Re: Encrypted Media proposal (was RE: ISSUE-179: av_param - Chairs Solicit Alternate Proposals or Counter-Proposals)

We agree that playback of premium content is an important use case for the web.  Content creators want to build new, innovative ways for people to enjoy their content within the browser, and we support this initiative as a way to get more content online.

This proposal is a good way to start the conversation, and hopefully we can craft a standards-based system that allows for a diverse set of media use cases to be implemented.  Some people will choose to create applications that utilize content protection, and some people will choose not to.  The web should allow for both.



Kevin Streeter

Architect, Video Solutions, Adobe Systems



On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:16 PM, Adrian Bateman <adrianba@microsoft.com<mailto:adrianba@microsoft.com>>wrote:



> Hi all,

>

> We have been collaborating on an API to enable encrypted media in HTML

> that we think can be implemented in all browsers and support any

> container/codec and content encryption solution without making major

> changes to the HTML Media element specification. We think it solves

> most use cases without being overly large or complex.

>

> We'd like to get people's feedback on the proposal. It is posted here:

>

> http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-media/raw-file/tip/encrypted-media/encrypte

> d-media.html

>

> Many content providers and application developers have said they can't

> use <audio> and <video> because HTML lacks robust content protection.

> Without this functionality, they cannot move their apps to the web

> platform. Many consumer electronics are taking advantage of HTML for

> both video playback and user interfaces, yet their content protection

> solutions are typically tied to the device. We believe that working

> towards a common solution will reduce fragmentation between all HTML

> platforms.

>

> This has been raised in the Web & TV Interest Group [1] and mentioned

> in their feedback [2]. We believe this extension specification

> supports the counter proposal [3] for ISSUE-179 [4]. It demonstrates

> how to provide additional functionality to the

> HTML5 media element without requiring a generic mechanism like <param>.

>

> Best regards,

>

> David Dorwin, Google

> Adrian Bateman, Microsoft

> Mark Watson, Netflix

>

> [1] http://www.w3.org/2011/webtv/wiki/MPTF#Content_Protection

> [2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Dec/0120.html

> [2] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/ChangeProposals/issue-179_no_change

> [3] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/issues/179

>