[wbs] response to 'Call for Review: Encrypted Media Extensions is W3C Proposed Recommendation'

The following answers have been successfully submitted to 'Call for Review:
Encrypted Media Extensions is W3C Proposed Recommendation' (Advisory
Committee) for Mozilla Foundation by David Baron.

Regarding the "Encrypted Media Extensions" specification, the reviewer 
supports publication as a W3C Recommendation as is.


Additional comments about the specification:
   Browser makers, including Mozilla, have been trying to remove
NPAPI/ActiveX plugins from the Web.  These plugins have been a
source of security vulnerabilities, crashes, and other problems for
users, and a risk to the openness of the Web and its ability to
expand to new operating systems and new types of devices.  At the
same time, video streaming services that browser users want to use
have relied on video DRM functionality in Silverlight enough that
continuing with the removal of NPAPI/ActiveX plugins required
providing an alternative acceptable to these sites.  A solution like
EME is the expected result of this situation.  Given that it is
likely to happen whether or not it happens in W3C, Mozilla has
throughout the process preferred that the work happen within W3C,
and therefore supports its advancement to W3C Recommendation.  EME
provides a replacement for a key feature where the Web has depended
on NPAPI/ActiveX plugins.  This allows us to move towards
eliminating such plugins from the Web.

We share many of the concerns about the effects of DRM on users and
their rights and DRM's pervasive effect on computer systems, and we
would strongly oppose extending DRM to other forms of Web content
beyond streaming video.  However, given that DRM has long been
common in plugin-based video on the Web, although we do not endorse
this status quo, we believe publishing EME as a W3C Recommendation
is the right tradeoff for the Web today.

We also agree that it is critical that security researchers be able
to investigate security and privacy issues in Web client software.


The reviewer's organization:
   - produces products addressed by this specification
   - expects to produce products conforming to this specification.

Answers to this questionnaire can be set and changed at
https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/33280/eme-pr-2017/ until 2017-04-13.

 Regards,

 The Automatic WBS Mailer

Received on Thursday, 13 April 2017 23:27:08 UTC