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posted by on Wednesday March 22 2017, @12:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-man-knows-what-you're-watching dept.

Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a mechanism by which HTML5 video providers can discover and enable DRM providers offered by a browser, has taken the next step on its contentious road to standardization. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body that oversees most Web-related specifications, has moved the EME specification to the Proposed Recommendation stage.

The next and final stage is for the W3C's Advisory Committee to review the proposal. If it passes review, the proposal will be blessed as a full W3C Recommendation.

Ever since W3C decided to start working on a DRM proposal, there have been complaints from those who oppose DRM on principle. The work has continued regardless, with W3C director and HTML inventor Tim Berners-Lee arguing that—given that DRM is already extant and, at least for video, unlikely to disappear any time soon—it's better for DRM-protected content to be a part of the Web ecosystem than to be separate from it.

Berners-Lee argued that, for almost all video providers, the alternative to DRM in the browser is DRM in a standalone application. He also argued that these standalone applications represent a greater risk to privacy and security than the constrained, sandboxed environment of the Web. He acknowledges that DRM has problems, chiefly the difficulties it imposes for fair use, derivative works, and backups. He notes, however, that a large body of consumers don't appear overly concerned with these issues, as they continue to buy or subscribe to DRM-protected content.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ShadowSystems on Wednesday March 22 2017, @03:00PM (1 child)

    by ShadowSystems (6185) <ShadowSystemsNO@SPAMGmail.com> on Wednesday March 22 2017, @03:00PM (#482744)

    I wish there was a "Oh HELL YEAH!" or "I'd upvote this by a trillion if I could!" moderation catagory.
    I don't accept DRM in my products just like I don't buy food soaked in Bubonic Plague & for the exact same reason - it's unhealthy & will seriously ruin my day.
    I won't accept an extension that enables it because the browser is already an insecure cluster fuck as it is, it doesn't need even MORE vectors from which a zero day exploit can render my machine FUBAR.
    Do I pirate? No. Do I buy DRM media? No. That's because I vote with my wallet as the only viable way that one of us common folk can give TheFinger to those DRM spreading bastards.
    I'd sooner give Typhoid Mary some French kissing than let an MPAA/RIAA fucker near my computer - at least there's less of a social stigma to the plague.
    *Moons & gives a double handed TheFinger to the MPAA/RIAA & it's ilk*

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Immerman on Wednesday March 22 2017, @04:17PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday March 22 2017, @04:17PM (#482811)

    Good for you, I approve.

    Now, are you doing anything to actually make DRM less prevalent or invasive - such as motivating vast hordes of the techno-incompetent to follow your lead? Because otherwise you're just covering your own ass while virtue-signaling.