. Re:Bias by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Additionally, if it becomes a constant upgrade battle, because people will try to hack it, this will really be painful. And I don't need yet another vector for someone to try to take over my systems.

    54. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Other than, of course, that the company which produced the content wants to sell it that way and today has the right to do so.

      And we have a right to call them petty, arbitrary assholes for it.

    55. Re:Bias by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      It has prevented copying. What is hasn't done is prevent the proliferation of illegal copies in any substantial way, and it has also meant that legitimate users have been pushed into picking up 'pirate' copies just to avoid the inconveniences needed for their own legal usage. This often leads to reduced sales and habits towards going for the illegal copy in the first place. When the DRM is broken once, infinite infringing copies can be made, and with the internet, they are often more easily accessible that legitimate sources.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    56. Re:Bias by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      Have you actually ever bought a DVD in a "poorer market"? Not a pirated DVD, but one properly licensed and imported?

      Have you ever bought an anime DVD in the US (one properly licensed)? Compare the price of getting an entire series in a box in the US to getting a single disc with two (if you're lucky!) episodes in Japan, and realize that your mistake is in thinking the US is on the high end of the region coding totem pole.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    57. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Forced to play, maybe. That time is spent with the tv on mute and me taking that pre-screening piss.

    58. Re:Bias by PRMan · · Score: 1

      And I have the right to use something I bought however I want. You really think their rights trump mine?

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    59. Re:Bias by PRMan · · Score: 1

      Right. THEY can go to China to save money. But YOU can't. How is this fair exactly?

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    60. Re:Bias by Ian+A.+Shill · · Score: 0

      Will someone declare they have the unalienable right to Must See TV?.

      Please correct me if I am mistaken, but is there not legislation in the U.S. that makes it a right to freely receive television signals that are broadcast over the air with an antenna? (The radio spectrum is a shared public resource).

      --
      For hire.
    61. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, in quite a few states the Gub'ment can throw you in jail for tossing a salad. That falls under sodomy laws.

      The point you are missing is that something specifically designed to restrict content should not be part of a standard whose sole purpose is open communication. Would you like the media corps to have video and audio surveillance of your house 24/7? That is what they want on your online browsing experience, and if it is standardized there are not enough billions of dollars in the world to pay them off from the power they will have.

    62. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey guys - we live in a global capitalist economy, what else do you expect?!

      exactly that: a global capitalist economy (but without the bullshit regions). the problem is that they aren't really playing globally. they are just using the same old rules, whic h sucks because the internet made the whole world smaller and should have leveled the playing field, but it didn't. it's like, i'd have no problem with sweatshops if the end price i paid, for clothes made in them, reflected that.

    63. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you're largely right. Comments like "1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man. DRM is about limiting the functionality of devices and selling features back in the form of services." are nothing better than "it's like this because we say it is." The anti-DRM lobby expects the average consumer to swallow just as much misinformation and bullshit as those who support it. One of the fundamental problems with this debate (and let's be honest, just about anything that gets tossed around on the 'net these days) is that, for the most part, the majority of voices you hear are obsessive zealots spouting hyperbolic nightmare-scenarios on either side, with the truth being buried somewhere under 15 layers of irrelevant nonsense. It wouldn't be so bad if both sides didn't sit there with smug shit-eating grins on their face as if they own the moral high ground.

    64. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about you guys actually think about it for more than five minutes?

      If making sure the video stream was encrypted was the big deal, it can just as easily be down with javascript. AES is not some mystical impossible to implement technology. The purpose of DRM in HTML5 serves only one purpose, to add a "black box" to websites. So how is this DRM actually implemented by the browsers? Who the hell knows. If it relies on software, then it will simply be cracked instantaneously. There will be no point to it. Firefox is open source, you can just recompile it to direct DRM streams into a file or something. If it instead redirects the DRM stream to hardware, well, then you are basically fucked. It will only work with certain computers/devices. You end up in a situation similar to websites requiring flash currently, where some sites simply don't work with your tablet or such.

      I don't think you know about proper implementation of cryptography. Programming this in JS is entirely non-trivial, because the language doesn't provide the necessary features to prevent side-channel and time attacks. See also this (from the stick-figure guide to AES). The entire idea is to plug it to a proper crypto implementation. If Firefox provides the proper API, then all you need to do is connect it to the right software (or hardware) and it will play your video. Or, you know, you don't play evil DRM-ed videos and streams.

      The implementation they seem to want is to have the browser redirect the DRM stream to a software blob that will decrypt it and do "something". God knows what. But it will work on most devices, provided they cross compile plugins. This is the same crappy situation as activeX, where you will are forced to install plugins where you have no idea or control over what they do. If you don't install them, entire pieces of websites will not work. And they will pop up EVERYWHERE.

      Again, you don't have to use it. It is proper software engineering to separate these things, and although things could be done wrong, that is no reason to not write a standard for it.

      This is the worst possible outcome, there is a good reason people are fighting this.

      Exactly. A tin-foil hat discussion.

    65. Re:Bias by martin-boundary · · Score: 1
      Indeed, let's cut to the chase. Regardless of where anyone falls within the DRM debate, the fact is that DRM extensions have no business being part of HTML. Those are apples and oranges, and shouldn't be mixed. Period.

      So please, Netflix, stop arguing for this nonsense, build or buy your DRM any which way you like, *just not in HTML*.

    66. Re:Bias by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

      Why didn't Microsoft make Silverlight platform independent?

      --
      ...
    67. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as like the concept of "open and free", blah blah blah - I'm not really buying the argument...But I digress - I'm not trying to sway anyone's opinion on the matter - let's just call a spade a spade - it *is* about copy-protection.

      The idea that someone can sell you something and it is not yours is preposterous. Yet somehow this has become the norm. Now, I'm in favor of copyrights in the limited sense, but the content owners have broken the social contract on this by getting copyrights extended way beyond anything that could be considered limited. And they go further, trying to enforce this by DRM. Frankly, I have no sympathy for any of their complaints about piracy. They have already broken the social contract so it is void. As far as I'm concerned, if I buy something it is mine. I can use it how I want, where I want and when I want.

    68. Re:Bias by blackiner · · Score: 1

      Programming this in JS is entirely non-trivial, because the language doesn't provide the necessary features to prevent side-channel and time attacks.

      The proper features to prevent against these is making sure your wires are coated and injecting random delays into code execution. You can certainly randomly delay js code. And the language can get damn near assembly performance: https://blog.mozilla.org/luke/2013/03/21/asm-js-in-firefox-nightly/

      Exactly. A tin-foil hat discussion.

      You are the one who brought up side channel and timing attacks on AES, which are used to snoop info from the stream *as an onlooker*, someone outside the AES connection. Do you really think people are going to be snooping random internet connection streams and trying to decrypt them so that they can get free videos? That is a FAR more ridiculous tin foil argument than mine. Furthermore, the person who is decrypting the DRM stream is someone who has full access to the operating system, browser, and crypto library source code. If they want to alter the linux scheduler to make timing attacks easier, recompile the browser so the returned decrypted stream is sent to a file, or just rewrite the cryptographic decoders to dump the decoded streams to files, they can do so trivially.

      And if you decide to make this DRM start requiring hardware decryption, well, it will just not catch on, and will recreate the problems of flash and random devices not working. Not to mention that there are already ways to decrypt hdcp streams anyway.

      So really, what the hell is the point of all this?

    69. Re:Bias by FireFury03 · · Score: 1

      If anything, DRM actually encourages the "average cunsumer" to copy by virtue of making the official product inferior to the copies.

      The average consumer may find they want to do something entirely reasonable with the content they purchased (watch a DVD in a different region, skip adverts on a DVD, watch some movie on a device that doesn't support the DRM being used, watch a HD movie on a TV that doesn't do HDCP, etc.) They find they can't do this with their legally purchased media, so end up downloading an illegal copy instead. After doing this a few times, they start to question why the hell they are paying for something they are having to copy illegally in order to use and give up on the whole "paying" bit.

      Unless you can completely eliminate *everyone's* ability to post a DRM-free copy on the internet, you can't prevent this. Your best choice is to stop making the legit versions inferior to the illicit ones.

    70. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM does slow down piracy, slightly.

      [Citation needed]

      All DRM does is make it harder to use for the paying customer. If you watch a DVD or BD, you get unskippable ads and unskippable slow menus. If you download the movie from TPB all that crap has been removed. Put in disc, watch movie. With games, you get copy protection software that remove the drivers for your DVD drive (in case you might want to use it to burn a copy of the game) and requirements that you have an always working internet connection. Download if from TPB, and all that crap has been removed.

      DRM is the biggest reason to download illegal copies.

    71. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that is where capitalism needs to wane and social ideas need to surge

      Not necessarily. Copyright is a social idea in the first place: a government-mandated monopoly to promote the creation of ideas which pure capitalism might not do. Perhaps we could take a look at what pure capitalism would do, and abolish copyright.

    72. Re:Bias by dkf · · Score: 1

      HTML5 should include a robust media streaming framework

      Actually, could we not have that? It's main use will be for obnoxious adverts (you know I'm right) and I'd love to be without those. I can live without Youtube (and don't use Netflix or its competitors).

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    73. Re:Bias by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      There are a few problems with that. First, it only takes one person to circumvent the DRM and then average customers don't need to do anything: the de-DRM'd copy can be trivially redistributed. Second, it only takes on person to write the software to circumvent the DRM and then it can be packed up into a one-click UI for the average customer. If you search for 'copy DVD' in any web search engine, you'll find loads of easy-to-use tools. There's no reason that the UI for ripping a DVD has to be more complicated than iTunes' UI for ripping a CD - it's only because of the CSS licensing requirements that iTunes doesn't have this functionality out of the box.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    74. Re:Bias by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      To watch a movie in Netflix on my laptop that is running Linux, I have to jump through a large number of hoops... Or, I can fire up my Xbox 360, or my PS3, or another machine running Windows.

      Or your iPad, iPhone or Android phone.

      Sorry, it's a question of economics, not some hideous conspiracy. If a company like Netflix decide to ignore Linux it's because they've worked out they're not losing that many potential customers. Whether that's right or not is their problem.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    75. Re:Bias by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      And I have the right to use something I bought however I want. You really think their rights trump mine?

      When you buy a DVD you don't buy the content. You buy the physical disk (which you can do what you like with) and a licence to view the content under certain restricted conditions. For instance, in the UK at least you're not allowed to show it to paying customers.

      If you don't like it, don't buy it.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    76. Re:Bias by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      I am assuming that much like images they are not required, can be turned off at the browser level, and alt text will be available.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    77. Re:Bias by lorenlal · · Score: 1

      I never claimed it was some conspiracy. That's not the point of my post. It's just a case where I have to jump through extra hoops, and as far as I can tell there is no real gain on the end of Netflix. And yes, I understand I can watch it on just about anything that isn't a standard Linux.

      They locked in with Silverlight to present to PCs and Mac, because of DRM requirements. A side effect of the solution they chose is that it's inconvenient for me, and grandma isn't going to figure it out on her own. That makes it "not good" in my humble opinion, and that's what I'm trying to point out. The only real effect it has is that it gives one less reason to adopt Linux, and that's for a video streaming service.

      No conspiracy, just silly.

    78. Re:Bias by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      But unlike when the government tells me I have to eat Gub'ment-Mac-n-Cheese

      As someone on the left, I would classify this as right wing behaviour. In a proper socialist democracy, any government laws would only arise if the majority of people democratically voted on them, and I don't see how enough people would care enough about Mac-n-Cheese (whatever that is) to make a law enforcing it.

      It is far more likely that in a rightwing fascist/corporatist society Kraft would be able to apply pressure on the government to mandate Mac-n-Cheese.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    79. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, let's do call a spade a spade. You're a moron, or a shill. What can you tell me about DeCSS? What's that? Nothing? Then how about DMCA, and how it's relevant here? What's that? You don't have a clue? Exactly. If you don't know the relevant issues, do us all a favor and shut the fuck up. It is NOT about copy protection, it's about the right to choose not to buy the biggest brands and it's about making sure individuals and small companies are allowed to compete on the same playing field as the large corporations driving this bullshit, you clueless, pusillanimous shill.

    80. Re:Bias by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Utter bullshit. If you want to consume only mainstream media, fine, go ahead and do it, but don't pretend there has been some massive restriction on freedom of the press and that there are no alternatives. If you are happy just watching Fox and Disney, fine, but you have no right to moan about what it costs or how restricted it is.

      There is nothing stopping you starting your own YouTube channel, blog, forum or whatever. There is nothing stopping you making music and films and releasing them for free, unrestricted download. Lots of people already do this.

      The simple fact is, that people want to watch Fox and Disney. No one's forcing them. People like crap TV, crap films, crap magazines, crap books, crap clothes and crap music.

      Short of banning anyone from reading anything except Shakespeare or listening to Mozart (or whatever) that's just life.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    81. Re:Bias by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Sometimes you're forced to watch commercials on the web too.

      Luckily, you can always close the tab and open up something more interesting.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    82. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      If DRM had never actually prevented anything from being copied, people wouldn't give a shit about it.

      People give a shit about DRM despite the fact that it does not prevent copying because it makes the paid experience worse than the pirate experience. You're right, in that I don't like DRM. You're wrong, in that DRM makes it absolutely no harder to make copies of anything. Just visit the pirate bay.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    83. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      The point is not to make it impossible to pirate content but to make it inconvenient enough that the average consumer wont do it.

      DRM makes piracy MORE convenient than the legitimate purchase.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    84. Re:Bias by Hatta · · Score: 1

      Uh...wut? How the fuck has gun control been shown to reduce violence?

      It seems to have worked in Australia.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    85. Re:Bias by kwerle · · Score: 1

      Why didn't Microsoft make Silverlight platform independent?

      Didn't they?

      http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/
      "Silverlight is a powerful development tool for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for Web and mobile applications. Silverlight is a free plug-in, powered by the .NET framework and compatible with *multiple browsers, devices and operating systems*, bringing a new level of interactivity wherever the Web works."

      But seriously - why would they? With more than 90% of the world's computers on their OS, it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to spend any money on that kind of effort. Now that the phone (and tablet) market is kicking their ass, the tables have turned.

      QuickTime, on the other hand, never had that luxury - Apple has needed to port it to other platforms to get anyone at all to use it.

      If Netflix uses HTML5 DRM, I predict game over. All the other content providers will use the same thing. And by content providers, I mean folks who do not have a vested interest in their proprietary formats (Microsoft, Apple), though maybe even they will fall in line if it means more consumers of their data.

    86. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If DRM had never actually prevented anything from being copied, people wouldn't give a shit about it.

      Fallacy of presumption. You are presuming that the only reason people would complain (give a shit) about DRM is due to copying.

    87. Re:Bias by thedonger · · Score: 1

      I'm not talking right-wing fascism, and perhaps not even a winged brand of politics at all. Rather, I mean the intention of the founders of the US. If we ran our government correctly we wouldn't stand for the government colluding with corporations to limit our choice (the Gub'ment Mac-n-Cheese comment).

      I am very much against the government having nearly any say in what I can do (and I will admit the current incarnation of conservative/Republican politics in the US wants just as much control as the liberal/Democrat side, albeit on different issues [sidebar: you may have noticed how when one side argues for "freedom" the other argues for government control, and they switch sides based on the topic at hand - see gay marriage and guns]).

      The problem with the left wing government - back on mac-n-cheese - is the idea that the government knows best and will ensure the mac-n-cheese is up to health standards - which they also set.

      Inasmuch as my stance can hypothetically lead to anarchy and daily wild west style shootouts, I see the socialist philosophy of redistribution leading to total enslavement. Those - like a friend of mine - who blithely declare themselves socialist while wearing $500 shoes and eating at fancy restaurants must not realize what they are buying into, or hope they will die before they are the rich whose wealth is next on the chopping block.

      Not that I think we shouldn't help our fellow man; however, my philosophy is Airline Oxygen Maskism: The government provides the protective hull, plus the safety net of oxygen masks, and in the event the cabin loses pressure we are responsible for donning our own mask, and then we should help others who are less able. In practice, something like extremely limited federal government, a return to sovereignty at the state level (i.e., get the states off the federal dole), my tax dollars should trickle up, not down, and super-local, voluntary communal efforts. Top down socialism is as much as a fail as top down fascism.

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    88. Re:Bias by thedonger · · Score: 1

      Will someone declare they have the unalienable right to Must See TV?.

      Please correct me if I am mistaken, but is there not legislation in the U.S. that makes it a right to freely receive television signals that are broadcast over the air with an antenna? (The radio spectrum is a shared public resource).

      Maybe; however, if I can't get NBC because I live outside the broadcast range of the nearest station, then too bad for me. But I am talking not just about the signal, but the means by which to convert into human-view-able terrible sitcoms. Currently, we still have purchase televisions in the US. They aren't issued along with our social security cards.

      --
      Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    89. Re:Bias by ashpool7 · · Score: 1

      You can't do it in javascript, because the point is not to keep the stream safe in transport. The point is to keep the keys away from the user, and it's way easier to do that with a binary because the tools to reverse it are more complicated. Hence the black box.

    90. Re:Bias by blackiner · · Score: 1

      On an open source system, it is just as trivial to get access to the unencrypted stream from the DRM blob as it is to get it from the javascript DRM. Really, I would not be surprised if there was a firefox plugin that allowed you to "Right Click->Save As..." the drm videos hours after the DRM enabled browser launched. The simple fact of the matter is that any software based DRM needs to pass the unecrypted stream to the video decoding or graphics stack. You cannot veer around this, you cannot protect these streams without a fully protected hardware DRM path.

      More importantly, allowing video tags to load up binary blobs to do DRM creates a *massive* attack vector. You are essentially giving attackers free reign to execute whatever code they like, and pass said code arbitrary data, of arbitrary size. This will create a minefield of malware.

      People are arguing that the point of this DRM is to make sure that the average end users are "too inconvenienced" to break the DRM. Well, the javascript solution already does that, and it does not introduce hostile new mechanisms to the HTML standard in the process, nor does it introduce massive security holes to the general public.

    91. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right about why DVD regions exist, but DVDs weren't intended to be easily copied. The reasons DVD encryption is so crap is partly because of the US export law on export of encryption technology which were in effect at the time limited the strength of the encryption that could be used, and the other part was because the people designing it fucked up the implementation because they were trying to make it easy (i.e. cost effective) to implement in hardware of the time.

    92. Re:Bias by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Of course you don't 'have' to use it. Chance are that it will work out like javascript -- you don't 'have' to use it, just like you don't 'have' to be able to view the majority of popular sites out there without them being, well, broken.

      It's not a tin-foil hat discussion.

    93. Re:Bias by ashpool7 · · Score: 1

      The unencrypted stream is decompressed. Recompressing it creates fidelity loss and takes up more CPU time/power making it undesirable. Possible, but undesirable. It's like a theatre cam recording.

      Breaking DRM by poking through assembler is hard work for no pay in your spare time. I would be not be surprised if *nobody* has built a Netflix streamripper plugin for Firefox. The guy breaking iTunes encryption has basically given up the cat and mouse game due to time.

      The JavaScript solution makes it super convenient to make a streamripper and install it as a no-native-code addon. It is the opposite of what you argue it is. I get that the binary blob introduces an attack vector, but your solution is not acceptable (to DRM proponents).

    94. Re:Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sometimes you're forced to watch commercials on the web too.

      Everyone point and laugh, he doesn't have adblock installed!

    95. Re:Bias by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      The OP's comment was in the poorer markets. But it actually applies to "market outside of the original market", in which case, yours fall into that.

  3. And who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This whining about DRM should end. how could "DRM in HTML5" NOT obsolete proprietary, browser-specific plug ins? The reference doesn't even say that. It's just another whining article.

    As long as DRM is implemented in a way that doesn't make the browser plug-in itself binary-only, a standard, auditable source code just like we have with everything else, who cares? Oh my god, someone wants to ENCRYPT their video stream!! THE HORRORS!!!! WHO GIVES A FUCK?????????

    I could care less about DRM in HTML5. It's better than having to install Flash or Silverlight! Let's get real here.

    1. Re:And who cares? by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      how could "DRM in HTML5" NOT obsolete proprietary, browser-specific plug ins?

      Because, uh, "DRM in HTML5" is merely a framework to allow sites to require specific proprietary, browser-specific plugins to display their content?

      I could care less about DRM in HTML5.

      Probably because you don't understand it.

    2. Re:And who cares? by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      Because, uh, "DRM in HTML5" is merely a framework to allow sites to require specific proprietary, browser-specific plugins to display their content?

      That's the way it ALREADY is. Standardizing HTML5 is exactly what is supposed to *END* that.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    3. Re:And who cares? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      If you look at the proposed standard, it quite specifically doesn't end that. It just replaces the world 'plugin' with "Content Decryption Module" wherever it appears...

    4. Re:And who cares? by Miros · · Score: 1

      It also specifies a "CDM" that must be implemented by all browsers.

    5. Re:And who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as DRM is implemented in a way that doesn't make the browser plug-in itself binary-only, a standard, auditable source code just like we have with everything else, who cares?

      The copyright holders. You know, the only people who want DRM. They won't license their content on anything with open source code.

    6. Re:And who cares? by Microlith · · Score: 1

      It doesn't specify anything of the sort. It specifies the interface, but not any specific CDM.

    7. Re:And who cares? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      It doesn't specify anything of the sort. It specifies the interface, but not any specific CDM.

      Not quite true, it does specify one, totally chickenshit, "'Simple Decryption' scheme, with the key provided in plaintext, and absolutely zero protection against even the most trivial of attacks(you wouldn't even need to modify the browser, since the decryption key is in the clear.) but it remains rather fuzzy who exactly would use this, since it's totally pointless if you aren't worried about 'piracy', and it's equally pointless if you are.

      It is provided as a token example of how a 'OMG, totally open source compatible!!!' CDM could be implemented; but it achieves none of the goals of any DRM proponent, while being a nuisance to non-DRM users, so it's largely cosmetic. Any actual DRM will be in a binary CDM, possibly a hardware-dependent one(eg. 'Protected media path', etc.), and anybody who would be satisfied with the 'simple decryption' nonsense will just stream in the clear for simplicity's sake.

    8. Re:And who cares? by jonwil · · Score: 1

      DRM in HTML5 replaces proprietary, often browser-specific and platform-specific plugins like Flash and Silverlight with proprietary browser-specific and platform-specific content decryption modules (which will likely be even MORE tied to specific browsers and platforms)

      At least with Flash, you have a reasonable chance of it working in any web browser that supports whatever plugin API the Flash plugin you have actually needs. With the CDMs, expect to see the people who create them specifically tying the CDMs to browsers (and browser versions) they have verified as "safe" (i.e. unable to be used to steal their precious content). It will likely be HARDER to use the CDM plugins with open-source web browsers than it is now with Flash.

    9. Re:And who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm just waiting for somewhere in the spec, there will be a "pluContent Decryption Modulegin" that busts the real source of this wide open.

  4. Finally a group that gets it! by rubypossum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We don't need to hobble our technologies to make certain people money.

    --
    I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. - Hunter S. Thompson
    1. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by bradgoodman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How is it "hobbling" the technology. If you don't like the DRM aspect of it - don't watch protected content with it. It's not going to have any affect on you.

    2. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Miros · · Score: 1

      The people trying to make money from content will deploy whatever technology best enables them to do so. Not enabling your technology to meet this need will simply ensure that they use something else. That something else may not be as good as your solution could have been.

    3. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Yea we want to make technology that no one will use or adopt!

      Sorry life requires compromise.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      DRM, by definition, hobbles technology. This is not about "choice" -- if all the major media outlets use this technology, it will be enabled by default on everyone's computer, and everyone's computer will be programmed (by default) to fight against the user.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    5. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      We don't need to hobble our technologies to make certain people money.

      As long as you're not the guy complaining down the road that Netflix still hasn't come to Linux.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    6. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly this. We'll be stuck with whatever horror show replaces the flash and (*gag*) silverlight solutions they use now. They'll all be different, and be platform specific, and they won't mind that these solutions eschew any linux support. Just as they don't care now.

      I think it's funny that all these morons that build a linux HTPC and then scream about Netflix support don't get this. Niche platform support matters less to these people than putting DRM on their suppliers content.

      Now is your chance to make it work everywhere, and go from there.

    7. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      This will not change any of that.

      The CDM will still be platform specific. It has to be. Otherwise I can just write the output to a file. That makes the DRM dead as a door nail. So instead it will have to use protected path on windows, whatever OSX calls it and that will be it. There will no support for anyone else.

    8. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by nametaken · · Score: 1

      We don't need to hobble our technologies to make certain people money.

      No. What you're actually advocating is making legal content inaccessible only to the niche you're in, by exclusion, for the sake of ideology.

      DRM will exist in most legitimate channels. That's a fact of life for the next 5+ years, yet. The option right now is whether or not you want it to work everywhere.

    9. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by bradgoodman · · Score: 2

      No, it would merely *allow* one to play DRM protected content. If you don't like the protection, don't use that services content. Service do all this today, they just need *proprietary* plug-ins to do so.

    10. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nope. It will not work everywhere, it cannot.
      If the plugin was universal then there is nothing stopping us linux users from writing the output to a file instead of the display. That means the DRM would be useless. Instead it will need a CDM for windows to use protected path, one for whatever OSX uses and that will be that. Nothing else will get support.

    11. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except Netflix is on Linux via android.

    12. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I doubt Netflix will release CDM plugins for Linux. Why would they spend the time to cater to 2% of the market?

    13. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh christ, we've been hearing this slippery slope argument forever. And it hasn't happened yet.

      Could you at least give us a timeframe when this massive infringement of our rights is going to happen, so we know when we should start feeling terrified?

    14. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Miros · · Score: 1

      So your critique is not that DRM is bad, but that the spec does not go far enough in specifying a standard "CDM?"

    15. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      No, my critique is that DRM is bad and adding it to the spec is useless. It means compromising ideals for absolutely no gain.

      There cannot be a standard CDM, DRM implementations have to be hidden and blackbox like. Else they will fail. If the same plugin just took in encrypted files and output them via normal methods capture would be trivial. Hell, linux users could redirect the output to a file.

    16. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by westlake · · Score: 2

      We don't need to hobble our technologies to make certain people money.

      Half of prime time Internet traffic in the states was a licensed Netflix download before Netflix offered a download-only service.

      Standard Definition, No multichannel theater sound. No captioning,

      The only thing you accomplish by keeping content protection out of the browser is to shift focus to the walled gardens of the OS branded app and app store.

      Subscription services?

      No problem for OSX and Windows, the Intenet enabled HDTV, the Dennon home theater receiver, the Roku set top box. The Xbox, Playstation or the Wii.

      Big problem for the Linux enthusiast not running Android or Chrome.

    17. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wheeeee this slippery slope is a fun ride!

    18. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Miros · · Score: 1

      Is that true though? Lots of protected content is distributed through systems that use standardized encryption / content protection mechanisms (HLS, for example). However it sounds like your issue is in fact ideological ("DRM is bad"), which is fine, but just your perspective. I wonder how many of Netflix's 33 million subscribers have a similar perspective. My guess would be - not enough to matter.

    19. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is true.
      Hell, just think about it. There is no way in an opensource browser and opensource OS to do this. Even if there were some magic keys, I could sniff them out of the kernel with GDB.

      HLS requires a locked down OS. It requires OS that conspires against the user. Read the damn spec for it.

      Even if DRM were not bad, why bother putting it in the spec when the CDM has to still be a proprietary third part plugin? What gain is there?

    20. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Bengie · · Score: 1

      A lot of set-top devices are Linux, even if desktops aren't.

    21. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Miros · · Score: 1

      Actually I have read the spec for HLS and it does not specify any restrictions on the operating system, handling of keys, or handling of decrypted content.

      The fact still remains - your issue here is with "DRM" as a concept, which is perfectly fine. I honestly don't think it matters to most consumers.

    22. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 0

      Are you fucking serious? Right in the face of the spread of curated computing and UEFI "secure" boot you're going to say this?

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    23. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > Why would they spend the time to cater to 2% of the market?

      That 2% influences many others.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    24. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      DRM can continue to be implemented fully in shitty DRM client apps. The HTML standard just won't condone or participate in it.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    25. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      And this is why sometimes it's important to say GNU/Linux.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    26. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      You mean current infringment of our rights that forbids us _today_ from giving away or lending DRM content, forbids us from making backup copies, and forbids us from viewing the content with certain viewers? Even if you go back to the most simple minded of DRM on the DVDs, it means you can not easily view a DVD in the wrong region (yes you can if you buy a region unlocked player, but it's not easy for many people).

      The infringements are happening now. Perhaps you think these are only trivial or minor infringments, and you're just so overjoyed that you get to download games online or watch netflix online that you welcome the DRM. Just because someone offers you candy doesn't mean you should get in the van.

      Maybe slippery slope isn't so slippery if you compare DVD to BluRay, and compare BluRay to online streaming.

    27. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      It's fully capable of playing the video and probably utilizing whatever underlying encryption is being used. There are no new capabilities for the end user.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    28. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      DRM, by definition, hobbles technology. This is not about "choice" -- if all the major media outlets use this technology, it will be enabled by default on everyone's computer

      This will happen regardless of whether HTML5 includes it or not. The only difference is that, if it's not in HTML5, we'll see another incarnation of Flash/Silverlight or some other technology that will enable DRM'd streaming. Worst-case (and yet fairly likely) scenario is that each platform will do it separately, so you'll have Apple DRM, Google DRM, Amazon DRM etc, and some content providers would enter into exclusive deals with some platform providers. If it is in HTML5, then at least you'll know that you can watch Netflix/Hulu/... on any phone or tablet that you can buy.

    29. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Nope. It will not work everywhere, it cannot. If the plugin was universal then there is nothing stopping us linux users from writing the output to a file instead of the display. That means the DRM would be useless.

      You misunderstand the point of DRM. It's not supposed to be a foolproof way to prevent the content from being freely accessed and copied. It's only supposed to make that difficult enough for 99% of potential users that they would be more inclined to buy it instead. From that perspective, Linux users are largely irrelevant.

    30. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by makomk · · Score: 1

      With HTML5 EME, every platform will still do it seperately, so you'll still have Apple DRM, Google DRM, Amazon DRM etc, and some content providers will probably still enter into exclusive deals with some platform providers. The entire point of EME is to provide a way to access platform-specific DRM/CDM modules - it only specifies the API that web applications can hand encrypted keying information and encrypted media to them, not what happens after that. In fact, this is already happening; Google Chromebooks and development versions of IE11 both support HTML5 EME, but the Chromebooks only support Google's Widevine DRM and IE11 only supports Microsoft's PlayReady DRM, neither of which is compatible with the other.

    31. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by stanjo74 · · Score: 1
      DRM hobbles technology as much as SSL hobbles Web browsing.

      There is nothing wrong with encrypted/DRM video. There are many applications - one is streaming of licensed (paid) content, another can be surveillance cameras protection over public networks.

    32. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they'll still need proprietary plugins, all the standard does is eliminatet the work of convincing users to install the plugins (and the choice for users about whether or not to install them). It's yet another mechanism for big content to have your device run unkown code.

    33. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DRM is the opposite of encryption. With a surveillance camera, encryption is what you want.

      Encryption sends data so that only the correct recipient can read them.

      DRM attempts to send data so that the correct recipient cannot read them (because if he could, he could make a copy).

      Oh, and SSL is encryption, not DRM. SSL workes just fine with DRM-free HTML5 video.

    34. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the spec doesn't specify a CDM at all, only the api to load it, the CDM is the same kind of proprietary plugin as flash or silverlight currently.

    35. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      really?

      So you've never heard someone complain about not being able to fastforward the anti-piracy adds and trailers on a dvd? You've never known somebody who came home from vacation with a DVD they couldn't play? You know no-one that got bitten by the play-for-sure deactivation, or the DRM-scheme switch from major baseball, or any of the other discontinued DRM-schemes? You know nobody that had trouble reinstalling games or software due to DRM ever?

      The above is just the beginning of the problems DRM causes, it's by no means an exhaustive list. If you truely believe most consumers don't care about any of the above problems you live in a very strange subculture

      Consumers might be willing to put up with it, because they figure they don't have a choice. That's coercion though, and we most definately shouldn't be standarising coercion mechanisms, coercion should be hard/impossible, not easy and standarised.

    36. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nope, I'm perfectly fine with their not being any officialy sanctioned channels on the web. There's plenty of non-official ones.

      as for working anywhere? HA! the proposed standard doesn't do that. (as the fucking article explains at length in plain language). The proposed standard makes it perfectly possible for (e.g.) Micorosoft to make a CDM that's only availble in IE on Windows locking in every media that uses it to the windows platform.

      This is not progress, it's a regression, it allows you to have a proprietary locked platform while appearing to be compliant to an open standard.

      Take your DRM and stick it where the sun don't shine, not only will using DRM make sure you don't get my money, but it makes sure that whenever I do something that sticks it to you (like pirate something) I'll feel _GOOD_ about it.

      Keep shooting yourself in the foot, but do it outside of 'open' standards

    37. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Bullshit, go read the wiki article at least.

      The key is scrambled with a 128-bit device specific key for registered commercial devices making a GNU General Public License product impossible to legally develop for the Linux-libre community.

      You can't even get a key if your OS does not conspire against the user.

      My issue is it cannot be done and allow me to own my own computer. Most consumers probably don't care about that, but I do.

    38. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      And then the shitty DRM clients shall replace your Web. Congratulations! See how many third parties you can interest to join your "open Web" with their content, when nobody is there to use it.

      This is what is happening in the mobile space with "native" apps. I believe the W3C's proposal is a direct response to this in the hopes of remaining relevant.

      When people find it more convenient to tap their Facebook/Netflix/iTunes/Amazon/YouTube/etc. app on their iPad, than typing URLs or searching for stuff on their browsers--and actually receive the benefits of those apps directly and conveniently--why would they even consider the "open web"? Why would they care?

              dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    39. Re:Finally a group that gets it! by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      No problem for OSX and Windows, the Intenet enabled HDTV, the Dennon home theater receiver, the Roku set top box. The Xbox, Playstation or the Wii.

      It is a problem for OSX and Windows in at least one case:

      Amazon VoD will NOT let you view rented movies in HD on your PC. You must use a 'box' device like the Roku/Xbox/PS3 if you want to view in HD.

      I ran into this when I rented a movie on my Roku, and decided I preferred to watch it on my bigscreen that I run off my PC. When I logged into Amazon to restart the film, I was blocked from watching it in HD. To watch it in HD I had to disconnect my Roku box and hook it up to the aux HDMI input on my bigscreen instead of the PC which drove my home theater.

      That was a big issue for me because my PC is the gateway for the audio to my receiver. My television 'tells' devices connected to it that it only has 2 speakers, so the devices 'helpfully' only send out the 2 channel sound instead of the raw 5.1 (even when the media source supports it). Therefore I actually have to analog bypass the HDMI audio through my PC if I actually want to hear 5.1 audio.

      Yeah it's complicated, and the only reason it's complicated is because I have to setup a Rube Goldberg system just to properly output the video/audio that I PAID FOR. All those complications are a byproduct of the DRM systems trying to control the datapath and intentionally failing because like most people I didn't build my entertainment system in one lump sum purchase with information from the future. I built it by purchasing a good receiver, upgrading old speakers, replacing an old television, integrating a PC, replacing an old DVD player with an Oppo upscaling player, introducing a game system, adding in an IRtoRF converter... etc. Basically the way that you HAVE to upgrade your system because 99% of people can't afford to buy the system they want all at once or repurchasing every component every time you want to upgrade one component.

      Even upgrading my receiver won't likely help much, since my television is working fine, and I don't want to drop $1k just to get the damned 5.1 audio pass through to work when I connnect devices.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
  5. Even worse than DRM... by bradgoodman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...is that when I went back to the original Slashdot post on "Ian Hickson (author of HTML5 spec.) on the real purpose of DRM" - the enclosed link to the original article made me go through a sign-on to Google Plus" :-O

    1. Re:Even worse than DRM... by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      Haha! That's precious. I love it when my militant open-source-freaky friends send me links to their documents, or to some article or blog post that drives through Google. (Actually, I don't love it at all).

      The worst part is that they really have no idea. They are so accustomed to being logged into the Google ecosystem, that they don't realize that it is in itself a controlled and fenced-off environment.

      A friend of mine kept trying to send me a spreadsheet from Google Docs, and he really couldn't understand why I was having so much trouble getting access to it (I don't have a Google account, and I disable JavaScript by default). When he thought he sent me a CSV, he actually sent a link to an export function that required me to sign up.

      LOL! Open indeed.

      They complain vociferously about Apple, but at least when I share photos or web sites from my iPad, it sends the actual content. When I click on "share" from within iWorks, I get the option to send as a PDF, or CSV or something, not some internal link to an Apple web site.

      But Google is the openness hero, right?

              dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    2. Re:Even worse than DRM... by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      File -> Download As -> Select [ xlsx, ods, pdf, csv, txt, html ]

      To obfuscated for you? You and your friend not knowing how to use a tool does make it closed; it just makes you ignorant. And telling outright lies based on your ignorance and forcing a discussion about html5 to be Google vs. Apple just makes you obnoxious.

    3. Re:Even worse than DRM... by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      To obfuscated for you?

      I wouldn't know, I never used it. Didn't you read my post?

      You and your friend not knowing how to use a tool does make it closed; it just makes you ignorant. And telling outright lies based on your ignorance and forcing a discussion about html5 to be Google vs. Apple just makes you obnoxious.

      Awww, there you go, turning this into a personal attack on complete strangers about whom you know nothing.

      I understand, man. It must suck having all that nerd-rage build up inside and the only inconsequential cause this week on which to focus it is plain old boring DRM. I can see now why you misread my post.

      Chip up, though. Maybe a story on personal privacy, or whatever you kids rave up about nowadays, will show up soon. It can only get better.

      Have a nice day :)

                -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
    4. Re:Even worse than DRM... by Kielistic · · Score: 1

      No, I read your post. You took something that had nothing to do with Google or Apple and went on some huge rant about how Google is not open (I really have no idea why you brought up Apple at all). Except everything you said was bullshit. It's fairly trivial to get your data out of almost all Google services which seemed to be your reasoning why Google is bad.

      Misread your post? Someone mentions something posted on Google+ and you go off on some Google vs. Apple rant and I'm the one misreading posts?

      No nerd rage here. You got all fired up because someone mentioned Google. I called you out on your bullshit (because your entire post was drivel). Your passive-aggressive attempt to insult me was pretty cute though.

  6. But the W3C is a Industrial Consortium! by gsnedders · · Score: 1

    The reality of any petition is that the W3C will likely do what its (paying) members want (as it is after all an industrial consortium), and hence it is unlikely to care what others think provided it doesn't hurt growing the membership.

    1. Re:But the W3C is a Industrial Consortium! by ADRA · · Score: 2

      Much unlike MPEG, there are no trade requirements that requires these specifications to be followed. They throw them up, and the organization lives and dies by adoption, not because we have to. If W3C wants to release yet another specification that members or the general public decide not to adopt, nobody gets sued, and the specification most likely stick into the vestigial category of web crap thrown in that seemed like a good idea at the time, like VRML or the likes.

      Now as stated, W3C is essentially as relevant as the works they publish. If they abandon the wishes of their general community, why would people consider them a good source evolving web standards if they push the platform into areas that nobody cares about? Is a DRM 'specification' relevant because half the browsers support it? Doubtfully.

      Who the hell cares if DRM is solved or not. We can't even agree for a set of video codecs to use on it, and that just puts us back to where we are today with plugin platforms that sit on top of the basic web specs, which IMHO isn't a bad thing.

      --
      Bye!
    2. Re:But the W3C is a Industrial Consortium! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Is a DRM 'specification' relevant because half the browsers support it? Doubtfully.

      Is it relevant because the browsers with 3/4 of overall market share, and 100% of market share on mobile devices (think IE + Chrome + Safari on all supported platforms) support it? I think it would likely be...

  7. Big Media Advertising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a personal Mad Men fan, I do not direct any disgust towards advertising their way; today's advertisers are a whole other collective monster.
    This, "Big Media" of yours, needs the web to spread word of mouth and not banner ads and pop-ups...

  8. HTML5 vs Silverlight by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 1

    Most of the web's video is streamed from Netflix. That's mostly streamed through Silverlight or browser specific plugins.

    How does letting HTML5 natively stream Netflix encourage proprietary browser plugins!? If just Netflix switched over (and they've said they intend to once DRM is in the spec) then by definition the majority of HTML5 streaming will be using less not more browser plugins.

    1. Re:HTML5 vs Silverlight by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Because the plugin will still be proprietary and OS specific. It has to be, else we linux users can just fire the output into a file. So instead it has to use some CDM for the OS it is on that only outputs to protected path hardware.

    2. Re:HTML5 vs Silverlight by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      Most of the web's video is streamed from Netflix. That's mostly streamed through Silverlight or browser specific plugins.

      How does letting HTML5 natively stream Netflix encourage proprietary browser plugins!? If just Netflix switched over (and they've said they intend to once DRM is in the spec) then by definition the majority of HTML5 streaming will be using less not more browser plugins.

      well then whole browser would become the silverlight plugin. just think about it for a second.

      but this spec is more like about speccing out another plugin interface, because maybe they had at least the decency to think that doing the whole browser into a closed black box that needs to run isolated from the users own programs was a bad idea and a can of worms. sooo.. none of the implementations using it would be using native html5 streaming as implemented on variety of devices/browsers - and if it did then it wouldn't have meaningful drm.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:HTML5 vs Silverlight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ..but...but DRM is bad because then I can't pirate all my stuffs for free because I'm a whiny entitled baby a bloo bloo bloo.

    4. Re:HTML5 vs Silverlight by X.25 · · Score: 1

      Most of the web's video is streamed from Netflix. That's mostly streamed through Silverlight or browser specific plugins.

      How does letting HTML5 natively stream Netflix encourage proprietary browser plugins!? If just Netflix switched over (and they've said they intend to once DRM is in the spec) then by definition the majority of HTML5 streaming will be using less not more browser plugins.

      And DRM will be made as... what exactly? You realize that each 'provider' will have their own DRM "plugin" which will only pollute everything?

      No, Netflix will not magically start streaming HTML5 videos without requiring you to install additional things. Even with HTML5 DRM.

  9. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Dputiger · · Score: 4, Informative

    The top 1% of the US captured 121% of the wealth generated during the "recovery." The bottom 99% actually got poorer.

    http://boingboing.net/2013/02/13/economic-recovery-in-the-us-ac.html

    That's why, despite record stock gains, real wage growth is flat. Improvements in the unemployment rate overall are much smaller once you count the number of discouraged workers or consider the underemployed. The jobs being generated don't pay as well as the ones people lost, and they don't include the same level of benefits.

    Facts. They kick ass.

  10. Digital Restricted Media... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Digital Restricted Media is a repeatedly failed and broken system. There is zero need for it in HTML5 or anything else.

    If you insist on DRMed content then nothing prevents you from wrapping your content in some digitally restricted format that current day HTML happily delivers. If you insist on DRM you can use it right now without any modification to HTML.

    If you encumber HTML with the DRM du jour you not only unnecessarily encumber HTML, you also lock yourself into a system that is GUARANTEED to be broken in short order and completely useless for its intended purpose into the future.

    The proposition of inserting DRM into HTML is as absurd as the proposition of inserting Real Networks .ram into HTML. If you want to use that shit, you can now. If you put it into HTML then you've only got more broken shit in HTML.

  11. Executive summary of the comments by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 0

    I need free entertainment. It is immoral to profit from this need.

  12. If there is ONE use for plugins still existing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is so that media companies can quit their bitching.
    Keep DRM as a plugin, keep it out of the web.

    It is trivial to combine a plugin and HTML5 video and audio to playback secure content.
    It can and will still remain trivial to also record said content for backup and/or sharing with others.
    Whether it is by ripping the data directly or using a virtual audio and video driver that duplicates to a file to capture it directly as it is processed.

  13. What About Plug-ins? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't flash already lock people out in HTML4? This is something that already happens.

    What are we talking about here? An encryption layer, built in to HTML5 to enforce access, similar to DVD CSS?

    It's something people can already do without HTML5, thus it doesn't really belong in HTML5, and it's something that can happen anyway, without it being built in.

    1. Re:What About Plug-ins? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well apparently this isn't as much of a encryption suite as it is a new name/tag for a plugin.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  14. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Funny that you don't mention the bush tax cuts that keep getting extended. Or bills intended to raise the minimum wage that also keep getting shot down. Facts... Maybe you should look at _all_ of them?

    A president can only be as successful as his congress, which has been utter rubbish the past few years, and has singlehandedy been the source of much of the anti-prosperity we've been dealing with... Because they can't do their jobs.

  15. This is easy... by gQuigs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    DRM is bad.[1]
    HTML5 is good.
    If a bad thing is included in something good, that thing is still bad.
    Therefore, DRM in HTML5 is bad.

    [1] It should be obvious DRM is bad, but: https://www.eff.org/issues/drm

    In fact, Consumer oriented DRM should be illegal. It's an anti-competive anti-consumer dangerous practice. (I'm totally fine with the military using DRM to protect confidential information, etc).

    1. Re:This is easy... by Miros · · Score: 1

      In fact, Consumer oriented DRM should be illegal. It's an anti-competive anti-consumer dangerous practice.

      How is it any more anti-competitive or anti-consumer than copyright in general? If your issue is with copyright why not just come out and say it?

    2. Re:This is easy... by gQuigs · · Score: 1

      How is it any more anti-competitive or anti-consumer than copyright in general? If your issue is with copyright why not just come out and say it?

      I do have some problems with copyright in the US, but I don't really see why it's relevant. (It is way to long, this mickey mouse copyright we have in the US).

      I'm fine not having the right to copy your content, except for purposes considered fair use. I'm not fine with you enforcing that I don't have my fair use rights and that you will are able to follow me around and make sure I don't break your interuption of copyright law.

      How is DRM not anti-consumer?

      I guess it could theoretically be less anti-competitive. It's making the internet less accesible by any device, which harms the devies that are built by people who don't want to handcuff their users.

    3. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe the difference has something to with that fact that copyright is legislation with a number of very important exceptions and machine enforced DRM does not and will not account for those? It's an end run around the already very generous copyright legislation in place.

    4. Re:This is easy... by Miros · · Score: 1

      Well, sure, but copyright allows the rights holder to exclude users and uses of their content. If they say you can only use access this content on the third sunday of a month while hopping on one foot, they have the right to set those conditions or deny you access if you decline to adhere to them. It feels to me that if you oppose DRM on these grounds, you must also be opposed to proprietary software licenses.

    5. Re:This is easy... by Miros · · Score: 1

      Or the legislation is outdated. AFAIK the big DRM users (Netflix, Amazon, Apple, etc) are not doing anything illegal with it.

    6. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Copyright is not the problem. The problem lies in the enforcing, encumbering legal use. Normally, copyright is enforced by the police: You sell illegal copies, you get busted. I am not supposed to need enforcer software on my machine - use out enforcer software (only works on windows 8) or you can't watch movies. Especially not movies you pay full price for. You can watch pirated movies of course, they cost less and always work and no ads. But some of us find that immoral, and others worry about the police part. . .

    7. Re:This is easy... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      DRM essentially does an end run around legal rights. The law allows you to make a backup copy, to lend the product to a friend, to resell the product, to use the product in any way you like and on any device you like and at any time you like. Copyright laws do not forbid any of that! The media producers do not like this, so DRM is designed to make sure that you can not easily assert your legal rights. DRM goes beyond what copyright laws say.

    8. Re:This is easy... by gQuigs · · Score: 1

      you must also be opposed to proprietary software licenses.

      I am, but I wouldn't go so far as to make them illegal. I would certainly make some parts of common licenses illegal, like the restriction on studying how the program works, etc.

      you can only use access this content on the third sunday of a month while hopping on one foot, they have the right to set those conditions or deny you access if you decline to adhere to them

      [citation needed]
      You've got the problem, I do not believe that is true. In fact, let's say you buy a car from a common dealer and don't fully read the contract and it stipulates that you can only drive it on the third sunday of the month. Do you think a judge would through out that provision? I do.

    9. Re:This is easy... by Miros · · Score: 1

      It's unclear at best what effects license terms can have on the 'first sale doctrine.' Hopefully that will be clarified by congress at some point.

    10. Re:This is easy... by Miros · · Score: 1

      What about a provision that says you are only allowed to run this software on hardware that I have sold you? Or a provision that says you can watch this media any time within the next 24 hours?

    11. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Miros, you are just using someone else's post as an attack vector for your comments about copyright and software licenses. He's said nothing to that effect. You are deliberately misinterpreting the concept of Fair Use by saying "copyright allows the rights holder to exclude users and uses of their content". Fair Use still applies.

    12. Re:This is easy... by gQuigs · · Score: 1

      What about a provision that says you are only allowed to run this software on hardware that I have sold you?

      You are only allowed to put our gasoline in your car. (Now if they simply don't support other hardware, I'm fine with that).

      Or a provision that says you can watch this media any time within the next 24 hours?

      I'm more ok with this as long as their enforement mechanism is the law and not spyware/DRM.

    13. Re:This is easy... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      In fact, Consumer oriented DRM should be illegal. It's an anti-competive anti-consumer dangerous practice.

      Hold on, are you saying that it should be illegal to write some kinds of programs?

    14. Re:This is easy... by gQuigs · · Score: 1

      No, I'm saying they should not be allowed to deploy consumer level DRM to general consumers. Many businesses have legitimate uses for DRM technology, Medical field to limit copying of patient records, Defense, businesses with trade secrets, etc.

    15. Re:This is easy... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      No, I'm saying they should not be allowed to deploy consumer level DRM to general consumers.

      So you're saying that it should be illegal to distribute certain kinds of software?

    16. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's never been illegal for the copyright holder to make it as hard as possible for people to exercise their own rights.

    17. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact, Consumer oriented DRM should be illegal.

      Agreed. Here in Australia, the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission; a government bureau) correctly identified DVD region-coding as an anti-competitive measure, and warned that implementing it in DVD players would be illegal. As a consequence, I can buy a DVD player here without worrying about what region it's for. I'm hoping the ACCC will apply the same rigour to other instances of DRM.

    18. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no it doesn't, copyright allows you to stop people of making copies.

      IT DOES MOST CERTAINLY NOT ALLOW YOU TO DICTATE HOW LEGITIMATE COPIES ARE USED.

      if I buy a book and use it's pages to wipe my ass, or use it as kindling that's perfectly legal copyrightwise. DRM allows the content-provicer (note not creator) to block that kind of thing, and that's not ok.

    19. Re:This is easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speak what you have in mind instead of babbling the same templated question. It'll help you with better answers.

    20. Re:This is easy... by alexo · · Score: 1

      DRM does not have fair use exceptions, nor does it expire.

    21. Re:This is easy... by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      He did. His point was to phrase the original post in a way that betrays its absurdity.

      I understood what he said.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
  16. Current method lends itself to monopolies by bradgoodman · · Score: 0
    Netflix is a big enough of a company that they've put their plug-in into my DVD burner, my Tivo, an app on my iPhone, and plug-in's for my browser.

    Great.

    If some other company or service started today - they'd have a VERY steep curve to go and create plug-ins for all such devices. They would NEVER work across any OLD/existing devices. So I'd argue the lack of DRM standards are helping incumbent services maintain their monopolistic market dominance.

    1. Re:Current method lends itself to monopolies by Miros · · Score: 1

      The steep curve here is content licensing not distribution technology. All of their current implementations / platforms will become obsolete long before their potential competitors will have a crack at getting the same content on their platforms.

    2. Re:Current method lends itself to monopolies by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      The alternative would vastly accelerate the spread of DRM, even if it makes it harder for a monopolistic middleman to establish itself between you and the same good ol' boys club of movie studios that all mainstream content comes from.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    3. Re:Current method lends itself to monopolies by Requiem18th · · Score: 2

      I just noticed you are just a Holywood shill. Took me a while.

      You make very stupid arguments. Like, really stupid arguments. Ok let's say EME goes into HTML5 and now every browser in the market has to implement restrictions on who (and when, where and how) a piece of media is loaded into your browser.

      Does that help you mythical Netflix competitor? Nope, your device is lacking the required CDM game over. The CDM has to be provided some other way, either by hardware (like TiVo) or software (like silverlight). You managed to waste everybody's time to achieve absolutely nothing.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    4. Re: Current method lends itself to monopolies by bkgoodman · · Score: 0
      Nope. Not involved in Hollywood at all. Everything your are arguing about ALREADY exists TODAY - just in a completely ad-hoc, non standard way. No content provider is going to cease to protect their content whether or not there is protection built into HTML5. It's just a matter of how they are going to go about it. Its not a question of DRM or no-DRM. There is DRM and will be DRM whether you or I like it it not. I personally would LOVE no DRM. So it's a matter of if there is a STnDARDiZED way to do it or not. I believe a standardized way exceeded a non-standardized way.

      If we removed the ability to put DRM plug-ins into web browsers - there would probably be no browser-based way of playing much of any "big media" content. Should we do that?

    5. Re:Current method lends itself to monopolies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just noticed you're the kind of person who is incapable of arguing people substantively using logic, so resorts to insulting them and claiming they're being disingenuous and "in the pay" of a large company.

      We call them "tossers" in the UK. I believe the US term is "douchebag"?

      OP makes fair points. You do not have the right to label him a "Hollywood shill" nor to call his observations (which are not in fact arguments) stupid.

      I did try to follow your counter arguments but unfortunately they are incoherent. Can you try again, or is your mom calling you for dinner now?

  17. Reply was... by Dishevel · · Score: 1

    W3C sent them back a letter in conjunction with ICANN sayng "Fuck you and Fuck the Interwebs. We want some of that internet money like the Canadians got!"

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  18. can already do that by Chirs · · Score: 1

    You can either run Netflix-on-Windows in a VM or run Netflix via wine....in both cases you could grab the unencrypted video output and dump it to a file for a pristine digital copy (well, as good as what you were watching anyway).

    1. Re:can already do that by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Sure, and with this plugin you will be doing the same exact thing. Well probably not the first one, since I think protected path fails on VMs.

  19. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by geek · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Funny that you don't mention the bush tax cuts that keep getting extended.

    You mean those tax cuts that lapsed in January of this year? The ones where my wife and I probably wont get a tax return above 1500$ this year?

  20. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Aside from this being off topic (and annoyingly so) those studies never look at actual wealth, rather they look at money, while those who plaster them all about (like you just did) foolishly use them as an indicator of wealth. Wealth and money are not one in the same.

    That article makes a specific mark against Obama, which you'd figure somebody who is anti-Obama such as myself would support, however I don't because it's a BS statistic that somebody is pulling out of their ass to rally "the cause" against their Emmanuel Goldstein, or rather something equally arbitrary: the dreaded 1%.

    People who are supposedly out to represent the poor also happen to be the worst enemy of the poor. For example, companies like wal-mart actually make the poor wealthier by providing material goods for less money. But those who claim they want to make life easier for the poor also overwhelmingly oppose wal-mart.

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  21. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1, Informative

    While we're at it, lets also ignore the fact that raising the minimum wage also raises unemployment while doing nothing to increase long term purchasing power.

    You can't, for example, have all grocery store workers making $20 an hour, and then expect to be able to buy cheap groceries. If you increase everybody's wages, you increase everybody's costs. What good does it do to earn more if everything costs more?

    Meanwhile, you do actually have a very high impact on the number of people who can actually be employed. You're basically telling unskilled workers: "Hey, either make at least this much, or make nothing at all." The demand for low skilled labor is very elastic, meaning the demand for it is highly influenced by its price.

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  22. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Take 100% of the wealth generated during the "recovery", and a sum equal to 21% of that from the poorest 99% of the population.

  23. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by gr8_phk · · Score: 3, Informative

    How do you capture 121% of the wealth? Did they take 100%, then give 21% back and then steal it again or something?

    Whatever the increase in total wealth was, the top 1 percent got 121 percent of that number. This means the other 99 percent lost 21 percent of that number. So if there was 1 trillion dollars in new wealth, the one percent got $1.21T richer and the 99 percent got 210B poorer. In otherwords the 1 percent had structured their investments/the rules/whatever such that they tend to accumulate wealth at the expense of everyone else, and on average all new wealth goes to them. Hope that clears it up a little.

  24. Re:'No DRM' or 'The content you want' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We have ZERO right to complain what others wish to do with what is theirs.

    Wrong. We have freedom of speech and we all have opinions, so we very much do have a right to complain.

    That said, I say we should deny copyrights to anyone or any business who decides to use DRM. DRM interferes with the public domain and therefore violates the social contract.

  25. Zune, iPods, etc... by gr8_phk · · Score: 1

    When peoples devices failed and they couldn't move content they paid for to other devices (even prior to failure). Or the moment someone bought a DVD while on vacation in another region only to find it didn't work when they got home. That's when it started, but I'm not sure just how slippery it is.

  26. I hate DRM but... by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    While I agree DRM is bad in the worst possible way, lets be pragmatic for a second:

    Not including DRM in HTML5 isn't going to cause any change in Hollywood's persistent wrong-thinking about forcing DRM down everyones throats. They aren't simply going to give up on using DRM because HTML doesn't support it. Thats already the case and look what we have: a nightmare hodge-podge of multiple different platform-specific and badly written vendor-specific DRM plug-ins and other implementations all assuming you must be running Windows or Apple and all fighting to fill your memory and crash your CPU.

    At least by including DRM in HTML5 we can eliminate the need to install all the buggy bloatware like Adobe flash etc. because the DRM implementation will be right in the browser.

    Apart from a more lightweight system, it should also be more stable and also consistent across multiple platforms, thus forever putting an end to artificial platform-specific barriers such as those preventing Netflix on Linux.

    That in turn would also mean one less artificial monopolistic advantage Microsoft have, so one less reason to be buying or running Windows, and one more reason to migrate to Linux instead, which I consider can only be a good thing.

  27. I disagree by houbou · · Score: 1

    I don't see why DRM isn't supported with HTML5, after all, the content creators should have a right to protect their material and consumers can always refuse to purchase a DRM protected product.
    Having DRM with HTML5 should be an option.
    I fail to see the 'big' picture they are talking about, because in the end, as long as we have a 'for-profit' economy, people have a right to make a living. If someone choose to make a product and have DRM to protect it, when it is out there for consumers, they have a choice to buy it or leave it.

    1. Re:I disagree by petteyg359 · · Score: 1

      There's a fallacy hiding in there. Can you find it? Hint: It starts with "you can always".

    2. Re:I disagree by houbou · · Score: 1

      Why? free market.. no?

    3. Re:I disagree by petteyg359 · · Score: 1

      If someone choose to make a product and have DRM to protect it, when it is out there for consumers, they have a choice to buy it or leave it.

      If all the software tools a person uses to make a living suddenly have DRM, they cannot "choose to leave it". That is their life. A person can't just pack up and do something entirely different.

  28. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Although the results you suggest are the intuitive results of raising the minimum wage, the economics aren't actually that straightforward. It's clear that the minimum wage can be too high causing the detrimental effects you describe, but it can also be too low. See Wikipedia's page on the minimum wage for a starting point on reading about the debate. Also note that due to the very different structure of labor negotiations in different countries, "minimum wage" in some countries in Europe is actually not set by law but instead by an agreement between representatives of labor and representatives of business (err... whatever that means).

  29. Will I be able to write one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will I be able to write one so I can decrypt the content for my NooBrowser I'm writing for my computer science course?

    If no, then the CDM *cannot* be implemented by all browsers, contrary to your claim.

    If yes, then I will be able to decrypt all internet protected content, which then negates the DRM entirely and makes the whole thing pointless, really.

  30. Sorry to be contrarian, but.... by Angostura · · Score: 1

    When the W3C charter includes making: "the benefits of the Web 'available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability." that also includes making the benefits available to folk who would like to get paid for the content they create.

  31. Java by phorm · · Score: 1

    Let's just boil this down to what most of the current argument is about: Netflix.

    Java is supposed to be cross-platform, and able to do all sorts of media stuff. Netflix already runs on a bunch of Blu-Ray players etc, presumably running on java-based software.

    While Java browser-plugs are quite a PITA lately, I still have yet to discover why Netflix hasn't been made to run on PC's using Java. I'd assume there are DRM options available, code could probably be re-used, and if the browser-plugin is a security issue then I'm sure a dedicated application could be made available.

    Why is HTML5 even needed?

    1. Re:Java by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      I'm very surprised that apparently no-one has 'leaked' a Linux PC Netflix player that has been reverse-engineered from an embedded Linux platform that does support Netflix (e.g. Roku).

  32. If it's theirs, why am I paying for it???? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    n/t

  33. They can use the internet just fine w/o DRM. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They can benefit from the benefits of the web without DRM.

    Just like I can.

    It isn't there to support a business model. It's to support an internet.

    They can open up a shop on the internet and sell "their" stuff (though if they insist on still calling it their stuff after they've sold it, I want to keep the money I'd otherwise be paying them for it). No DRM required to do that.

  34. Linux? Not for 1 second by bussdriver · · Score: 2

    Open source implementations of DRM? you think the content mafia is going to allow you to use an open implementation of some DRM "standard"? 1st thing hundreds of C coders will do is dump the frame buffer into libmp4 just to snub the bastards!

    1. Re:Linux? Not for 1 second by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      So whats stopping someone doing that under windows? (other than a more painful API).

    2. Re:Linux? Not for 1 second by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1
    3. Re:Linux? Not for 1 second by bussdriver · · Score: 1

      A completely closed end to end system with zero freedom outside the walled garden.... oh but it's not a walled garden because the iPhone is more walled in.

  35. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by leenks · · Score: 0

    Why is this modded down?

  36. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    You can't, for example, have all grocery store workers making $20 an hour, and then expect to be able to buy cheap groceries. If you increase everybody's wages, you increase everybody's costs.

    This is only true if profit margins remain the same, which is not a given.

  37. exactly - mod parent up by globaljustin · · Score: 1

    The W3C is the NRA of the internet.

    They are, at best, out of touch academics who are high off 'web 2.0' bullshit. That's at best.

    At worst they fully represent the military/industrial complex.

    If it wasn't for WHATWG the internet would be a ridiculous clusterfuck of competing variations on HTML/CSS. Hell, CSS3 would still be 'in beta' if FOSS devs hadn't pushed it through.

    I hate the W3C...despite my sig.

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  38. W3C has capitulated, just like ICANN by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember ICANN ?

    Remember ICANN's statement of interest when it first started ?

    Remember what ICANN told us back then, that is was for all the netizens ?

    It even opened its application to individuals --- I applied, and I even got a membership card mailed to me

    What has happened to ICANN is happening to W3C --- they have been co-opted because of BIG MONEY

    It's the BIG MONEY that they have sold their soul to --- to hell with the users, to hell with the netizens, to hell with the world

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:W3C has capitulated, just like ICANN by loufoque · · Score: 1

      This actually happens to most standards organization.

      I have been to a couple of ISO meetings, and you can clearly see that big companies with a lot of money think their solutions are the best, they're the important ones with a say in everything and everyone should use their approach, even though their understanding of the standard at hand is very limited and their approaches just plain suck.
      They just have more money, meaning more resources and more people to put on standardization work.

  39. Should we write to the W3C? by ravenswood1000 · · Score: 1

    If there is a coalition of 27 web freedom organizations that have sent a joint letter opposing DRM support, should we (Slashdot as an entity) also write them expressing our opposition?

  40. Use the object tag by PineHall · · Score: 1

    If you want DRM use the object tag. It is already supported. There is nothing stopping media companies today from from creating html5 web pages/apps to display DRM encombered video. They can use their proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins already with the object tag. If you are going to require DRM, I don't see a big difference between using the video tag and the object tag.

  41. Yes it is, I asked the locals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Asking why DRM is wrong in html5 is like asking why killing is wrong if it happens in Nicaragua.

  42. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by geek · · Score: 0

    But thats not what it is saying. It's saying 121% of the gains which is impossible. They can take 100% of the gains but the other 21% is literally impossible. It can be a 21% loss for the poor but it can't be a 121% of the total gains.

  43. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by geek · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Of course I know the differences. But you're making the stupid assessment that the Bush tax cuts are still in place. Which they are not. So who's the "fucking stupid" one exactly? Yeah that's you.

  44. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by geek · · Score: 1

    This is what 1%ers ACTUALLY BELIEVE.

    Yep, and that's why they are 1%ers while you're eating ramen noodles and sleeping on mommies couch.

  45. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Australia has a high minimum wage and is doing well as a country.

  46. Jump through hoops because it's not standard by raymorris · · Score: 1

    The proprietary DRM requires a lot of jumping through hoops. Given that drm WILL exist, would it be better to have that DRM be as it is today, or to be standardized, so it works correctly on all platforms? I don't like DRM, but I'd prefer DVD-style standardized DRM, but openly discussed to avoid Sony dumbness, over proprietary plugins for each DRM scheme.

    1. Re:Jump through hoops because it's not standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A new plugin standard (which this is) is not going to make it work correctly on all platforms.

      The plugin writers are going to have to start over, and they will start with the most popular platform. Add in that the movie studios will likely require a secure path this time around, since one platform does provide it, this is going to be all platforms that starts with the letters "win", and ends in "8".

  47. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by martin-boundary · · Score: 0

    It's saying 121% of the gains which is impossible.

    There's nothing impossible about that sentence. It is obvious that the total amount of gains is being used as a unit for the purpose of discourse. If I tell you that the distance between two objects is 1.21 metres, your argument boils down to complaining that this is impossible, because the rod in Paris that defines the metre is only 1 metre long.

  48. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by MTEK · · Score: 1

    Well, they should be discouraged. The exuberance and false expectations that came with the real estate bubble is over. Good riddance.

    Now welcome to the real economy where keeping a good attitude and investing wisely into one's knowledge and skills is what will keep you afloat.

  49. Already 2-3%, not going any lower. Close the store by raymorris · · Score: 1

    The typical net margin in the grocery industry is 2-3%. That's what a grocer makes if they are lucky enough to stay in business. It can't really go any lower.

    Bonds pay 1% - 7%, so if grocery margins were any lower store owners may as well shut down and just get bonds - they'd get the same return without the trouble of running a grocery store.

  50. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

    That doesn't change anything because those exact same ones are sold at other stores too, it's not just walmart.

    The difference is Levi is made in China, whereas Strauss is made in Vietnam. Some say there's a difference between the two, but I haven't noticed any. They all fade just the same, and they all wear out just the same. Often fading and wearing is by design because faded and worn jeans tend to be more fashionable among some people.

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  51. Re:Already 2-3%, not going any lower. Close the st by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

    For grocery shopping, you may well be right. But remember that minimum wage laws were originally enacted in a very different environment, where they immediately benefited huge swaths of the workforce (factory workers, miners etc) where the owners had much bigger margins.

    As another poster noted in reply to your comment, minimum wage laws can be both beneficial and detrimental. It all depends on the wage being set and other market conditions involved. Most certainly, the simplistic view that minimum wage is always bad and should be abolished is wrong.

  52. Not straw man? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Red Herring, not strawman. Right?

  53. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

    For example, if you buy a Samsung TV at walmart, it is the same one you'll buy at worst buy, only it (usually) costs less and it's always right around the corner so you don't need to use as much gas (and the dreaded carbon footprint) to find a worst buy all the way across town.

    That's actually wrong. If you look at the serial numbers of the products you buy at Walmart, they are a different series. The products are cheaper because they are slightly inferior. In fact, Walmart often sell products which are specially manufactured only for them, to keep costs low. You don't notice because Walmart have purchased the right to market their products under the same brand name.

    When any electronics device is built, there are design specs which call for certain components. These components exist in different grades, which aren't the same price, although they are often interchangeable. The same is true with other goods, eg the screws might be low grade / inferior quality on cheaper items.

    For example, if a factory makes an LCD panel, there may be a small number of pixels which are dead on some of the units. The factory sorts the otherwise identical LCDs into low grade (a few dead pixels) and high grade (no dead pixels), and sells the low grade a bit cheaper. You can build the "same" TV with low grade or high grade components, and the price will be lower or higher. Sometimes it's also convenient to not include a particular component from the initial design, for example in laptops or tablets there's room for a GSM modem, but it isn't always included.

    Manufacturers like Samsung keep track of the exact contents of your TV by giving it a special serial number. Maybe to you two TVs look identical, but if you know how to read the serial numbers, you can tell which one has higher quality components or extra features.

    So no, Walmart doesn't always sell the exact same products other stores sell, and yes, they often sell a lower grade version of the same product - and that's a major reason why it is cheaper.

  54. Seriously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you don't like DRM don't consume the content it protects/monetizes. Who cares. Friggin open source turbo nerds pontificating about something they can avoid. Flash Sucks, Silverlight Sucks, HTML 5 Sucks ... let's just shut the entire internet down.. Let's face it, open source hasn't come close to producing something that can't be bitch slapped by closed source software...

    Collapse away.. fairies..

  55. Shut it down -- by SpoonStomper · · Score: 0

    Flash sucks, Silverlight sucks, HTML 5 sucks, DRM sucks... just turn your internet off and read the paper ... brought to you specifically by the agenda spewing media.. I for one cannot fathom the amount of whining that goes on in this place..

  56. Well, if Javascript were fast enough... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, if Javascript were fast enough and if it were itself secure, people could simply implement their own DRM solutions directly in Javascript. Which illustrates that there is a bigger problem with HTML5 than the lack of DRM.

  57. I agree with you, 25 cents / hour by raymorris · · Score: 1

    For grocery shopping, you may well be right. But remember that minimum wage laws were originally enacted in a very different environment, where they immediately benefited huge swaths of the workforce (factory workers, miners etc) where the owners had much bigger margins.

    As another poster noted in reply to your comment, minimum wage laws can be both beneficial and detrimental. It all depends on the wage being set and other market conditions involved. Most certainly, the simplistic view that minimum wage is always bad and should be abolished is wrong.

    I don't see any other replies to my comment. You mentioned "when minimum wage laws were originally enacted". When federal minimum wage was enacted in the US, it was 25 US cents per hour. I agree, a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour is okay. :)

    Adjusted for inflation, that 25 cents is $4.02 in today's money. That's probably about what a stoned high school student who shows up 15 minutes late is actually worth. So $4.02 is about right - a minimum wage for a minimum employee. On the other hand, the gas station near my house starts people at $10.50 / hour because they don't want minimum employees, they want people who show up on time. That seems to be about the going rate to show up on time, sober.

    So what of the people not worth $10.50, the kids who haven't learned how to show up time, the helpless drunks, and the sociopaths? Should they be allowed to work for $8 / hour? Obama's proposal says no, if you're 17 and not ready to be responsible, you're not allowed to start at $8. His proposal is that if you're not worth more than $10.10 / hour, you're stuck on government handouts - you won't be able to work for less than $10.10. Is that a good rule? You decide.

    1. Re:I agree with you, 25 cents / hour by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Yes, despite your straw man argument, nobody is hiring a minimum employee. Ask all the guys with felony records.

  58. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

    If you think Wal-Mart "Levis" are the genuine article, I definitely do not want you buying any meat for me.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  59. Why HTML5 needs DRM by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

    Without it, greedy corporations will enslave many poor postdoc compsci people and force them to make an unnecessary fork to get it in. It is better to accept DRM in HTML5 and simply boycott its usage in the hope that one day it will be deprecated, so that if future corporations demand it's undeprecation they will be accused of taking the p*** and laughed out of the room.

    --
    John_Chalisque
  60. Solution: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should just make browsers cost money.... 120€ per browser and 60€ per update, and gief half to hollywood. Problem solved.

  61. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since about half of the population of world goes all year on only $1500 or less, I am not sure I see your point. I am paying more and I get what I pay for, both good and bad.

    If the alternative is working like a slave for nothing, with no labor/environmental protection and have no infrastructure or services to go with it, they can have a few more percentage points.

  62. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

    Reading fail. See my previous response to somebody else about the Levi's.

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  63. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

    You're thinking of those one offs, and actually all retail outlets do this when it comes to specials. A few years back I bought a Samsung TV that was only made for best buy. It was basically a stripped down version of a higher model, namely it was missing a few inputs and a few "smart tv" features, none of which were advertised.

    I was aware due to forum searching, but didn't care though because I only intended to use it as a very big computer monitor. Like other Samsung TV's, it had the only features I was after: at least a single input with 4:4:4 chroma subsample, low latency when in that mode, and a defeatable sharpness filter. Does a fine job for what I got it for and at a low price. Again, only made for Bestbuy.

    Other than those one off specials, they're the same.

    That or some manufacturers do what Asus does. Asus provides two year warranties with one year accidental coverage on ALL laptops they sell for free, except if it is sold at best buy, office max, wal-mart, staples, and a few others.

    --
    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
  64. Bye bye WWW. Welcome MS Web, Apple Web, etc. by master_p · · Score: 1

    Since the described mechanism is not specific to video,
    and since the CDM plugin will be able to acess all input and output devices the browser offers, the proposed DRM opens the door for a custom Web.

    The CDM plugins that will be created will be like Flash: they will offer not only video but custom programming languages, widgets and other components that will allow for rich interactive applications.

    But this time each company will have their own custom implementation, allowing companies to create their own version of the Web, which runs on their equipment only.

    This will be the deathbed for Linux on the desktop, since none of these plugins will work on Linux by default.

    This will also be the death of any small laptop and tablet manufacturer that cannot cut a deal with these big companies. They will not be able to offer cheap products since these products will not run the content that MS and Apple devices will run.

    If the WWW committee allows this, they might stop HTML development alltogether, because a browser's task will be simply the task to run the CDM plugin of the owner vendor.

    1. Re:Bye bye WWW. Welcome MS Web, Apple Web, etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, duh, do /they/ really develop HTML anymore? As opposed to WHATWG & friends.

  65. are they dumb? by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    if DRM is added to the 'HTML5' standard, then there is no problem on all devices which support 'HTML5' standard, so what the hell are they talking about. Also, if DRM is available in the 'HTML5' standard, it doesn't mean you have to use it..
    It's simple, if DRM isn't part of the 'HTML5' standard then external plugins are still mandatory for certain webservices, so you won't be able to watch stuff through certain devices since plugins tend to be platform specific..
    DRM is sadly a necessity which you just have to learn to live with.. people are so lame these days, they want everything for free.. If DRM in 'HTML5' is standarized it shouldn't be a problem to watch any content you like on any 'HTML5' device.. And as I said in other topics, let's not forget 'HTML5' is still not finalized, it's still in development, so even features of 'HTML5' which are already finalized are still missing from some browsers..
    Yes, DRM is sadly needed, but if implemented correctly there shouldn't be any problem on any HTML5 device.. I say, just give people the option, it's better to have it in the standard than forcing people to use a plugin to get the same result but with fewer people being able to use it on all their devices..

  66. Bullshit detector goes wah wah wah wah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1.) DRM is not about protecting copyright. That is a straw man. DRM is about limiting the functionality of devices and selling features back in the form of services.

    This is a spurious statement. DRM is a technology. What it's "about" is what people use it for. DRM is used to protect copyright. So claiming DRM is "not about" protecting copyright is a lie. Also, learn what "straw man" means.

    2.) DRM in HTML5 doesn't obsolete proprietary, platform-specific browser plug-ins; it encourages them.

    It encourages small plug-ins which handle encryption and authentication, and which are easily ported. Rather than large plug-ins that decode video and may or may not need or use a GPU and which are buggy behemoths.

    3.) the Web doesn't need big media; big media needs the Web.

    What does this even mean? The Web is not a person, so it doesn't need anything. Big media doesn't need the Web either. There is instead a situation whereby media companies (big and small) would like to use the web to make money, and (some) web users would like to use the web to access their products.

    If those are their axioms, who the fuck cares what theories they can derive? Cart, meet horse.

  67. W3C is shooting the messenger by museumpeace · · Score: 1

    I would add an objection 4.) In the full communications stack, of which HTML is only one layer above transport, why is ANY notion of content ownership being grafted on? Blurring the lines that have so successfully provided a "division of labor" factoring of data communications is NOT helpful. You have proprietary content? Fine, provide an application to decrypt/display it and leave what was once a vendor neutral tool alone.

    --
    SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
  68. Can't believe that folks at W3C have gone bonkers. by ajyand · · Score: 0

    Dear W3C, if you want to facilitate encryption/decryption of contents of HTMLMediaElement, isn't it a good idea to extend it further to element? http://useful-linux-tips.blogspot.in/2013/04/drm-in-html5-defective-by-design.html

  69. Introducing Scarcity into Superrich worlds by Elixon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can understand that gold has a real price. I can understand that a house has a real price... because they are scarce. That is why there will be real-world poor a rich people.

    Internet and the whole intellectual world was never meant to be driven by scarcity. The Internet was build to mitigate the real-world problems with duplicating resources. The Internet allows the main commodity - information - to be transferred, duplicated, created, shared... at virtually no cost. Internet is the attempt to create a world where there are no poor (speaking of knowledge) people but everybody share everything as much as possible for the good of mankind.

    The scarcity complex is artificially introduced to this unlimited e-world by companies who simply failed so far to find a new business model in a world where everybody is already rich with information - everybody are already fed with information. Where there is no hunger/demand there is no traditional business model. So lets make those information rich people become poor so they will hunger for information and then we can feed them for a price.

    Let's deny access to information using a copyrights, laws, DRMs... Let's artificially create once again information-rich and information-poor people because the existing real-world model proved to work so well.

    --
    Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
    1. Re:Introducing Scarcity into Superrich worlds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Houses and cars are scarce because you need a lot man-hour to produce them.
      Data can be easily copied, true, but also required a lot of man-hour to produce them.

      As being able to copy implies that the content needs to be produced 1st, it is normal to ask for money to get access to data, if the original creator (or the own who bought the rights from him/her) choose this way.

      The current issue from more rational cusoemr point-of-view is rather the businesses being slow to switch to a consume-all-what-you-can offer.

    2. Re:Introducing Scarcity into Superrich worlds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Information and content *is* a scarce commodity. It is largely generated by intelligent and/or motivated individuals and investors. The copyright, patents, DRM etc. are motivations to people to invest in creating new information and new content. The thing that isn't very scarce is distribution, but that's never been the large cost of making information or content, even before the Internet.

      The fact that you can distribute movies for pennies doesn't negate the fact that it costs millions or hundreds of millions of dollars to make a blockbuster movie. Really, the real price of making content is how much money is the supplier going to risk on that investment in the chance it either returns a lot of money or returns a loss? Investors make this decision based on the protection of Copyright and DRM.

      This isn't evil, the world doesn't work on altruism, it works on survival (self interest), as it should. Copyright and DRM are ways of making self interest be more altruistic. They reward information and content that society wants (tv/movies) and perhaps needs (medicine/science) with protection to make money doing so.

  70. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    you need a remedial math or statistics course, are the 4 digit UI's entering senility?

  71. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    You are either woefully ignorant, or purposefully blind. There are plenty of stories out their that show how walmart has products created specifically for their store. They are cheaper and it often shows. They buy in such volume that this is easy for them to demand. I challenge you to find a samsung in Walmart with the same model number as one in Best Buy. They often use custom model numbers to confuse price matching.

    Your crappy employee comment is also a chicken/egg conundrum. Walmart has a toxic culture, as do many retail establishments. I dare you to work there for six months and find out what it is like. Hell, just interview and go through the hiring process. It will open your eyes, if you want them to be opened.

  72. The problem with DRM: Enforcement by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

    The only problem with DRM is the attempt to enforce the decisions made by the system.

    I would have no problem with a DRM system which indeed *managed* rights. ie: allowed you to register your right to watch movie x because you own it and would like to format-shift. I would even be okay with it all connecting to a central database to notify you that "you have license for viewing this from a single screen, but it looks like your wife is watching it at home right now. Our system does not believe that you have the right to do this". So long as it didn't also include a system for taking over your computer to ensure that your viewing habits agree with its opinion of your rights.

    I would absolutely *love* that kind of system

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  73. Encrypted Media Extensions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The "Encrypted Media Extensions" that is in draft at the W3C says, "This specification does not define a content protection or Digital Rights Management system. Rather, it defines a common API that may be used to discover, select and interact with such systems as well as with simpler content encryption systems. Implementation of Digital Rights Management is not required for compliance with this specification: only the simple clear key system is required to be implemented as a common baseline."
    The Encrypted Media Extensions is just a mechanism to insure that data that is on client systems are secure. Looking forward to using the Encrypted Media Extensions in systems to ensure data security.
    The people that are against the Encrypted Media Extensions need to read the draft document. Of course they don't have to use it either, and stop messing it up for the rest of us.

  74. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by TemporalBeing · · Score: 1

    bills intended to raise the minimum wage

    You mean the minimum wage that sets the poverty level? Raising it only raises the poverty level. It does nothing for actual wealth since real dollar value drops as it goes up. Due to minimum wage and inflation, how we think of a dollar now is how the average citizen thought of a penny 100 years ago.

    --
    Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
  75. You seem confused by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    Lies.

    If it's a product, then I own it after I have paid for it, and can do with it as I please.

    If you are instead insisting on ownership of the *idea* and not a specific representation thereof, as copyright does, then this is an artificial, novel, and harmful construction.

    I might add, you have no idea what socialism is, and the 'free market' types generally don't like government-enforced monopolies.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  76. unbelievable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If html 5 gets DRM then I'm switching over to gopher protocol.

  77. Re:Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by samwichse · · Score: 1

    I think you're being purposefully obtuse to try and win an argument on the internet.

  78. Funny you should say that. Hope, after meniality by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Funny you mention that. In a post last week I mentioned something I noticed while working with felons, which also applies to some other people. They'll spend two months looking for a job. Then when their parole officer says "get a job by Tuesday or I'm filing for revocation", they suddenly go get a job that same day. Don't worry, keep looking. Soon enough your parole officer or probie will put their foot down and you'll go get a job. One tip - do NOT lie about your felony. In fact, the best approach seems to be to address it right up front, before the potential employer finds out about it.

    The good news is, the sky is the limit. The first job is hard to find / not the job you want. After that, it's amazing. The head of our county probation office is a friend of mine, and a multiple felon. Another friend, also a felon, is now now an assistant dean at a university.

  79. Re: Downs Syndrome is no joke, but you are. by cammoblammo · · Score: 1

    True. For an adult worker the minimum wage is $15.96 ($US16.45) per hour. At casual rates (no sick leave or paid holidays) that works out to just over $19 ($US19.60) p/h.

    Teenagers get a bit less. My 15yo daughter gets $10.50 p/h in her weekend job.

    --

    Cogito, ergo sig.

  80. Re:Funny you should say that. Hope, after menialit by pnutjam · · Score: 1

    Thanks, but this advice doesn't apply to me. I was just making a point.
    Like you say, get that first job and employers will trust you. I say, pay that guy well and treat him with respect. You can turn (almost) any employee into hardworking, trustworthy employee.