Re: Netflix HTML5 player in IE 11 on Windows 8.1

On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 3:54 AM, cobaco <cobaco@freemen.be> wrote:

> On Tuesday, Tue, 2013/07/02, Mark Watson wrote:
> > Microsoft have announced end-of-life for Silverlight. Do you think that
> > when that time comes, if there is no alternative in the browsers
> > themselves, content providers will shrug and modify their contracts to
> > allow DRM-free distribution of their content ?
> > Or is it more likely that another plugin based solution will emerge,
> > giving users no choice of what to install in order to view the content ?
>
> First: users do have a choice, there's always piracy (Big Content may not
> like it but that's a lost battle for them).
>

I meant legal choices.


>
> Second: DRM is always and inevitably going to be more hassle for the user
> then a non-DRM version of the same software/service.
>

If such an alternative is available, perhaps. We do invest a lot to make
our service as hassle-free as possible, though, despite our use of DRM.


>
> Thirth: DRM is always and inevitably going to be more hassle for the
> provider due to the extra overhead of managing the licenses and user
> complaints (hey I've bougth  a new phone/tablet/computer, now my media
> don't
> work anymore)
>

True. This is a good reason to believe that just improving the client side
with EME won't drive a significant increase in the use of DRM by providers.


>
> Given the 2nd and 3th point, DRM content is at an inherent disadvantage.
> Consequently in any competition between otherwise equivalent DRM and
> non-DRM
> content the DRM-content is bound to lose in the long run.
>

True, but such a competition between 'otherwise equivalent' services is
unlikely to happen in practice. At least for video content services
competition is mainly driven by content, price and device support.


>
> Given that an increasing amount of (individual/small) content producers are
> _already_ doing the DRM-free thing. The most likely outcome is that non-DRM
> will (slowly) reach critical mass, after which any providers sticking to
> DRM
> are going to find themselves rapidly irrelevant.
>
> Whishfull thinking? Maybe, but on my part or yours? Time well tell
>

In the meantime, we'd like to work on improving the technology.

...Mark


> --
> Cheers, Cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis)
>
>