> We don't do anything shady, and we're proud of that. We're an honest company.
Maybe not shady, but surely controversial.
[0]: https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media/
[1]: https://blog.archive.org/2017/04/18/drm-for-the-web-is-a-bad...
Maybe not shady, but surely controversial.
[0]: https://www.w3.org/TR/encrypted-media/
[1]: https://blog.archive.org/2017/04/18/drm-for-the-web-is-a-bad...
The only way this makes sense is if the purpose of this blockade is to push people towards devices and operating systems that are completely locked down with DRM, from the software to the hardware. I can't think of any other reason — if Netflix does serve me 1080p and 4K streams, would that cause a sudden increase in the amount of pirated releases available?
I can already get everything on Netflix, in 1080p, if I really want just by visiting the usual pirate haunts! So what exactly is gained by degrading my viewing experience by only allowing me 720p as long as I choose to run a free operating system instead of a fully locked down platform?
I wish Netflix would give an honest answer on their DRM strategy, because it is driving me away.
I could understand if this was done because of licensing issues, but Netflix has decided on a blanket ban of 1080p and higher for their customers on free operating systems and anyone else who wants to use Chrome or Firefox.
According to Wikipedia, Netflix had about 3500 employees in 2015. That's a pretty large company, and I assure you, the content producers pushing Netflix originals are going to a) have been hired out of that conservative Hollywood culture, b) be laterally very far away from the enlightened engineers in the Netflix corporate structure. Also c), the upper management above the engineers and the content producers who could resolve this kind of dispute, probably don't have enough exposure to an issue (1080p and 4k streams of Netflix Originals content to Linux-only customers) which affects a small minority of their customers.
Wait, really? I did not know that. I'm watching Netflix with Chrome on mac OS and always assumed that they use a poor bitrate for what I thought was 1080p content. This explains a lot. Any workaround on mac other than using Safari?
Yes, The Pirate Bay. If users don't vote with their money nothing will ever change.
* Open sexual harassment culture
* Building spy software for the government
* Selling censorship tools to governments
* Selling your private data to advertisers
* Allowing advertisers to target a person's emotional state
* Profiting off of fake news and click bait
* Tracking people across the web
* Using monopolies to limit competition in other realms
* Strong arming third parties to keep them from using your competitors' products
Somehow, limiting streaming to 720p on non-supported platforms seems pretty benign.
Edit: Tried to separate list from closing comment.
Edit: I rather ask than make an assumption. Thanks for the confirmation.
Not sure I agree, FWIW.
On the other hand, if Netflix has managed to reimplement the NSA's dragnet internally, I'm going to be really impressed by their engineers' productivity.
With that said, I don't want to just single you out since this is a common practice, so I went ahead and found sources for you:
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/technology/uber-workplace... [1]https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/how-peter-thiels-palanti... [2]https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveill... [3]https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/for-sale-your-pr... [4]http://mashable.com/2017/04/30/facebook-leaked-report-advert... [5]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/11... [6]https://www.technologyreview.com/s/530741/the-murky-world-of... [7]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor.... [8]https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160920/07021035568/hp-la...
Asking for a source makes sense for controversial, or hard to find information. Not when it's so commonly reported that it's the first link on google on every single topic.
DRM, ironically, promotes piracy.
Personally, I would rank convenience in this descending order: 720p Netflix on Chrome (my browser of choice); 1080p Netflix on a supported browser; piracy.
Maybe for the HN power user demographic the current DRM methodology is pushing users away, but for average joe (many of whom don't even know this is a thing) will happily plug along using Netflix.
That's a sensible goal. But Netflix is more convenient and has DRM.
They aren't mutually exclusive. They probably are for purchases of media (in fact... I'd say certainly are) but for streaming it's not.
The big thing with streaming is speed of access to the content and Netflix/et al are much better than piracy at that (it's instant vs waiting, even a short while, for a BT download... once you find it).
Streaming services main downside vs piracy is the catalog - piracy wins there, but by less in practical terms than you might expect.
... are you from some kind of parallel universe? They're incredibly successful from an awards and audience perspective.
House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, as you mentioned but I'm not sure how you've missed their others like...
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Narcos, The Crown, Stranger Things, The OA, Sense8, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Grace and Frankie, Santa Clarita Diet, BoJack Horseman...
.. and that's without mentioning their extremely successful original kids programming or co-productions (like Lillyhammer, or the new Degrassi, or Dirk Gently) and of course their continuations (Fuller House, Arrested Development, Trailer Park Boys, Black Mirror.. etc).
I mean.. just look at that line up.
That's a solid response.
What could they do? They could not laud DRM on their blog. They could say they are reluctantly adding it. They could probably have pushed for 1080p in Chrome, etc. They could make their own stuff DRM free and publish piracy/subscription stats to show how much DRM helps.
Their choices aren't just "fully embrace it" or "go out of business".
Yes, if we ever possessed the technology to pirate movies, everyone would watch them and the industry couldn't survive.
It hasn't happened with Netflix on any large scale, yet. But it has happened in the past. There are videos games that are single player and can't be played without an active connection back to the publisher. What happens when the publisher doesn't like you or mislabels you as a pirate? What if you just want to play the video game you bought and payed fro without an Internet connection?
There were music stores that only played music through special software after getting decryption keys from an active connection to the Internet, and some of those stores shut down. What happened with the millions of dollars paid into those stores? What about the songs? Did you know that decrypting a song you bought and paid for is a crime?
Consider: https://xkcd.com/488/
I would rather get out in front of this entirely artificial problem before I have to support my friends and family who don't understand the nature of this problem.
I do agree with you for purchases that have DRM, but this is a subscription service - you watch when you pay, not when you don't.
But why can't I use their service on a device of my choosing at a resolution of my choice? Why is my perfectly capable Ubuntu machine limited to 720p and a windows machine isn't?
Having some kind of standardized access where I didn't have to put up with their BS would go a long way towards making that easier for me to deal with.
Further, they make it essentially impossible to to create a local routing rule to bypass the VPN for them alone. You're stuck whitelisting the whole of AWS.
They did fix that though, i think.