I think I understand why this is bad, but I am not confident in my technical understanding of the mechanics here. Will appreciate an explainer :)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/978408

looks like rendering adblockers extensions obsolete with manifest-v3 was not enough so now they try to implement DRM into the browser giving the ability to any website to refuse traffic to you if you don’t run a complaint browser ( cough…firefox )

here is an article in hacker news since i’m sure they can explain this to you better than i.

and also some github docs

  • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    DRM is allegedly “copy protection”, but in reality is absolute control over how you access content. Want to stream a movie on the wrong computer/browser? Fuck you.

    Want to browse a website without 100 trackers injected to make sure everyone who might want to knows your entire browsing history? Sucks to be you. Want to block ads because there isn’t an (web) ad platform out there that does the due diligence to avoid providing a substantial vector for malware? Nah. Need help from accessibility tools that Google hasn’t white listed? Maybe just don’t be disabled.

  • Dran@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    If you want an actual ELI5:

    Bad DRM is like bad parents. When you want a new toy, and you’re 5 years old, you have to ask your parents to get it for you; you can’t just go get it yourself if you want to. Lets say you want a new bicycle. You ask your parents to get you a new bicycle, and they get one for you! But, they say that you’re only allowed to ride your bicycle between 10 and 11pm. They also tell you that you can’t ride your bicycle with 2 feet, or 2 hands, you have to use 1 foot and 1 hand. On weekdays, 10pm is past your bedtime so you really can’t ride it at all. On weekends, it’s dark out at 10pm most of the year so it’s really hard to see. The few times you do get to ride it, it’s really hard to ride because you can only hold on with 1 hand and pedal with 1 foot.

    Even with good DRM (parents) that let you ride your bicycle during the daytime and with both your hands and feet, they are always the ones in control. They might tell you today that you can ride your bicycle anytime and anyway you want, but if you get a bad grade, or they are just in a bad mood (for the adults: profit motivated) they can at any time exercise the control they have and take your bike away, or tell you that the only way you can use it are ways you don’t want to use it.

  • TexMexBazooka@lemm.eeEnglish
    01·
    1 year ago

    So, DRM is an acronym for Digital Rights Management. How do you profit on something that can be copied infinitely for free? You make it hard to copy, and hard to view outside of controlled environments.

    DRM software is what creates and maintains that environment. Steam, Epic Games Store, EA Origin, they’re all forms of DRM.

    What that looks like in a web browser is a different matter though- they’re going to want to prevent you accessing any “unlicensed” content, then funnel you into whatever subscription they want you to pay.