Re: What is the "open web" ?

On 2013/06/03 17:25, Mark Watson wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 4:23 AM, Emmanuel Revah <stsil@manurevah.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> On 2013/06/02 21:09, Mark Watson wrote:
>> 
>>> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> Sorry about that. There are Apple police here in the Bay Area who stop
> anyone not faithfully carrying an iSomething ;-)


It's not just the Bay Area, I think Apple has done a brilliant marketing 
job, I've seen it in other languages too.


>> This whole discussion about non-free drivers for graphic boards and
>> GPS is 100% irrelevant to EME.
>> 
>> Mark, again and again you've been kindly replied to on the subject
>> and from various angles. Even if all GPU's run non-free code it's
>> still irrelevant, unless they run non-free code so they can
>> implement functionality described in the W3 spec. Please let me know
>> if I am wrong here.
> 
> I am just trying to understand the opinions here, so apologies if my
> examples aren't good ones. What do you think about GPS, or 3G wireless
> ?


It's not about good or bad examples, it's just not comparable, it's like 
comparing apples and computers.

The difference is the suggested requirement of non-free software in 
order to be fully functional.


Is it technically required for a GPU to contain non-free code to fully 
render WebGL ?  I don't think so (please correct me if I'm wrong here).  
Instead, it is a choice, the choice of the manufacturer to produce them 
and a choice for the user to purchase them.

Because there is no technical recommendation from the W3 in regards to 
the license/obfuscation of the software needed on GPUs the W3 remains 
software-neutral in their influence and stance. It's open to all.




You did ask if people would be okay with the "CDM restricting code" 
being in a graphics board firmware, therefore allowing a user to still 
run a free operating system with even free/open drivers. This reminds me 
of regional DVDs and the devices that were hardwired to respect that.

I would find it awkward that the W3 promote such deficient design.

My personal experience; Over a decade ago I bought 2 DVDs and rented 1 
before I realised that it was intentionally designed to be broken. 
Indeed, I wanted to watch American AND French DVDs that I legally 
purchased, my DVD "player" disagreed. Since then I never bought or 
rented a DVD.

But hey, we both know that most people's desire to consume DVDs is 
superior to their refusal to be bothered.




> But many people seem to think that doesn't
> matter when it comes to standardization of WebGL, say, and I am trying
> to understand why. What are the conditions under which it makes sense
> to standardize APIs that can only effectively be implemented using
> proprietary components (and I know some people believe there are no
> such conditions, but there are also other opinions).


Again, please do correct me if I am being ignorant; How is it that WebGL 
can only be implemented using proprietary components ?  I sincerly do 
not understand how the WebGL spec requires non-free code to be 
implemented.




>> Instead, explain to me how this would fit with:
>> http://www.w3.org/standards/agents/Overview.html [1]
>> 
>> "We should be able to publish regardless of the software we use,
>> the computer we have, the language we speak, whether we are wired or
>> wireless, regardless of our sensory or interaction modes. We should
>> be able to access the web from any kind of hardware that can connect
>> to the Internet – stationary or mobile, small or large. W3C
>> facilitates this listening and blending via international web
>> standards. These standards ensure that all the crazy brilliance
>> continues to improve a web that is open to us all."
>> 
>> So (again), will I be able to publish EME (DRM'd content)
>> regardless of the software I use ?
> 
> Could you start another thread with this question posed in more detail
> ? I think it's off topic for this thread and I'm not sure I fully
> understand the question.



Sure (but not today).


Cheers,


-- 
Emmanuel Revah
http://manurevah.com

Received on Monday, 3 June 2013 17:07:18 UTC