Re: Is EME usable regardless of the software/hardware I use ?

On 2013/06/10 17:25, Mark Watson wrote:
> Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my [your ad here]


> On Jun 10, 2013, at 6:20 AM, Emmanuel Revah <stsil@manurevah.com> 
> wrote:
>> On 2013/06/10 04:47, Jeff Jaffe wrote:
>>> On 6/9/2013 2:20 PM, Joshua Gay wrote:
>> 
>> [..]
>> 
>>>> 1. Copyright violations (sharing, etc) are a threat to the model
>>>> One reason the business model needs copy restrictions (aka content
>>>> protection) is because a significant enough number of users will 
>>>> violate
>>>> the copyright on the work. This means a lot of people (who otherwise
>>>> would pay) aren't paying for a work.
>>>> In the United States and in many other countries with strong 
>>>> democratic
>>>> traditions, there are powerful laws and justice systems to enforce 
>>>> those
>>>> laws around copyright. When violating those laws, a person is taking
>>>> part in criminal behaviour.
>>>> So, when the W3C does work that is to support a business model like
>>>> this, they are also giving support to the assumption that a 
>>>> significant
>>>> portion of the public are likely to take part in criminal behaviour.
>>> I think this statement is a little strong.  Noone would say that a
>>> company that provides house alarms assumes that a significant portion
>>> of the public are likely to take part in criminal behavior. Rather,
>>> they would say that a significant portion of the public has a desire
>>> to protect their homes.
>> 
>> 
>> The house alarm is used to warn/protect against people who are not 
>> authorised to enter the home whereas DRM is used against identified 
>> and authorised users.
>> 
>> EME/DRM is more comparable to an alarm designed to protect home owners 
>> against their own guests.
> 
> The perfect analogy is probably somewhere in between and is hardly
> worth searching for.
[...]
> The point is that there are countless examples in
> which security measures are used to hinder a minority of people,
> including customers in many contexts, who want to attack a system or
> business in some way.


That's your point, not *the* point. The point is to explain via a well 
known and simple analogy what DRM represents to us. The part that is 
wrong is you explaining that searching for analogies is not worth it. I 
think analogies are useful, they help give a simple yet clear 
perspective on what things are, may it be absolute or relative, opinion 
or fact.

Maybe I don't agree with Jeff, but Jeff can easily understand why and 
where our opinions differ.



> The desire of businesses to protect themselves
> and use technical or other measures to do so is in no other context
> branded as an assumption that a majority of customers are criminals.



I do believe that it is a fact, not an opinion, that DRM (especially 
with EME/CDMs) functions by asking a customer to trust the content 
provider and/or their 3rd party(ies) (CDMs) with privileged access to 
their computer. I don't see which part of this would be false, let me 
know.

This situation only exists because the content provider cannot trust 
100% of their customers. To address that the content provider asks the 
customer to trust them. In other words, because I can't trust you a bit 
I will need you to trust me a lot.

Why should there even be an authoritarian relationship with the customer 
?


To bring things back to context: Why should the W3C take the side of the 
publishers by endorsing something that would place the client as an 
adversary and try to solve that by enabling a mechanism of user control.



> Also, fears are certainly not allayed when those who claim to be
> defending to fair use defend such actions as recording rented or
> subscription content to play back after the rental or subscription
> expires (IANAL but I'd appreciate being pointed to legal references
> that support this being fair use) or (in another thread) brag about
> their own use of pirated content. Indeed the defense of fair use is
> undermined by such comments.


Please don't use things you've read in other threads from other people 
as an argument against my views on EME.
This is low.



>>>> I don't think that the W3C should help further or put its efforts 
>>>> toward
>>>> helping a business model that is intent upon denying fair use, 
>>>> because I
>>>> believe it is bad for individuals and it is bad for helping to 
>>>> promote
>>>> the progress of science and useful arts.
>>> Just for clarity, W3C has embraced the notion that content protection
>>> is a valid requirement.  We have not embraced the notion that denying
>>> fair use is a valid requirement.  To the extent that we can find a
>>> solution that provides content protection and also provides no
>>> roadblock to fair use - that would be ideal.
>> 
>> 
>> I read here "The need for content protection outweighs fair use denial 
>> (and control over users)".
> 
> I didn't read that into Jeff's statement. The statement doesn't take a
> position on how the two requirements should be balanced.


If EME is accepted then that's exactly what it would mean.



-- 
Emmanuel Revah
http://manurevah.com

Received on Monday, 10 June 2013 16:40:09 UTC