Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 15, 2014 8:47 UTC (Thu) by roc (subscriber, #30627)
In reply to: Firefox gets closed-source DRM by roc
Parent article: Firefox gets closed-source DRM

... and by "skin in the game" I don't mean Mozilla's prosperity, I mean all the open-Web initiatives we're working on that could be fatally compromised if we bet everything on anti-DRM and lose.

Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 15, 2014 11:57 UTC (Thu) by ewan (guest, #5533) [Link] (1 responses)

The problem is that all the open web initiatives are fatally compromised by this move. You might be able to get a web open enough to interoperate between (say) Firefox and Chrome, which is nice, but you've completely undermined any wider openness - only 'authorized' browser makers will be able to produce something that's fully functional on the 'open web'.

Mozilla gets to be in the DRM club, but don't kid yourself that's an open web any more.

Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 15, 2014 17:15 UTC (Thu) by roc (subscriber, #30627) [Link]

> only 'authorized' browser makers will be able to produce something that's
> fully functional on the 'open web'.

I don't think that's true at all. Our approach is specifically designed so that people can make huge changes to Firefox --- possibly even replace Gecko entirely, for example --- and still use the Adobe CDM. We had to work very hard to ensure that.

I also disagree with "all the open web initiatives are fatally compromised by this move". There are lots of good things happening on the open Web that are totally unaffected by this move.

Having said that, this situation does suck. I wish people could fully implement the Web without integrating a particular CDM sandbox --- and without paying H.264 royalties. But we didn't create those situations and there's nothing Mozilla can do to escape them. We tried.