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Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

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Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#161
post #114
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple: They pay a hot shot company to try and stop piracy and thats the best they can come up with. Piracy can't be stopped but thats not what they want to hear. Piracy can be greatly reduced by distributing the content via Netflix but thats not what they want to hear.

It's been decades and literally everyone in multiple industries is still refusing to admit they're throwing money after a lost cause? I won't say that's impossible, but the entire idea behind capitalism is that this happens rarely. Eventually someone will realize they can make more profit by not paying for anti-piracy, right?

Baen Books[0] and Tor[1] don't use DRM.

[0] https://www.baen.com/t-drm

[1] https://www.tor.com/2013/04/29/tor-books-uk-drm-free-one-yea...

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#162
MLB Advanced Media was created to stream baseball games for MLB.tv. They did such a great job that other sports networks, ESPN, and even HBO have licensed their technology to successfully roll out streaming and handle the GoT bandwidth crush.

I'm looking forward to Disney+, and it's a shame that in 2019 a company as large as Disney with a back catalog and list of properties as massive as Disney can't simply step off the starting blocks with technology that lets them focus on the stories. The only stories I've read lately about the service is about the technology...

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#163
post #114
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty simple: They pay a hot shot company to try and stop piracy and thats the best they can come up with. Piracy can't be stopped but thats not what they want to hear. Piracy can be greatly reduced by distributing the content via Netflix but thats not what they want to hear.

It's been decades and literally everyone in multiple industries is still refusing to admit they're throwing money after a lost cause? I won't say that's impossible, but the entire idea behind capitalism is that this happens rarely. Eventually someone will realize they can make more profit by not paying for anti-piracy, right?

The entire theory of capitalism is that everyone always acts rationally and in their own interest. In reality, humans are frequently irrational and acts against their own interests.

Basically the foundations upon which capitalism stands are cracked and have always been craked. Regulation is what usually fills out those cracks to prevent the entire thing from crumbling.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM punishes paying customers and does nothing to stop piracy. It reminds me of those "you wouldn't kill" segments at the start of DVD's that you couldn't skip, but just moaned at you to not pirate the DVD. But the only people they were telling this to was paying customers who bought the DVD. People who pirated the DVD, just plugged it into their computer, ripped out the content then published.

>DRM punishes paying customers and does nothing to stop piracy. Media companies aren't stupid. They know exactly how much DRM and piracy impact their bottom line. That's why DRM-free distribution is a non-starter for virtually every media company, because it saves them money. Like all things dealing with bad actors, DRM isn't about stopping behavior. It's about slowing it down and making it more cumbersome

Early streaming services didn't own their own content but DRM is/was a requirement for most content contracts. I don't totally buy this argument and I think everyone knows its doesn't do much to stop piracy but its just a part of the process now.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#165
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This whole thread has been rather surprising to me, we've been enjoying Disney+ for a few weeks now and I've been amazed how wonderful all the content is. I've never seen any errors or the issue described in this article (I'm on Mac). The only thing about the UI that I miss is that it does not respond to keyboard shortcuts (like pressing spacebar to start and stop the playback). But overall, I've been very happy and…

Are you from the future? In all seriousness though, how are you able to enjoy Disney+ currently? It has yet to launch. According to the Disney+ website it launches in just under 23 days from now.[0] 0. https://disneyplus.com

Likely works just like ESPN+, which runs like dogshit on my roku.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For every person torrenting there’s multiple getting movies off friends on USB sticks and stuff. One member of my family does the torrenting for a dozen others in my family, and I know plenty of others that work like that. I personally do a mix of paying for content and pirating. I’m 100% happy to pay for content if I can, but with geoblocking and platform restrictions and all the other bullshittery, it’s legitimatel…

Not sure if applicable to your region but have you given movieseverywhere a shot?

Do you mean Disney Movies Anywhere? That’s a US exclusive, like just about all content these days.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM punishes paying customers and does nothing to stop piracy. It reminds me of those "you wouldn't kill" segments at the start of DVD's that you couldn't skip, but just moaned at you to not pirate the DVD. But the only people they were telling this to was paying customers who bought the DVD. People who pirated the DVD, just plugged it into their computer, ripped out the content then published.

What makes matters worse is they inform the consumer that yes you can just steal the film. I was involved in the Private Server scene in my younger days and a game had a campaign against private servers. Ever since like 90% of the people in that private scene have told me they only knew about it cause of the campaign. You spark the human curiosity and screw yourself.

It's the Streisand effect in action.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How those webrips are performed? Are there leaked DRM keys or something like that? I thought that DRM encrypts stream all the way from website to display, so it's quite hard to intercept it.

Pirates cracked Widevine (and possibly other schemes). They have a drop-in replacement DLL (which they keep secret) that dumps the original content of the stream ( not a screen / HDMI capture, like the other two comments said). This is called a WEB-DL, while capturing and encoding the stream is usually called a WEBrip.

This doesn't work for Widevine L1, as L1 is handled in hardware. Windows has some interface to the Intel Management Engine used for this, Android OEMs write drivers and ship devices with keys, other platforms are out of luck.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#169

I believe it morally justifies downloading Disney+ content via torrents.

Oh come on, “Disney won’t stream their stuff to my niche OS” is not a reason to get their stuff without paying. You can wait for a DVD, you can scrounge a used device that will run their DRM, or you can decide you hate all DRM and boycott their stuff until the unlikely event they offer a copyable version. Lots of people work hard making this shit, and they have bills to pay, these things don’t just spring fully-forme…

Actually, it is infringing. We have that word for very specific reasons.

In this case, nothing was stolen.

Re: Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM

#170
As always, the pirate bay offers a DRM free alternative. Maybe one day the media companies will learn that the one thing consumers cannot stand is being inconvenienced, even slightly.

As long as their solution provides less value than pirating, or is a bigger pain in the ass than pirating, they will lose.

Unfortunately for them, pirating has become so easy, that unless they become like iTunes, they are dead. Just a matter of time.

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