It would be better if the platforms that wanted DRM just made their own damn desktop apps, just like they make their own iOS apps, Android apps, Roku apps, smart tv apps, etc. There's no reason for them to be embedded in a browser.
They knew the adoption rates for out-of-browser proprietary content viewers were awful. That is why they dedicated resources to usurp the open web.
If Mozilla had fought back, we might have progressed towards the death of the obsolete content model big media wants to keep in place and prevent change in the market. It would have at least been a step in the right direction - instead, the promise of the open Internet was sabotaged, and big media gets to be more "convenient" at its sacrifice.
It comes from two ideological positions. One believes that content creators need complete systemic control of what they make - at all costs (that the creator maintains full control no matter how the content is interacted with) - and the other is that content shouldn't be controlled (or that I, as a buyer of content, should control the content I bought), and all real world implementations fall between those extremes.
But when it comes to DRM, it should be understandable that plenty of people (myself included) are not willing to allow third party companies to run proprietary code (the drm) on my hardware for the exclusive purpose of preventing me from interacting with data on my own computer (the streamed movie / music). When web browsers start baking in this proprietary functionality, it forces me to look for alternatives to the established open source browsers.
If you are content with that relationship with content (heh) providers, then this is not your fight. But at least accept that a lot of us want to own our computers, and proprietary software takes away that right, and DRM is just one of the more visceral forms proprietary software takes where its entire purpose is to impede the users ability to control their computers.
your never bought content. you only rented it. this is especially true on netflix & co
How should content creators protect against people who access their content without buying it?
It's pointless for them to bother trying to stop piracy, especially of analog content using technical means.
DRM is not about being perfect against a dedicated pirate. Just like locks on doors, it's about putting up a few barriers that serve to keep the vast majority of people honest. No one is under any illusions that DRM will stop movies and games from showing up on torrent trackers.
It doesn't "keep honest people honest" when piracy is so damn easy regardless of what they do with DRM. The point of that phrase is to increase the effort and motivation necessary to commit a crime - in this case, DRM doesn't do that. With or without DRM any idiot can download the latest Popcorn Time fork and stream movies with 1 click. DRM doesn't hinder the most casual of pirates at all, it only hinders honest customers.
None of these are exactly out-of-the-way high-effort options. There's no increased effort - you just don't bother trying to do so via Netflix. Any of these can be Googled in a few minutes. DRM does nothing to prevent them.
The legal risk you're talking about is just that though - nothing to do with DRM, everything to do with a legal threat. Note that it's more effective than DRM.
Even those who do go out of their way somewhat to improve the piracy experience don't go that far. I wouldn't compare configuring a typical Usenet+Sonarr+CouchPotato+Plex rig to breaking down a door, and that's pretty much the most advanced sort of setup you can get. It may require slightly specialized knowledge, but it doesn't require specialized intent usually. The intent is still the same as that of the casual pirate, it's just a tradeoff of upfront effort for later ease.
Seems to me the only ultimate solution is to have some kind of guaranteed basic income, at least for all people that aren't involved in the creation of tangible goods (that can't be copied at zero cost).
This question got downvoted. What did you read into it, or which insinuation do you think it makes that you find offensive?
Why didn't Mozilla work harder to catch up with Chrome and counter Google? Was it a case of "My enemy's enemy is my friend?"
And why did Opera slip away into the mists of obscurity? I remember it being pretty good and it was actually my main browser for a year or so.
I'd argue that this "catching up to Google" was more their problem than their solution.
In making Firefox more and more Chrome-like they took away many unique and important Firefox features and they keep moving further and further in that direction. They now want to trash XUL and move to an extension framework that exactly matches Chrome's, removing the deep flexibility and customization that Firefox users have enjoyed. Several of my favorite extension authors have already announced they're giving up when that change happens.
If your browser just plays catch up without differentiating itself in any significant way, why would anyone use it?
Mozilla came up with some cool UI ideas, but never implemented them, or quickly did so, got them to a tiny percentage of their full potential and then abandoned them. That's the kind of thing they should be focusing on - that's the kind of thing that made Firefox gain market share in the first place. Instead they keep playing catch up. And playing catch up with a massive codebase against a giant company is incredibly hard.
Right now Brave is doing a better job differentiating itself and it's built on top of Electron - on Chrome's core codebase. If it were a little more active I think it'd have a shot at something.
Users should have a lot more faith in the protections of a browser over the free-for-all security and privacy nightmare that is desktop computing.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1021232
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1021235
The spec talks about both securing the CDM with Sandboxing and preventing fingerprinting, amongst other security + privacy issues that should be addressed:
https://w3c.github.io/encrypted-media/#cdm-security
https://w3c.github.io/encrypted-media/#privacy-fingerprintin...
the spec also says if the CDN isn't sandboxed then the user needs to be warned and prompted to allow exec:
> if a user agent chooses to support a Key System implementation that cannot be sufficiently sandboxed or otherwise secured, the user agent should ensure that users are fully informed and/or give explicit consent before loading or invoking it.