Re:W3C abandons consensus, standardizes DRM, EFF resigns
by orangecat on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @01:36AM
(#15282046)
The option of there being no DRM was realistically never on the table, as much as people would've liked it to be.
Way back in the 2000s when HDTV was getting off the ground, the networks demanded that all recording devices support a "broadcast flag" that would allow them to prevent recording. CBS in particular said that unless this was legally mandated, they would refuse to broadcast in HD. Instead we called their bluff, and they backed down because it turns out they don't hate money: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/dtv-era-no-broadcast
Sure, media companies would prefer a world where everything is DRMed and all computing devices are locked down, and if we hand that to them on a silver platter they'll take it. But I don't believe for a second that they can't survive without it.
Way back in the 2000s when HDTV was getting off the ground, the networks demanded that all recording devices support a "broadcast flag" that would allow them to prevent recording. CBS in particular said that unless this was legally mandated, they would refuse to broadcast in HD. Instead we called their bluff, and they backed down because it turns out they don't hate money: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/06/dtv-era-no-broadcast
Sure, media companies would prefer a world where everything is DRMed and all computing devices are locked down, and if we hand that to them on a silver platter they'll take it. But I don't believe for a second that they can't survive without it.