Slashdot Mirror
How Firefox Will Handle DRM In HTML
An anonymous reader writes "Last year the W3C approved the inclusion of DRM in future HTML revisions. It's called Encrypted Media Extensions, and it was not well received by the web community. Nevertheless, it had the support of several major browser makers, and now Mozilla CTO Andreas Gal has a post explaining how Firefox will be implementing EME. He says, 'This is a difficult and uncomfortable step for us given our vision of a completely open Web, but it also gives us the opportunity to actually shape the DRM space and be an advocate for our users and their rights in this debate. ... From the security perspective, for Mozilla it is essential that all code in the browser is open so that users and security researchers can see and audit the code. DRM systems explicitly rely on the source code not being available. In addition, DRM systems also often have unfavorable privacy properties. ... Firefox does not load this module directly. Instead, we wrap it into an open-source sandbox. In our implementation, the CDM will have no access to the user's hard drive or the network. Instead, the sandbox will provide the CDM only with communication mechanism with Firefox for receiving encrypted data and for displaying the results.'"
It's important that a browser protect me and my rights on my system, not the business model of other DRM-happy corporations.
But this is an open-source browser we're talking about. If we don't want DRM, we can make a build of it without the DRM piece.
Being open-source has nothing to do with this. The number of people who will use a fork is essentially zero when compared to Firefox's total userbase.
The problem is that Mozilla has thrown away the power that comes from being able to speak for hundreds of millions of users out of fear of losing some of those users. That's a path to irrelevancy, they've traded the vision that made them popular in the first place for the hope of maintaining marketshare. It is a total MBA move, as if Mozilla should be driven by profits instead of advocacy.
>Does Firefox's architecture actually get in the way of users eventually pirating the content? Might have to switch browsers if that's the case.
Remember, DRM doesn't just stop 'piracy', it stops fair use of copyright content too.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce