Proposed Video Copy Protection Scheme For HTML5 Raises W3C Ire

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "A new Web standard proposal authored by Google, Microsoft, and Netflix seeks to bring copy protection mechanisms to the Web. The Encrypted Media Extensions draft defines a framework for enabling the playback of protected media content in the Web browser. The proposal is controversial and has raised concern among some parties that are participating in the standards process. In a discussion on the W3C HTML mailing list, critics questioned whether the proposed framework would really provide the level of security demanded by content providers. The aim of the proposal is not to mandate a complete DRM platform, but to provide the necessary components for a generic key-based content decryption system. It is designed to work with pluggable modules that implement the actual decryption mechanisms."

Re:So what is your suggestion then?

[DrXym]

Er, no it isn't. You are not forced to use the service, but if you do you abide by the terms and conditions of usage. The encryption is there to stop people from ripping off the content in ways the service does not permit, possibly for contractual reasons with the content providers.

Re:So what is your suggestion then?

[betterunixthanunix]

Except that in order to decrypt the information and let me enjoy it, they need to hide the decryption key somewhere. Somewhere that they are going to try to program my computer to make inaccessible to me, and should I find a way to defeat that, I cannot tell anyone else about without facing lawsuits.

Taking over my entire computer? No, it will not do that. Making some part of my computer work against me is what they want to do here, and I am not going to allow such a thing. They are free to encrypt the information they send me, so long as I am free to decrypt it how and when I choose, and to tell others about the decryption process.