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posted by takyon on Tuesday September 19 2017, @12:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the community-consensus dept.

Submitted via IRC for boru

Dear Jeff, Tim, and colleagues, In 2013, EFF was disappointed to learn that the W3C had taken on the project of standardizing "Encrypted Media Extensions," an API whose sole function was to provide a first-class role for DRM within the Web browser ecosystem. By doing so, the organization offered the use of its patent pool, its staff support, and its moral authority to the idea that browsers can and should be designed to cede control over key aspects from users to remote parties.

[...] The W3C is a body that ostensibly operates on consensus. Nevertheless, as the coalition in support of a DRM compromise grew and grew — and the large corporate members continued to reject any meaningful compromise — the W3C leadership persisted in treating EME as topic that could be decided by one side of the debate. In essence, a core of EME proponents was able to impose its will on the Consortium, over the wishes of a sizeable group of objectors — and every person who uses the web. The Director decided to personally override every single objection raised by the members, articulating several benefits that EME offered over the DRM that HTML5 had made impossible.

[...] We believe they will regret that choice. Today, the W3C bequeaths an legally unauditable attack-surface to browsers used by billions of people. They give media companies the power to sue or intimidate away those who might re-purpose video for people with disabilities. They side against the archivists who are scrambling to preserve the public record of our era. The W3C process has been abused by companies that made their fortunes by upsetting the established order, and now, thanks to EME, they'll be able to ensure no one ever subjects them to the same innovative pressures.

[...] Effective today, EFF is resigning from the W3C.

Thank you,

Cory Doctorow
Advisory Committee Representative to the W3C for the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @01:07AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @01:07AM (#569997)

    The dude came up with WWW protocol to spread/exchange info over the internet. How does DRM help? The senile no-integirty bastard should have resigned a while back.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Pino P on Tuesday September 19 2017, @02:57PM (6 children)

    by Pino P (4721) on Tuesday September 19 2017, @02:57PM (#570199) Journal

    DRM is supposed to help by allowing providers of rental video to use WWW, with the proprietary components sandboxed in a CDM, rather than completely proprietary native applications. Or would you prefer to do away with rental video entirely?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @03:20PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @03:20PM (#570212)

      You are right, it's better to corrupt an open successful platform to accommodate a niche commercial interest.

      And since when "rental video" needed web?

      • (Score: 2) by Chromium_One on Tuesday September 19 2017, @04:17PM

        by Chromium_One (4574) on Tuesday September 19 2017, @04:17PM (#570236)

        How's Blockbuster doing in your area?

        --
        When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.
      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 19 2017, @05:39PM (3 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday September 19 2017, @05:39PM (#570273) Journal

        niche commercial interest

        In March 2016, Netflix represented 35.2% of downstream traffic on North American fixed networks during primetime hours, according to a study by network-equipment provider Sandvine. That’s compared with 37.1% six months ago for the world’s No. 1 streaming-video service, and down from 36.5% a year ago.

        [...] But part of Netflix’s decline in share of bandwidth consumption may be because of a big jump in usage attributed to Amazon: This spring, Amazon Video accounted for 4.3% of peak downstream traffic, a significant gain from 2% on Sandvine’s report a year ago. Like Netflix, Amazon made optimizations to its video compression in early 2016.

        In addition, YouTube also gained share, holding second place on Sandvine’s report with 17.5% share of downstream bandwidth consumed during peak periods (compared with 15.6% last year), as did Hulu with 2.7% this spring (up from 1.9%). The study found a decline in total share of web-browser traffic, which fell from 6% a year ago to 4.2%, and iTunes, which dropped from 3.4% to 2.9%.

        Niche, huh?

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @03:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 19 2017, @03:03PM (#570200)

    it helps him retire comfortably.