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I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

blog.samuelmaddock.com

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Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#81

Post by lghh »

gcb0 wrote: post #19

let's address the elephant in the room. Google got the authority from everyone here who accepted chrome and IE DRM by default, to the point that even Firefox was forced to give in, so you all could be sedated by Netflix and other DRMed content.

> Google got the authority from everyone here who accepted chrome and IE DRM by default, to the point that even Firefox was forced to give in, so you all could be sedated by Netflix and other DRMed content.

Do you really, REALLY think that the very small number of people who are ever AWARE of this issue were enough to make a dent in it? So we could be sedated by Netflix? This attitude is intolerable and more harmful to the community of people who want a free web as using Chrome and watching Netflix is.

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#82

Post by Touche »

gsnedders wrote: post #26
mmastrac wrote: post #12

The blame for this sits squarely on the w3c for their efforts in trying to replace flash by letting the content companies dictate standards for encrypted playback. If they had held fast, we could have forced the companies to do their key management in something like WebAssembly and avoided this gatekeeping mess.

No, if the Director had overridden the majority of the membership, the browser vendors would've shipped something anyway, and the YouTubes and Netflixes of the world would be using it anyway.

> No, if the Director had overridden the majority of the membership, the browser vendors would've shipped something anyway

That's fine. It's better that the burden for maintaining non-standard plugins be put on the sites and browsers that choose to do that, rather than be placed on everyone else.

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#84

Post by qntty »

thefounder wrote: post #24
qntty wrote: post #6

Sorry, for those of us not privy to how Widevine works, what's the problem exactly? What do you need Google's approval for and why?

Yes, you need Google's approval because now all major browsers have a black-box/binary blob which downloads other funky binary stuff so that it can decrypt video content. As you might figure out Google/Wildevine org gives the blackbox only to approved developers/devices/applications. Bonus DRM: If your license is not "the most certified" your browser/player will play only shitty/low quality versions of the video. The…

What video content are we talking about here? HTML5 video?

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#86

Post by jchw »

nyuszika7h wrote: post #34
jchw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait really? With what videos does YouTube depend on Widevine DRM?

Google Play Movies & TV, which is also available from YouTube, uses Widevine DRM. However, freely available videos and even YouTube Premium Originals do not use DRM.

Oh OK, yeah that makes sense. Honestly, I forgot that existed.

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#88

Post by FractalParadigm »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #65
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree; good DRM is transparent and unnoticeable, and if that is the case then users do not care. Who does care about DRM is pirates and content creators whose content is shown without them earning off of it. Yes I am aware of fair use exceptions, but fair use should exempt a user from getting sued over using a fragment of copyrighted content; it does NOT force a content creator from offering their content open f…

I disagree; good DRM is transparent and unnoticeable Yeah, until it isn't. I can't start GTA V for days since the "Rockstar Social Club" won't connect and glibly informs me that "I need to be on-line" I would have agreed with you until then. But not being able to play a game for which I paid full price and not being able to get meaningful support to resolve the issue rapidly changed my stance on DRM. It fucking sucks…

Plus the horror stories you hear of people losing thousands of dollars worth of games on a Steam account for one reason or another.

You never truly own anything that has DRM, you're just licensing it.

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#89

Post by shawnz »

Google is being blatantly anticompetitive here and it's definitely not fair to OP. But as an aside, I actually would prefer this functionality to be provided by a browser extension rather than a separate app, like the OP describes at the end of the article. Please pursue this option! I think it would be much more convenient than having to launch a separate app, even if the functionality is reduced.

Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

#90

Post by noitsnot »

cmsimike wrote: post #40

I don't know if this will be helpful to you but an open source media player, Kodi, recently added support for Netflix in the latest version of the app (by implementing a DRM engine for people to use). This requires the use of the widevine library which then downloads things behind the scenes upon use (I believe). https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=329767 I can't imagine Google gave the OK to Kodi to use widevin…

I hope Kodi makes some decent progress. I installed it a few weeks back and it is a rough experience. The docs on how to do simple things seem to be nonexistant because they don't want to be sued and shutdown entirely.
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