Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me

blog.samuelmaddock.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 632 posts

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

#491

Post by frivoal »

Roujo wrote: post #339
simias wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make good points but: >And if you don't want to make copying too easy because you think that it will get you more money, that's your right. They seem to think that but is there any truth to it? I do pirate some series/movies from time to time (mostly out of convenience) and you can get high quality rips of pretty much anything mere hours after it's available on streaming sites anyway. So what is this DRM supposed…

> So what is this DRM supposed to achieve? It's a good point, but I believe DRM isn't just about piracy. It's also about control. I read a good article about this once, but I can't find it anywhere right now so I'll summarize what I remember. As long as DRM exists, if you want to make a Blu-ray player you have to go and ask the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrator for their blessing, so that you can…

I think you were probably trying to find this article:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190119000840/https://plus.goog...

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

#492

Post by userbinator »

_bxg1 wrote: post #7

DRM often results in a whitelist of media clients, killing standards in favor of a centralized authority. HDCP does the same for video feeds (HDMI, etc.). DRM-protected boxes can only output to DRM-protected displays, giving a central authority the ability to effectively deny new client devices from being made: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Conte...

HDCP is of course completely broken, and has been ever since the master key was leaked years ago. You can find all sorts of "video stabilisers" and such sold online, which will strip HDCP completely (they do not obviously advertise this ability, so read between the lines...)

(I wonder if the same people who are up in arms about China's lax IP laws and massive product counterfeiting realise that it's the same country, the same culture, the same mentality which allows them to easily produce these devices that actually fight for your freedom to consume content.)

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

#493

Post by soverance »

noitsnot wrote: post #90
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.

As a long time Kodi user, I'll just say that the combination of Kodi on my PC hooked up to a big screen and the Yatse app on my phone was a total game changer. A WiFi remote control on the device I basically already had in my hands anyway changed the way I interact with media at home.

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

#494

Post by Simon_says »

arendtio wrote: post #430

DRM is just a huge pile of shit. I mean, if it would actually work I would say okay, at least we have a solution that everyone is somehow happy with. But instead we consumers just loose. To give a few examples: - When I want to watch movies on Amazon Prime Video, there are some movies I can't watch in HD, even if I paid for HD (so the movie obviously exists in HD; probably dependent on the rights holder). The problem…

Makes one wonder why you're still bothering to pay money for something you're not getting...

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

#495

Post by SolarNet »

dre54673 wrote: post #479
fratlas wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Netflix issue isn't really DRM, it's just a way to minimize bandwidth[1]; they found HQ 720 encodes to be sufficient quality for most consumers. I personally find it lacking. [1]: https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/per-title-encode-optimiz...

I pay for 4k netflix but can't watch it on my computer because of drm. On Chrome it only streams up to 720p, and I have to use Edge for 1080p. To stream 4k you need to use their microsoft store app, a specific high-end processor or graphics card, and on top of that you also need a monitor that supports hdcp 2.2. I have all of the above (1080ti and hdcp 2.2 compliant monitor) but still can't stream 4k because my secon…

Ah this actually explains something I have been wondering about. My new computer with firefox sometimes hitches and blacks out all the screens when I start/stop watching certain netflix content. I just realized this must be a DRM thing.

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

#496

Post by jdsully »

pandler wrote: post #483
imtringued wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire idea behind DRM is to gain control over the user experience of legitimate users. Pirates will always break whatever DRM scheme you use. Wasting energy on them will always be futile. Controlling the user experience? That's where you can make a lot of money by pushing out competitors.

I think this is an incomplete picture. Guessing at their motivations, DRM also serves to reduce opportunities for casual copyright violation when you have to jump through illegal (which is part of the scheme) hoops to circumvent it.

But by and large people don't make mix tapes, or bootleg videos anymore. They torrent it from the one person with the time to break the DRM. They would likely still do this even if the content was DRM free since its easier.

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

#498

Post by Operyl »

rndgermandude wrote: post #306
GuB-42 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The W3C isn't to blame. No one is to blame, really. We have DRM, we hate it but it's there, and it serves a purpose. If it is your intellectual property, you get to decide how it is used. And if you don't want to make copying too easy because you think that it will get you more money, that's your right. The goal of the W3C is not to make to make a political statement about the rightness or wrongness of DRM. They are…

The W3C, Google, Apple and MS and the TV manufacturers could have said "OK then, keep your content to yourself, let's see how your business does without us providing ways to deliver your crippled content to the eyes and ears of your customers." But of course they didn't say that, because most of them got some direct or indirect interest in DRM, enough so that the few remaining players did have no choice than to hop o…

No, honestly then we would’ve just had more plugins like Silverlight/Flash. Widevine helped, in part, to get rid of all of that.

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

#499

Post by Operyl »

dingaling wrote: post #464
rjmunro wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple: You'd have to install a plugin or a separate special app to watch video, like the bad old days of RealPlayer.

> You'd have to install a plugin or a separate special app to watch video How is that different from the current state of EME plugins? Other than that proprietary browsers ship with the most popular plugins installed.

Edge and Safari have the appropriate tools to deal with DRM, so significantly different. The built in browsers already just work.

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

#500

Post by Operyl »

tomxor wrote: post #250
sli wrote: post #239

> ...the creators of the open source browser Chrome, ... This assumption is a mistake the author is making. Chrome is, for all practical purposes, closed-source and proprietary. It's Chromium that is open-source. So far as I know, Chromium does not have Widevine included by default.

This is correct, I use chromium - netflix and amazon do not work... the rest of the web is perfectly fine though. It may have been a stupid decision for W£C to include DRM in the spec, but frankly the rest of the internet doesn't give a shit - As far as OSS is concerned it's another 3rd party blob like flash and not a true part of the web. As far as I can tell the author is trying to use this third party blob specifi…

I use chromium, Widevine and the related sites work just fine here.
Post reply on HN