Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/08/rip-open-web-platform.html
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I started using the Brave browser the day EME was adopted, because it has a setting that lets you turn it off. Haven’t touched that setting since. If one day a website I frequent gets broken because of it I will never look at that website again. I encourage you all to boycot EME forever.
I realize I’m at the mercy of Brave for this option, so I would encourage indie developers to release their browsers with no support for EME. I’ll be first in line.
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Which is weird, because I use Firefox with EME disabled and have never run across a site that required it…
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This is outside my wheelhouse, but would it not be possible to release a browser that has sites that require this EME DRM blacklisted? Perhaps with a screen that reads, “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go there. The site you are trying to reach supports horrible people who do horrible things. If you really want to visit it, switch to one of the ‘big’ browsers that track your every move. We will still be here when you’re ready to come back.”
Sure, such a thing couldn’t be used to watch Netflix, but that’s why we have smart fridges. Or is this more pervasive than I’m aware?
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What are the “five websites”? Ok, I think of Google and Facebook, but after that I’m not so sure. Twitter?.. Amazon?.. and after that, I’ve got nothing. (And if Amazon is one of them, how are screenshots of text from Amazon being shared?) I like this quote, but I’m curious to know what websites he’s referring to.
In FireFox:
- Go to about:preferences, search for “Digital Rights Management (DRM) Content”, and make sure it is unchecked.
- Go to about:addons, and make sure Widevine is disabled by clicking on the […] box.
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And that is also why
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you could sell that browser as distraction-free.
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It’s a versatile system.
Yep, that would certainly be a plus. If you are selling a browser. Who sells browsers anymore? The last one I bought was iCab Mobile, and that was years ago.
Until something goes awry with Brave, I don’t imagine I’m going to be in the market for a browser anytime soon.
I just can’t tell if this problem is one that can only be gone through, or if there’s a way around.
Sure it is. As long as you don’t need to support said DRM standard.
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To some the “big five” of tech are Amazon, Facebook, Google / Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple. Collectively they account for a huge percentage of computer related profits.
Second to last sentence…but without OWF the EME is FARCLAMPVIWUL. I think I missed a term. Does it rhyme with API key? Or is it more a keysharing nonce?
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Read “sell” meaning advertise.
That being said, most browsers are „free“ because that helped build and sustain monopolies.
Now they‘re putting DRM in, as another vector for extending and monetizing those and other monopolies.
One might argue we can inhabit and extend a mostly DRM free bubble. Not much of a loss, as mostly the content that is only accessible with DRM is crap anyway, not because finances monopolies, it also perpetuates the myths those are built upon (see Star Wars, or Avengers franchises for obvious examples).
But we need to lobby for breaking up the monopolies, and the corporate rights and the intellectual property rights that enable them.
Hell, they even limit our capacity to express our emotions, there’s no emoji for torches or pitchforks, all I found is this: 
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I am using Firefox with DRM and for now I never had a site that needed DRM enabled. Besides, I can live without Netflix and similar sites.
I am a gen X so I grow with VHS, both with prerecorded tape and recording on the air channels.
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The web has become such a cesspool of corporate corruption that it is not salvageable. The W3C at the direction of Tim Berners Lee has betrayed everything they should have stood for in taking a bended knee to the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, et al. Even Mozilla was complicit in this disaster.
It is time to replace the web with a new paradigm that places primary focus on client privacy, end-to-end encryption without cost, and resistance to all forms of tracking. Remove fingerprinting vectors like user agents strings and other information that the server should not need. Also include complete and total end-user control of connections (no reaching out from one page to pull in resources from dozens of other domains). Push back that load onto the servers. If they want to pull in resources from advertisers and send data to dozens of ‘partners’, then force them to do it using the cpu/memory of the server instead of foisting it all onto the client.
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