Firefox 38 Arrives With DRM Required To Watch Netflix

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from VentureBeat: Mozilla today launched Firefox 38 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include Digital Rights Management (DRM) tech for playing protected content in the HTML5 video tag on Windows, Ruby annotation support, and improved user interfaces on Android. Firefox 38 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play. Note that there is a separate download for Firefox 38 without the DRM support. Our anonymous reader adds links to the release notes for desktop and Android.

Comments

Re:Alternative/fork

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article they are already providing that option.
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/05/12/update-on-digital-rights-management-and-firefox/

Disableable

[DrYak]

At least there's still the iceweasel fork that doesn't come with this shit.

The DRM isn't a closed source part of *firefox*. It's a separate external plugin (like flash, etc.) that runs sandboxed (like chrome) and that can be
disabled and/or removed like any other plugins (or you can download a version of the installer that doesn't even pack the DRM module).
You don't need to go as far as Iceweasel.

separate plugin

[DrYak]

so, do we now have open source firefox and non open source firefox

The DRM isn't a closed source part of *firefox*. It's a separate external plugin (like flash, etc.) that runs sandboxed (like chrome) and that can be
disabled and/or removed like any other plugins (or you can download a version of the installer that doesn't even pack the DRM module).

You won't have a separate opensource and closed source firefox.
The choice is whether to use or not the external 3rd party binary plugin (juste like flash, again).

It's just that the default installer of Firefox for Windows does pack the .DLL together with Firefox for end-user's convenience. But as mentionned, you can download an installer without it.
And even if you install it, it's up to you to use or not this piece of closed source software.

dreams over, the manifesto is dead.

[nimbius]

for those who havent kept pace with them, Mozilla jumped the shark years ago. First it was search engine preference for google, then bing, then actual targeted fucking advertisement in the tiles window. The browser, by default, sends all your page calls to google under the auspices of reportable attack page detection. Beguilingly Mozilla started including a video chat system in the browser, while users and devs alike were shunned and ignored as they complained about the ever increasing ram and disk footprint. The mozilla manifesto is effectively fucking worthless...

02 The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.

not when you bundle digital restrictions management with your browser and only offer the truly open one as an 'option'

04 Individuals security and privacy on the Internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.

quit enabling googles malware system, and stop enabling targeted ads by default.

05 Individuals must have the ability to shape the Internet and their own experiences on it.

thats the direct antithesis of DRM. same goes for point 06 on interoperability.

07 Free and open source software promotes the development of the Internet as a public resource.

but DRM does not.

08 Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust.

I dont remember hearing a goddamn thing about you adding DRM or targeted ads before you just decided to do it.

Some end users do want video

[DrYak]

rather than fixing bugs

For some users, "I can't watch Netflix, your browser is broken !" is an important bug enough.
At least providing a way to install an optional 3rd party plugin to handle DRM, *and* provide a sandbox that restricts the plugin to only decrypt the encrypted data stream it receives (no file-system access. no network access) isn't such a bad idea given the insistance of end user to access restricted content.
It's not as if Firefox itself has become closed source.

It *IS* a plugin.

[DrYak]

Still, it would've been better to leave the DRM where it belongs, in plugins to be installed by each user who wants to have their rights managed.

That's exactly the case right now.
Firefox only provides a sandbox into which the 3rd party CDM plugin will be run.
Encrypted stream goes in.
Decrypted stream goes out.
Nothing else is authorised for this plugin.
It's more or less the same situation as Flash (it's not firefox itself that is playing the flash content), except with a much better and way much more restrictive sandbox.

They are merely providing 1 installer packing 1 CDM by adobe inside for end user convenience.
But there's even an installer with only the mozilla code, without 3rd party pluging if you want.

Yep this should be an easy crack, with most of the source code being available. Firefox 38 will also be known as Netflix Video Ripper 1.0!

Actually not. Firefox doesn't handle decryption it self. Only provides the sandbox into which to run it.

To rip Netflix, you'll need to go the other way around:
- creat your own video downloader, that simply harness any of the 3rd party CDM plugins compatible with Netflix (Firefox use a CDM by adobe, Google Chrome uses another by Widevine).
- as Firefox basically restricts their to only function as a decryption filter, you need to provide code that feeds the data into the plugin, and code that package the decrypted stream into a MKV.

Re:Get cracking

[lgw]

I hope you enjoy fighting the far more difficult battles in the future, because you didn't stop this crap when it was still small.

The majority of internet traffic is DRMd video streams - has been for years. A standards committee has no power to tell the vendors what to do; instead their job is to write down what the big vendors are already doing, so that everyone else can interoperate.

Use the right tool for the job, man. If you want non-DRMd video, you're supposed to use a torrent client, not a web browser. Not every tool has to solve every problem, you know - let each be good for its purpose instead.

Re:Microsoft is killing Firefox.

[BZ]

The scenario you describe is pretty much how it worked, with Google and Netflix doing most of the forcing, and Microsoft only helping out a little bit.