Future versions of the open-source Firefox browser will include closed-source digital rights management (DRM) from Adobe, the Mozilla project’s chief technology officer, Andreas Gal, announced on Wednesday.
The purpose is to support commercial video streams. But this is a radical, disheartening development in the history of the organisation, long held out as a beacon for the open, free spirit of the web as a tool for liberation.
As Gal’s blogpost makes clear, this move was done without much enthusiasm, out of a fear that Firefox (Mozilla’s flagship product and by far the most popular free/open browser in the world) was being sidelined by Apple, Google and Microsoft’s inclusion of proprietary technology to support Netflix and other DRM-encumbered videos in their browsers.
Comprensibile che Mozilla non voglia tagliarsi fuori, ma a quel punto perché usarlo, se installati nei sistemi commerciali ci sono browser che li supportano?
Meno comprensibile che Mozilla dimentichi spesso di dire che l’80% dei proventi viene da Google, e che per staccarsene metteranno la pubblicità (le API già ci sono nella build attuale, la 29.0.1) nelle pagine che l’utente visita.
Ahm, già! L’utente… cazzo.
Da: Firefox’s adoption of closed-source DRM breaks my heart | Technology | theguardian.com.
Sinceramente di video streaming con DRM non ne sentivo la mancanza…