Re: Video copy protection

On Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:42:58 -0000, Robert O'Callahan  
<robert@ocallahan.org> wrote:

> This is a tricky situation. On one hand, if it helps people sleep at  
> night and it helps adoption of <video>, then I'd be happy for the spec  
> to include an attribute that means "the author politely requests that  
> the UA not make an effort to make it easy for people to save the video",  
> with the
> understanding that UAs may ignore this request.

Yes, that's what I had in mind. I'm sure that on the same day Firefox  
hides "Save as" there will be 3 extensions released that put it back.  
That's fine as long as it hides the option from an average user, including  
pointy-haired bosses that would freak out if they saw "Save as" anywhere  
near their videos.

> However, this might need some legal analysis with regard to the USA's  
> DMCA and possibly other laws ... in case such an attribute would be  
> deemed to
> constitute an "effective technological protection measure" and then any  
> UA not honouring the request could be legally liable.

That's a good point.

IANAL, but is it possible to disclaim it in the spec or browser  
documentation? Just explain that the option is only superficial and isn't  
technologically effective measure?

-- 
regards, Kornel Lesiński

Received on Tuesday, 9 February 2010 01:57:30 UTC