Imagine you are a software developer interested in creating your own browser. The project will be open source, and you intend to support almost every service available, including audio and video streaming. That means Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus… and their interests, that is, protecting the content when it's delivered over the Web. The problem is that if you try to incorporate a DRM solution into your browser, you will most likely be completely ignored… or asked for a real fortune. That is exactly what happened to developer Samuel Maddock….
The W3C and EME
In 2017, the W3C approved a standard that essentially changed the Web forever: Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). That technology enabled big streaming players to use DRM, even though the original idea was to move away from that. Anyone trying to design a web browser today, of course, wants to add support for platforms like Netflix and Hulu, and their code must interact with the EME API through a Content Decryption Module (CDM) to play protected material.
The CDM Problem
And so we come to developer Samuel Maddock, who was working on an independent browser called Metastream (today converted into extension). Metastream could play videos on the Web, synchronized with other users. The only thing peers exchanged was playback information; there was no audio or video transfer at any time. For Metastream to work with the main streaming services, Maddock needed a CDM... and there are only three options: Widevine of Google, FairPlay of Apple, and PlayReady of Microsoft.
Here the problems begin. FairPlay is not open to licensing, so its use is exclusive to Apple. PlayReady carries a certain bureaucratic process that should be resolved in less than 25 days, but at the end of the line, Microsoft asks for an immediate payment of $10,000, and 35 cents per unit sold if the project is commercial. So... Widevine?
Unfortunately, no. After waiting for an official response for FOUR MONTHS, Maddock received an official email from Widevine stating that they could not approve his request because the Metastream project was open source. That's right: the web giant that reached its current position thanks to Chromium and Android, denies access to its CDM to other independent open source projects.
And the worst part is that Maddock is not alone. I'm sure our readers have heard about the Brave browser, which started its adventure in Electron, and then moved to Chromium. Brian Bondy, co-founder and CTO of Brave, described similar difficulties in August 2017: an absolute lack of communication from the Chrome and Widevine teams, affecting all alternative browsers, and in extreme cases, it can break their operation under certain services.
Since EME came into action, competition between browsers has fallen apart. Anyone trying to do something different with DRM support depends on Google's timing, and from what we can see... it's not good. However, the story doesn't end there.
On one hand, EME breaks an essential W3C directive, which is the possibility of implementing Web components without approvals or licenses, and on the other... DRM doesn't work! Do you know how long it takes me to find (and start downloading) the complete seasons of The Witcher or The Mandalorian? Less than twenty seconds. DRM punishes even those who try to bring a bit of creativity to the table.
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