BBC Attacks the Open Web, GNU/Linux in DangerPublished 12:50, 13 February 13The Web is one of the most dramatic demonstrations of the power of openness, alongside free software, which not coincidentally runs most of it and the rest of the Internet. At the heart of that openness lies HTML, a completely open way of sharing information. So what would be a really stupid thing you could do to try to throttle that openness and innovation? Why, yes: adding DRM to HTML so that you can lock down Web page elements:This proposal extends HTMLMediaElement providing APIs to control playback of protected content.The API supports use cases ranging from simple clear key decryption to high value video (given an appropriate user agent implementation). License/key exchange is controlled by the application, facilitating the development of robust playback applications supporting a range of content decryption and protection technologies.This exposes once more the fundamental tension between the free and open Internet and copyright; as I've said many times in my talks on this theme, you only get to choose one.That the companies behind this extraordinary idea of adding DRM to HTML - Google, Microsoft and Netflix - are more interested in their control than your freedom will come as no surprise; after all, they are profit-based concerns, and money talks. But the last organisation I would have expected - or, perhaps, hoped - to see adding its support to this fundamental perversion of the open Web would be dear old Auntie - the BBC. And yet here is a submission from last week where it does precisely that:The BBC supports the publication of the first draft of the Encrypted Media Extensions Proposal.
