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Tim Berners-Lee Approves Web DRM, But W3C Members Have Two Weeks To Appeal (defectivebydesign.org)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Reader Atticus Rex writes: A high controversial Web standard has received a seal of approval from Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web and its chief technical decision-maker. Opponents like the Free Software Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation say that the standard, Encrypted Media Extensions, is a step backwards for freedom, privacy, and a host of other rights on the Web.

There's still a two-week window in which members of the W3C can appeal the decision, and the Free Software Foundation is asking people to email and encourage them to do so. Update: The W3C has announced that it would publish its DRM standard with no protections and no compromises at all.

7 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. two weeks wasted by turkeydance · · Score: 3, Insightful

    done deal

    1. Re: two weeks wasted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ask all the people who signed up for Facebook. It appears to be what they wanted.

  2. Re:Who died and appointed TBL God? by mellon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I take it that you are implying that he has a right to decide because he invented HTTP and HTML. Why would that be so?

  3. Re:Created the Web and yet still blind by alexo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The last hope will be with browser makers: no standard gets supported if code isn't written.

    What part of "EME is supported by [...] Google, Microsoft, and Apple" you did not understand?

  4. Re:Who died and appointed TBL God? by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not. It's up to Google, Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla.
    If they are on board, it'll get implemented no matter how much opposed.
    If they aren't, the standard is dead on arrival.

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  5. Re: Like Linus, Bjarne, etc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Negotiation is like alcohol: a little bit can jazz up a night. Too much, however, and the next thing you know you're waking up to a whore snorting lines off of your belly.

    Never go full retard. This decision, if maintained, is an unambiguous "fuck you" to the community that made the Web worth building to begin with. EME is no different than trusting a black box. Given its purpose, it will only gain telemetry abilities and OS lockouts. Do you want a Web that forcibly blocks functionality of your machine? That's what these businesses are willing to do to protect their "assets". They believe their rights trump all others'. Their view of the Web is toxic and cannot be anything but bad for the general public.

    So, are you advocating for a few dozen companies having remote control of millions of devices? They'll just bake it into their DRM, and bam, anyone watching a stream 'protected' by EME would be vulnerable to remote attack.

    This is the part where you no longer own the device, and bills will be written to attempt to make that legal. I'd rather not live in that world.

  6. Adobe vulnerabilities now a web standard by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you've loved the last two decades of comically insecure Flash players and PDF readers your going to love the future where anyone's systems can now be owned by closed source adobe CDM modules.