One of the worst things about each browser vendor's decision to support DRM is that it makes the choice to require DRM less costly for new web sites that are considering it. So even if you think Netflix could never have been budged, random site X might now say "cool, we can control what people can do with video on our site, at a surprisingly low interoperability cost to us!". If you want to avoid that outcome as an end-user, you have to do whatever you can to increase potential DRM adopters' view of the market share they will put at risk.
EME: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/38.0
EME-free: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/38.0This is a good reason to keep the functionality out of mainstream browsers, but it doesn't seem to work if it's just us using deliberately hobbled browsers.
Resisting any type of DRM from the very beginning is important, because the fight will be a lot harder once there is an established community of users. Educating people about DRM is hard enough; it is almost impossible when it also requires convincing people to give up some service (i.e. netflix) that they have grown accustomed to.
This is the latest battle the ongoing War On General Purpose Computing[1], and a lot of people that should know better are choosing movies and the dream of short-term profits over long-term freedom.
Good rhetoric. They are evil because they believe in ethics. Go for it dude, who's holding you!
Also, by default, EME activates on any webpage that requests it.
It will not. Currently the only telemetry related to EME is the VIDEO_EME_PLAY_SUCCESS histogram, which counts successes/failures of playback. It's only enabled then EME itself is enabled, though.
Doesn't EME imply a kernel component? To safeguard the encryption keys and to generally complicate an access to the raw media? If so, does it mean that this Firefox update touches the kernel?
Does this update add Adobe's stuff into kernel or does it not (e.g. if Adobe is just piggy-backing on Windows PMP)? Can anyone from Mozilla comment on this?
This is a principal question, because if there is an Adobe's kernel DRM driver in this update, then it makes sense to go with the "EME-free" update instead of adding and then, hopefully, removing 3rd party junk from the kernel as per that Mozilla KB linked elsewhere in this thread.
Neither Firefox nor the Adobe CDM install any kernel code. The Adobe CDM is, conceptually, the Flash Player's DRM code repackaged to work with Firefox's CDM API. And the Flash Player doesn't need to install new kernel drivers. Studios have different DRM requirements for video quality levels like HD, non-HD, "Studio HD", and "Ultra HD". For higher quality video, studios might require secure hardware path. Even this level, AFAIU, doesn't require new kernel drivers because Windows already has APIs for this.
http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/taking-freedom-furth...
"What better way to justify the proprietary bits of [Firefox] than a practically stooge [browser] to point at whenever we're questioned!"
All this has happened before. All this will happen again.
"We very much want to see a different system. Unfortunately, Mozilla alone cannot change the industry on DRM at this point. In the past Firefox has changed the industry, and we intend to do so again. Today, however, we cannot cause the change we want regarding DRM." https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/05/14/drm-and-the-challen...
"this is a radical, disheartening development in the history of the organisation" http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/14/firefox-cl...
So no, it's not really more subtle than reported. This is Firefox fighting and losing.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9532417
I'm having trouble writing a summary that avoids sarcasm.
Many people do not care about those things, and prefer Netflix et al over such matters, or perhaps have never looked closely at the issue. Mozilla has (had?) a tradition and reputation for caring about this. I suspect that many of us would prefer them to go even further, such as not implement the feature at all in protest.
Why would it be worse if more companies used DRM? I can think of some edge cases on obscure devices or if you are pirate but other than that it seems like legal users would be unaffected and not even notice it.
Yes, just like Sony said in response to the rootkit scandal – "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
DRM is a declaration from the publishers that they distrust you so much that they must be granted absolute control over your machine. You can't retain higher privileges over your own machine than they have, or else you would be able to circumvent their system and it wouldn't work.
Why would you trust someone who has declared themselves your enemy to run arbitrary code with root privileges on your machine?
With a standard DRM solution, the only person you would need to trust is the browser vendor. This seems like a better alternative than having a company force you to use their DRM.
And I don't think it's a very strong argument that fewer companies rolling their own DRM will be such a great thing, and I'd be surprised if DRM opposers would be relieved that fewer companies are rolling their own DRM if it means its harder to avoid ANYONE putting DRM on their machine. It's like a choice between letting independent, small-time thieves into your home, or having the Mafia allowed to organize, with the blessing or apathy of the general community. The first may be a more dispersed, less coherent adversary, and it might be harder to be confident that their crimes are high quality. The second will act like they already own your house and that they are affording you the privilege of living their under their "protection". But at least with the first, when everyone's not already used to them owning the place and aren't intimidated into accepting them, you can rely on some widespread denunciation of the robbery.
Standardized, widespread DRM is much more like these companies and committees acting like they already own our computers, that how we use them and how we connect them to internet is a privilege we enjoy only at their direction.
You need to use this crappy video player instead.
Oh you can only watch this on 3 computers and you have hit that limit.
the license for this content has been lost, you can't watch it anymore.
Compare that to the pirates life: Click play -> watch movie.
There was actually an interesting article a while back about DRM not being about preventing piracy, but rather enforcing methods of watching (so 100% to control legitimate customers).
I guess if you consider the new DRM integration a potential attack vector it removes that possibility.
But, if you're going to install this in the first place you won't be consuming DRM content - so you probably won't even be visiting the sites that have it anyway and using the feature.