I have lost all sympathy for the big media industry. Pirate it all. Paying you just gives me a worse experience and you more power to make things worse.
It's a lose-lose-lose proposition.
I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
561–570 of 632 posts
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#562Boy 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…
The whole discussion revolves around video. You can't imagine a browser today that is "just a reader" (Mosaic? hahaha), no one would use a browser without video support.
I would. I love a browser that renders everything to plain text (go Lynx!).
Much less guff to download.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#563Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, even if there wasn't a DRM-standard, he still wouldn't be able to build his application, because there would still be DRM.
that's the important point. DRM is the price one must pay to consume BIG MEDIA content. there's no getting around it. if you want it you have to play by their rules.
> DRM is the price one must pay to consume BIG MEDIA content.
It's just what big media has happened to get away with.
If they found themselves without a way for their paying customers to access their content via DRM, they'd drop the requirement on the spot, with little to no financial impact except for DRM scheme licensing fees.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#564Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you provide examples? Some local stations in Australia have switched on DRM and I can't save anything. Over the air is still unencrypted though.
Iview is the one I'm talking about. YouTube DL basically downloads the unencrypted video direct from the server but the website doesn't work until you enable drm
Ah, whereas Seven, Nine and Ten are all encrypting (some) streams.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#565Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, in my experience there seem to be a lot more people frustrated with ads than scared of the government. Someone who wants privacy/anonymity is likely to not want ads, but I think those who don't want ads is actually a larger group.
Why would a browser or extension client side not be better? Adding an intermediary would add latency needlessly...
It's not always possible to even modify the client, think of the embedded browsers in "smart" devices as well as the increasingly-locked-down mobile platforms. But as long as installing your own certificates still works, you can continue to MITM your traffic and modify it before it gets to the client(s).
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#566Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll bite. How do you propose I know which sites not to visit without visiting them?
How do you know a site will have content you want? Surely there's room for a bit of uncertainty.
> How do you know a site will have content you want?
I'm often told in advance, by virtue of it coming up in a search result, promoted link, friends post, etc.
"This site contains adverts that perform obtrusive tracking" is seldom mentioned before or during the visit, the only way to know is by trying to block all such things and seeing the site fail if it tries to block the blocking.
Sometimes the advance information of content relevance is deceptive of course, and this often coincides with darkest patterns in the advertising/tracking.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#567Earlier quoted context omitted.
The outsized ability of companies to influence the government is the core problem that must first be solved. Replace companies with nobility or aristocracy and you're talking about a problem as old as civilization itself. The fact is, small groups with control over a lot of resource (elites) will always work to consolidate and secure their power. Barring some radical, unforeseen technology, the masses of people will…
I don’t disagree. We need to get money out of politics. It’s been done before. It can be done again.
> It's been done before.
When was that?
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#568DRM 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…
>- A few hours ago, I wanted to play a game, but guess what... Steam had a network problem [1] and didn't even let me enter the offline mode. I think Steam is a really good (not shitty) DRM enforcer. A very occasional lapse in service is acceptable for entertainment platforms. I use steam because it is actually easier to use their DRM systems than it is to, for example, buy CDs or download individual game installers.
>I think Steam is a really good (not shitty) DRM enforcer.
It may be a good DRM enforcer, but as a UI it's terrible and intrusive. There's no way to turn off all those popup messages and game related alerts.
I had to give up on steam once they started doing that.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#569Boy 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…
The saddest part is it doesn't even seem to accomplish anything. What would-be pirates are actually being foiled by this? Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime use EME, but all their exclusive content is still readily available on torrent sites. Does it raise the difficulty bar? It's hard to imagine anyone who knows how to rip video from their browser doesn't know how to torrent something.
>exclusive content
content is no longer the only draw. the business goal is now monetizing the group experience. consider Fortnite. Companies won't care if a few people watch pirated content alone. They want to control the experience of group content consumption. This does require content, but managing the group experience is the new frontier. consider http://rabb.it Pirates can get ppl in groups to watch premium content, but at some size, authorities will show up to protect their property.
Re: I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me
#570Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poland is an EU member, so your government must have some implementation of the EU Copyright directive, which includes somewhat similar anti-circumvention clauses as the DMCA[0]. There are lots of differences in the details, but I wouldn't make a blanket statement that it's completely legal without actually checking the corresponding laws. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Directive#Technologi...
You need to realize that the EU "directives" are not actually the law (aka the thing that will get you prosecuted). The directives are "transposed" into national law, country by country - and each country can (and does) add a local "flavor" to it. So if the Poles have watered down the anti-circumvention clause (it is very vague in the directive, giving a ton of maneuvering space to the national parliaments), the situ…
You're absolutely correct. However,in the event that directives are not transposed (or not transposed correctly) courts can find that the directive is (vertically) directly effective.