How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#31

Post by shmerl » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 2:32 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #30

jlgreco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DRM on DVDs, while obviously long ago cracked wide open, still carries the legal implications of DRM. > Music industry already dumped DRM for good. This is the part that really gets to me. The music industry is still largely dominated by the sort of companies that also dominate video, and music files are vastly easier to trade around due to their siz, and yet DRM in music is nearly completely nonexistent these da…

Video costs many times more to produce, and is generally consumed only once. Music is cheap to make and people tend to listen many times over, making the try-it-and-purchase-it model a genuine possibility that video doesn't really have.

Good films have a solid replay value, i.e. you keep them in your collection to return to them later, the same way as you reread good books. And even if you view something only once, it doesn't really make DRM any more sensible than it is for something that you reuse multiple times.

For example games are hard to produce (and it usually takes a long time). Still you can get very good games DRM free, because in gaming the faults of DRM are especially apparent.

The downside of DRM - it insults paying customers, it lowers the usability of the content (restricting it to selected devices / players etc.), it also doesn't affect pirates, since the moment that DRM is broken by some skillful crackers - DRM free copies are widely distributed.

So let's see - no one benefits from DRM. Who is in downside? Paying users. So what is the point in using it anywhere?

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#32

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 2:51 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #23

sneak wrote: post #16

Paying Netflix funds the companies that have made this bullshit DRM a reality. Just torrent your media and play it in VLC. Works better, without WINE, and without subsidizing these dicks.

If you don't like the terms they're offering, just don't consume the content they create.

[deleted]

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#33

Post by rajivm » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 3:08 AM UTC

linuxhansl wrote: post #18

This is somewhat ridiculous. Netflix is using a lot of open source software: Linux, Cassandra, Zookeeper, Java, etc. And then they sign a sleazy backroom deal with Microsoft and only support silverlight, which is a technology dead on arrival. I don't get it.

It was not DOA when they first started using it -- it was better than the streaming technology available via Flash at the time - and also the only one with DRM that would meet the the qualifications of the media companies that they license their content from. I don't think Netflix wants DRM any more than the majority of us, but they don't really have a choice to offer such content.

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#34

Post by pavanky » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 3:23 AM UTC

smoyer wrote: post #4

My wife's ARM-based Samsung Chromebook now streams Netflix via HTML5 streaming (as of March 11th). I think a much cleaner solution on Linux is imminent - simply spoof enough of the information about your machine to make Netflix think you're also on a Chromebook. Here's one of the announcements: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/samsung-chromebook-netfli... .

This came up on reddit a few days ago. The consensus was that there is dynamic library that is present on the ARM chromebooks which is used by netflix(and hence can not be used on regular x86 machines).

That said, it may be possible to reverse engineer it.

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#35

Post by jonny_eh » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 3:40 AM UTC

pavanky wrote: post #34

smoyer wrote: post #4

My wife's ARM-based Samsung Chromebook now streams Netflix via HTML5 streaming (as of March 11th). I think a much cleaner solution on Linux is imminent - simply spoof enough of the information about your machine to make Netflix think you're also on a Chromebook. Here's one of the announcements: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/11/samsung-chromebook-netfli... .

This came up on reddit a few days ago. The consensus was that there is dynamic library that is present on the ARM chromebooks which is used by netflix(and hence can not be used on regular x86 machines). That said, it may be possible to reverse engineer it.

I bet that this library references a unique DRM key in the Chromebook's hardware.

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#36

Post by hristov » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 4:18 AM UTC

kmfrk wrote: post #17

I still can't get the Netflix app to work on Windows 8 ... :P

Easy. Just run Linux in a virtual machine and then you can follow the directions of the present article to run Netflix in Linux.

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#37

Post by sneak » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 4:35 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #23

sneak wrote: post #16

Paying Netflix funds the companies that have made this bullshit DRM a reality. Just torrent your media and play it in VLC. Works better, without WINE, and without subsidizing these dicks.

If you don't like the terms they're offering, just don't consume the content they create.

This presupposes that one can own information in the first place.

The "terms" are that I download shit for free.

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#38

Post by rayiner » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 4:46 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #37

rayiner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like the terms they're offering, just don't consume the content they create.

This presupposes that one can own information in the first place. The "terms" are that I download shit for free.

> This presupposes that one can own information in the first place.

I think the case for owning original digital creations is far stronger than say the case for owning patches of dirt that were here before you were born and will still be here after you're dead. If I make a song or write some software, I'm creating something of my own in the very purest sense. Something that didn't exist before me, something wholly attributable to me. Why shouldn't I be able to own it?

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#39

Post by 2emoore4 » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 4:48 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #23

sneak wrote: post #16

Paying Netflix funds the companies that have made this bullshit DRM a reality. Just torrent your media and play it in VLC. Works better, without WINE, and without subsidizing these dicks.

If you don't like the terms they're offering, just don't consume the content they create.

the ones offering the terms are not the ones creating the content

Re: How to Watch Netflix in Ubuntu Linux

#40

Post by rayiner » Sun, Mar 17, 2013, 4:59 AM UTC

2emoore4 wrote: post #39

rayiner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't like the terms they're offering, just don't consume the content they create.

the ones offering the terms are not the ones creating the content

We say Microsoft "created" Windows, even though it's obviously engineers working for Microsoft that created Windows. Artists working for media companies, or film-makers working for studios are in functionally the same position.