How about the browser just tells the DRM that it's Firefox?
I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
531–540 of 632 posts
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#532Earlier quoted context omitted.
EME does not require Widevine; you can implement EME in its entirety yourself, in open code. Widevine is only one of several implementations of a Content Decryption Module; it just so happens to be by far the easiest to license (though that doesn't mean that's easy!).
So... I can technically implement my own EME standards compliant web browser, but that browser won't actually be able to interoperate with the existing set of websites that make use of EME. What's the point of the standard again?
1. To serve Hollywood's delusion that DRM is useful
2. To create market barriers for anyone who wants to compete with existing streaming services like Netflix, Spotify, and Youtube Premium
3. To create market barriers for anyone who wants to compete with Chrome, Safari and Firefox
4. To replace old proprietary plug-ins from Adobe and Microsoft with new proprietary plug-ins from Google et al.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#533Google 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.
There are some features which make a desktop application more appealing to me. One feature required changing browser behavior [1] which wouldn't otherwise be possible. A WebExtension could work, but has potential to run into the same gatekeeping issue of being removed by Google from their Web Store. With Google having ~70% market share, this wouldn't be a good outcome. [1] https://github.com/electron/electron/pull/17…
This is sort of a ridiculous hack, but you could probably override Element.prototype.webkitRequestFullscreen, and manually resize the element to take up the whole browseer window rather than entering fullscreen.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#534Boy howdy, this is one subject where I loathe saying "I told you so", but... I sure told you so.[1] HTML DRM is antithetical to the Open Web itself. It was built on a sham of "plugin-free" media playback, but all we did was change Flash and Silverlight for a whole range of closed black boxes, which in turn are effectively all controlled by Big Media ( to make it crystal clear: EME was built with third-party decryptio…
Surprisingly to me the author of "down and out in the magic kingdom" and the maintainer of BOINGBOING supports web DRM and he's part of the W3C committee. he's a great author and a good person with an anti-authoritarian bent I don't understand his position on this.
That would greatly surprise me. He is very explicitly against DRM. https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a (former) plugin developer and long-time user and community member, I don't think you're exactly the best person to evaluate today's install usability for a non- or even somewhat-technical new-ish user.
I'm really not sure what the point of your post is but what I can tell is you've completely misunderstood my post (and possibly Kodi too?) because several of the conditions you highlighted (eg "todays", "non-technical") wasn't even in the scope of my monologue. Besides, non-technical users wouldn't be ripping DVDs to a NFS / SMB share in the first place (or using a home server / NAS for bittorrent / usenet / etc if t…
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Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#536Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also I'm pretty sure the hdcp private keys have been factored, so anyone can now make unauthorized but compatible devices.
All DRM solutions eventually fail. It's an endless race. Companies pour millions and millions into media DRM, and yet all of the content is cracked and uploaded on pirate sites, without fail. They don't seem to understand how much of a waste their efforts are, and the government doesn't seem to realize how pointless, and stifling of innovation and competition laws like DMCA are.
I imagine their argument looks something like: We earn billions of dollars a year and want to earn more. We see people are downloading our stuff without paying us. This technology/company/etc promises to make copyright infringement more difficult and it'd only cost us $y million. If we see even a 0.01% increase in sales, it'll pay for itself in x years. Do it!
And government is even more straight forward. Media companies/individuals donate lots of money to campaigns, and there's a typical unspoken quid quo pro. They donate getting politicians into office and hire some lobbyists who know how to get those politicians what they want. In turn, those politicians then pass the media company's legislation. Like much of what the government does, the motivation is not a holistic effort to create a better country but an individual effort to get elected or reelected.
Hahah, come to think of it - it emphasizes that governments and capitalism suffer from the exact same problem. Capitalism works great when people put out good products and look to get rewarded for doing so. And similarly governments work great when politicians do good stuff and look to get rewarded for it. Things only get really messed up when companies start with the goal of making money instead of making a good product. And similarly, politics gets messed up when politicians start with the goal of getting [re]elected instead of creating good legislation. Because in both cases what makes the most money is not necessarily the best product, and what gets you reelected is not necessarily the most beneficial legislation.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#537DRM 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…
I think this is the most important point. Consumers are not going to put up with all sorts of shenanigans regarding browsers, monitor support etc. etc. - it's an ugly mess. If it 'just works' - then I think most people will accept 'paying for content' as a premise. But when the pieces don't fit together because industry players don't see the 'big picture' ... it will just be bad for everyone and ironically encourage…
Looking at Netflix's numbers, they are.
Bluntly I expect Netflix could stop supporting PCs and browsers entirely and feel very few negative effects.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#538> the creators of the open source browser Chrome
Chromium is open source, and Chrome may _look_ 99% identical, but we have no idea what hidden differences there are between Chromium and Chrome, because Chrome isn't open source.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#539Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If a single company can effectively decide whether a bunch of 3rd party sites that they don't control work on your browser, how is that any different? Because those third party sites choose to utilise closed software from that company. And Netflix doesn't only utilise Widevine as a DRM, it uses several different DRM systems, so Google don't have control over anything.
Agreed; most of the blame is on those third party sites. Further, Google's own browser, Chrome, will not stream above 720p Netflix(and maybe Amazon now). So at most Google is a lesser DRM god.
Chrome receives 1080p content on ChromeOS.
The issue is more complex than that, and generally relates to some hardware APIs for securing the video path not being available to Win32 applications in Windows.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#540Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surprisingly to me the author of "down and out in the magic kingdom" and the maintainer of BOINGBOING supports web DRM and he's part of the W3C committee. he's a great author and a good person with an anti-authoritarian bent I don't understand his position on this.
That doesn't sound right to me. Do you have a link where he comes out as pro-DRM? That doesn't fit with my knowledge of Cory Doctorow's position. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cory-doctorow-walkaway-scien...
Yeah, I believe Doctorow has multiple characters (from multiple books) say something along the lines of "no lock is there for your protection", and I'm certain I've read his opinions on DRM to be negative multiple times.
Hell, I'm fairly certain he had a deal with Barnes and Noble to publish his book without DRM which was nonstandard at the time.