141–150 of 194 posts
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> This is a closed source, downstream effort which means no modifications can be made to Electron itself. It has the MIT license since 2 months ago. Did the closed-source part change or is that only about the non-npm code?
The code included in the GitHub repository downloads the closed source Electron binaries. Just for comparison, the full source would look something more like what's accessible here: https://github.com/electron/electron
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I'm honestly not sure about the legality of downloading from another distributor. I do know that distribution requires a license [0]. The risk doesn't seem worth it to use such a workaround for a serious project though. [0] https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/master:t...
Kodi downloads an entire ChromeOS image just to extract the widevine shared library, for example.
"I tried creating a web browser, and Google blocked me" Title is very missleading, your web browser works and google does not block you, it's all about DRM. "For the last 2 years I’ve been working on a web browser that now cannot be completed because Google, the creators of the open source browser Chrome, won’t allow DRM in an open source project." This is crap, you should probably have known that before starting the…
> As a dev it should be some common sense that you can't just playback 4k video from Netflix with a built-in Browser. why not?
DRM is built on a self-contradictory premise that tremendous amounts of effort are going into making work. Namely, if we save content in a special format, then we can make it impossible for it to be used except as we decide.
However they then put that software on hardware controlled by people whose interests are not necessarily aligned with that goal. And once there, that software can be changed. That hardware may be an emulation that can also be changed. And so on and so forth.
To make the fiction appear to work, they need to find every way that they can to avoid escape. They add detection code that tries to identify running under emulation and blocks it. They obfuscate their software in every way that they can. They only place their software in other software that they trust. They embed various checks that nothing looks suspicious.
And even so, they are doomed to fail. See https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/10/google-mending-another-c... for example. But they just need to make it hard enough to bypass the encryption that it is hard to get pirated copies. And make the penalties for trying to do so to discourage a pirate scene. And this they have done.
I'm no an expert on DRM, but maybe someone here is. What would open source programs using DRM look like? My understanding is that the whole point of DRM is to prevent the software and the user from having arbitrary control over the data, which is fundamentally opposite of open source. Say that Google desperately wanted to support any reasonable method to accomplish allowing open source tools access to DRM-protected m…
DRM in hardware is about the only other possibility. Make the GPU do the DRM internally. This is actually relatively feasible since most DRM'd video content has hardware acceleration support and GPUs already support HDCP. Full DRM in hardware would require a much larger coordination across manufacturers than any DRM to date (HDCP), and with AACS's key distribution problems greatly magnified. Specifically, preventing…
By contrast with DRM in software and automatic browser updates, you can switch DRM schemes fairly easily. Which is not hypothetical - Google has had to fix Wideview multiple times.
But this needs both streaming and automatic updates. Without automatic updates, you can't depend on devices having the update. Without streaming, something like https://www.redfox.bz/en/anydvdhd.html will eventually emerge and people buying existing content will be able to bypass your control.
Isn't this just how DRM works? It's precisely why so many were concerned about EME being adopted into web standards, and why so many are passionate about DRM-Free media. DRM is designed to put restrictions on where, when, and how media is played, including what software it's used with. This doesn't invalidate any of the author's points, and they're right to be upset. But the problem isn't Chrome per se, it's DRM-encu…
“I created a browser and Netflix blocked it” isn’t as baity a headline.
If I was writing this headline, I think I'd go with something like:
> "I tried building a better way to watch videos, but DRM stopped me."
Which is still pretty attention grabbing.
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Under DMCA 1201 technical protection measures automatically get legal protection against this sort of thing. There's actually two layers of protection: 1. You can't deprotect the content for a purpose that would violate copyright law (this is the "DMCA exception" process you hear about every 3 years) 2. You can't provide tools that deprotect the content for any purpose Both provisions give DRM the force of law, thoug…
> the only legal way to actually play Widevine-protected content is to license Widevine or re-implement a Widevine-compatible plugin outside the US where DMCA doesn't apply of course, say goodbye to ever setting foot on US soil again
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Heh, you're better off designing a new markup language and then implementing a browser to render that.
Given the current state of the web, this might not be a bad idea
Somewhat related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23161922
Google has announced that it is cutting off access to the Sync and "other Google Exclusive" APIs from all builds except Google Chrome. This will make the Fedora Chromium build significantly less functional (along with every other distro packaged Chromium).
Isn't this just how DRM works? It's precisely why so many were concerned about EME being adopted into web standards, and why so many are passionate about DRM-Free media. DRM is designed to put restrictions on where, when, and how media is played, including what software it's used with. This doesn't invalidate any of the author's points, and they're right to be upset. But the problem isn't Chrome per se, it's DRM-encu…
Yes, perhaps the lesson here is that one should do some basic investigation on whether an approach has any fatal flaws before spending 2 years working on it.
DRM hampers innovation and creativity in all sorts of ways. It locks users into specific platforms, and prevents anyone else from leveraging those platforms to build improved or entirely new experiences.
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I remember when the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive were new, a lot of people were disappointed that they couldn't watch Netflix in a virtual theater (in high quality). The DRM made it impossible.