
I believe in the free Web, which is why I canceled my Netflix account - jalbertbowden
http://u.fsf.org/cancelnetflix
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cheald
Hope you also stop watching all movies and television, buying ebooks, and
purchasing or streaming music, because otherwise you're just funding the
entities who are actually the ones driving the quest for HTML5 DRM extensions.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - attacking Netflix is like boycotting
the grocery store because of the nutritional content of the food they sell.

~~~
chc
Indeed. I don't know who's behind this site, but reading this screed makes me
feel embarrassed for them. What do they expect Netflix to do in response to
this? Do they believe Netflix is some Dickensian villain who just wants to
make everybody miserable through DRM?

I really doubt Netflix cares that much about DRM. Probably a lot of people
there would rather not have it. But they can't have a business without
content, and the _content owners_ demand DRM.

If you were in Netflix's position, would _you_ say, "Well, there's no way to
do this without DRM, so I may as well close up shop"?

~~~
WayneDB
I wonder why Netflix even needs to stream through a web-browser anymore. It's
easy to install apps on all major mobile and desktop platforms.

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wanderr
If there is one thing DRM actually makes sense for, it's for streaming content
you don't own.

"The announcement is Netflix's latest chess move in their long game to blanket
the web in DRM. Slipping a DRM delivery mechanism into the HTML5 standard is
the online streaming giant's endgame."

Really? Netflix exists not to disrupt cable and bring streaming video to the
masses (not to mention money to its investors), but to proliferate DRM?

I think it's a severe stretch to see breaking the dependency on Silverlight as
a bad thing, and if you think rights holders are going to license their
content to Netflix without DRM you are living in a fantasy world.

~~~
Executor
The same fantasy world as Itunes where Apple sells non-DRM mp3's?

~~~
wanderr
I explicitly said for streaming content you don't own. Does iTunes let you do
that without involving any form of DRM?

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pfraze
This post is an unconvincing case for a position I agree with.

It's reasonable for Netflix to want to protect their inventory, but I don't
think the Web is ready for a content protection and monetization scheme.
Before that can happen, it needs a P2P infrastructure that can handle low-
friction commerce. Without that, it's stuck in the current model of gatekeeper
services, which is what Netflix is, and that makes it hard for smaller players
to get involved. DRM worries me because it could enforce the current situation
rather than develop it.

Getting P2P commerce right is hard, but I'd like a solution that could enforce
small ad-hoc contracts through trust systems. This is basically, "Gain trust
for following accepted terms, lose trust for breaking them."

For instance, a music vendor might request that I pay five dollars after
download a few albums. If I don't, they'll signal to their circle of music-
vendor peers that I'm a welcher, and knock down my trust rating in that
circle. If I do pay, however, that vendor would signal that I can be trusted,
and that might result in discounts or access to higher-value services. Digital
goods contracts would then be trust exchanges, and might even influence the
topography of the P2P network, as a trusted buyer or seller would expand their
available network through good behavior.

It's still a few steps away, but there's going to be a lot more opportunity
for it as WebRTC stabilizes.

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kenjackson
With all due respect to the author there are probably 200 people worldwide who
will do this. Tops. Do you know how many customers they'd lose if they started
streaming without DRM? Virtually all of them, because all of the major studios
would pull their content and Netflix would look like cable access programming.

I get that DRM can be a bad thing in content I purchase. But for streaming
content where my access ends when my subscription does -- I have no qualm at
all about it.

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tzs
They are not slipping a DRM delivery MECHANISM into the HTML standard. They
are slipping an INTERFACE into the standard, not a MECHANISM. The interface
can be used to access a DRM mechanism if one is provided on a given platform,
but it can also be used for other things, such as providing secure access to
private documents.

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adamc
Since most of Netflix's content is licensed, they may have no choice but to
limit it to technologies with DRM. I'm fine with folks dropping Netflix if
that's what they want to do, but I don't see it leading to a web where
Netflix's content is free.

This proposal has me scratching my head.

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dxm
I don't feel DRM in Netflix is so bad, I would not be happy to have DRM in
something I've purchased to own, but since I'm paying a subscription and know
fully that I'm not paying to own what I stream, I don't care that they want to
use DRM.

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Samuel_Michon
‘Defective by design’ is a great name for that blog.

The writer would’ve preferred Netflix stuck to propietary tech like
Silverlight and Flash, which allows DRM, than move to an open standard like
HTML5 video, which allows DRM. Writing on behalf of an organization that
promotes an open web, her logic is defective.

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piff
netflix sux by supporting DRM. its unthinkable to trim and strip words in a
sentence and still pretend you respect free speech.

