
Reconciling Mozilla’s Mission and W3C EME - cleverjake
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/05/reconciling-mozillas-mission-and-w3c-eme/
======
davexunit
>We have come to the point where Mozilla not implementing the W3C EME
specification means that Firefox users have to switch to other browsers to
watch content restricted by DRM.

Then so be it. If Mozilla's mission is to improve and defend the "open" web,
then EME should never have been considered for implementation. We shouldn't
sacrifice our goals for the sake of market share.

~~~
batmansbelt
I've been using mozilla since forever. I believe in The Mission.

If I went to view media and a message told me it wouldn't work because of DRM,
I wouldn't switch browsers to view it. "The medium is the message," and the
message you get from DRMed media is rude and uninviting.

~~~
technomancy
> If I went to view media and a message told me it wouldn't work because of
> DRM

Not that I'm defending their actions, but I think it's worth pointing out that
out of the box, this is exactly what will happen when you try to view DRM'd
content. The Adobe decoding crap is a separate download that won't ship with
Firefox; Mozilla is neither implementing nor distributing closed-source code.

The hilarious thing is that they are trying to avoid having the decrypted
content "fall into the wrong hands" whatever that means, but it still has to
pass through user-modifiable code before the user sees it anyway; they even
show it in this diagram: [https://andreasgal.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/cdm-
graphic_6...](https://andreasgal.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/cdm-
graphic_620x920.png)

It almost makes you wonder whether they acknowledge that what they're doing is
futile and absurd, and they just hope those in charge of licensing won't
notice.

------
mccr8
This is a separately published version of the article being discussed in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7744771](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7744771)

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Paul_S
Very good short term decision (possibly inevitable) but rather risky long
term. They might end up digging their own grave. They were the only (slim)
hope of scuppering this platform. Now they are at the mercy of whoever
controls it and no contract will save them once the platform is the only game
in town and they are expendable.

...I'll get my tinfoil hat.

------
agapos
Guess that makes bug #923590 a RESOLVED WONTFIX.

Edit: right on the spot...

~~~
manveru
To save others the search:
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=923590](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=923590)

------
jevinskie
> There is also a silver lining to the W3C EME specification becoming
> ubiquitous. With direct support for DRM we are eliminating a major use case
> of plugins on the Web, and in the near future this should allow us to retire
> plugins altogether. The Web has evolved to a comprehensive and performant
> technology platform and no longer depends on native code extensions through
> plugins.

That sure is some spin there after they just finished describing the _plugin
architecture_ of the binary-blob CDM.

~~~
Shebanator
I also thought it was an odd thing to say, since the CDM itself is a plugin.

