> Your browser does not have DRM support which typically means you are not sent the full quality videos

To take this argument seriously I’d need you to provide some examples. I use some of the bis streaming services, and they all stream full high quality media to my laptop. Which are the ones that don’t?

> And not all media apps have a website.

Again, examples? Every streaming app that’s ever blocked me from taking a screenshot has also had a streaming website. What portion of the market licenses content with a requirement to use DRM to block screenshots?

Netflix won’t send your browser high resolution video unless your browser supports Widevine. Typically it’ll restrict you to 480p iirc.

Which doesn’t prevent you from taking screenshots… (and doesn’t make it especially difficult to just capture the whole stream either)

This whole screenshot point is silly to begin with, because screenshots aren’t a form of piracy or copyright infringement.

It prevents you from taking high resolution recordings , whether they’re screenshots or video.

You either take a low resolution capture or the DRM layer prevents content from being displayed when recording.

The legality of the subject is not something I’m talking about. You just asked for examples and I provided them.

For starters, it does nothing at all to prevent taking screen shots. Which is what this thread is about.

As for high quality video capture, it is trivially easy to do. How do you think high quality copies of Netflix-only content ends up on the pirate bay they same day it comes out?

Yes it does. HD Netflix in Chrome, Edge or Safari will result in black rectangle when you screenshot it.

Yes it does prevent taking screenshots of high resolution playback. Your options become low resolution capture or nothing.

High quality captures are still possible if you connect an external capture device coupled with something that provides the necessary drm authentication or you need a software based drm defeat.

Neither are “trivial” as you say.

An HDMI splitter completely removes HDCP, so if you want to do a hardware approach, that doesn't require any software at all. If you don't want to use some cheap product from amazon, just run Netflix in a desktop VM. Both of these options are very trivial to implement, no complicated software bypass at all. Also remember that for piracy to occur, you only need one person to go to this very small level of effort to get a torrent uploaded. These protections are useless, and achieve nothing other than bothering legitimate users.

Also, here's a screenshot I just took of a Netflix show (it's 1080p, but still...) https://imgur.com/a/evJjf06