Netflix?

I have looked into the problem a few years ago.
My impression is that the core of the problem is that the NPAPI flash versions ended somewhere at 11.
The NPAPI version only gets the most important security fixes, but do not get developed further.

Chrome uses the PPAPI flash, which gets updated constantly and supports all the modern stuff.
This plugin is incorporated into the Linux Chrome executable.
It must be extracted (the whole thing is in some archive format).
To get it work together with Chromium, one must write a manifest file and specially archive that together with the plugin extracted from Linux Chrome.
Then you have to fiddle a bit with Chromium to accept that plugin.
I got it all that far, but the plugin still didn't work.
I am sure I made some mistake.

But on Linux many guys have succeeded.
There are nowadays even a few Linux utilities which automate the steps listed above.
 
Snurg said:
But on Linux many guys have succeeded.
Click to expand...
Recently I have tried primevideo on firefox-esr for devuan 2.0. After starting it has asked to enable DRM. And there is scope for enable DRM in "about,preferences#general". Also there Google Widevine plugin installed.
This is not available due to Mozilla or FreeBSD ? Send a request to Mozilla.
 
These days, in Linux, one just uses Chrome (not Chromium) or Firefox and Netflix works. With Firefox, I think the first time, you have to allow it to install DRM stuff.

Same with Amazon video, currently, it just works on Linux.
 
IIRC with www/firefox on FreeBSD you can get in Netflix, search the catalog etc. and will just have problems when you try to start any video/movie because it return a message about the lack of DRM support etc. So, I think it is just the lack of Widevine.
 
scottro said:
I think the first time, you have to allow it to install DRM stuff.
Click to expand...
That is true, this install probably google widevine plugin. I have not installed it.
lebarondemerde said:
because it return a message about the lack of DRM support etc
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In Linux same massage appears but a yellow bar at top asks to enable DRM from a button on that bar to install some stuff. So the point is www/firefox-esr-60 in linux has that ability but the same version in FreeBSD has not.
 
It's a shared library, which means the Linux binary should be loadable with glibc shim (as long as that binary doesn't make any syscalls itself). I'm specifically interested in other parts.
 
Honestly, I am not saying this to play the blame game but I think this is typically the type of thing where the FreeBSD Foundation can/should help.

Considering Netflix's huge contribution to FreeBSD and its ongoing involvement, I can't help it but think that if the issue had been brought to Netflix seriously, they would have weighted in with their vendors (be them Google Widevine or other) and got it sorted quickly.

At the very least, it is inconceivable that this would still be an issue after all these years. Logically, FreeBSD should even have been the first Unix platform supported considering Netflix's affinity with it but also FreeBSD permissive license and open-mindness with closed-source. It is therefore doubly an irony that DRM support for Netflix would first land in the GPLed-Linux.

I think this may reveal a deeper opportunity to grow as a community. For if we can't make it happen in such favorable circumstances (vendor having a high-affinity with FreeBSD, and close ties with the foundation), no wonder we struggle with things such as getting vendors to publish FreeBSD drivers (be them closed-source). And engineering may line up a framework to ease onboarding, could be as simple as a dedicated documentation page cross-referencing relevant parts of the handbook.

However my point is that not everything is an engineering problem. Sometimes corporate can address situations orders of magnitude faster than engineering and should step forward. Our approach on these matters can probably be improved, and there should probably be 2 or 3 people at the foundation dedicated to vendor lobbying to talk them into publishing important binaries.

In the meantime, as far as this particular issue is concerned, someone told me that they emailed the foundation but got no answer. Maybe each one of us should drop an email to the Foundation staff referencing this thread and asking them to talk to Netflix. If we all do this, they'll start caring (while I doubt Google will care about our submissions in their "ideas" form)
 
I feel as if it would be better to approach Netflix than the foundation, but, with the various copyright stuff they have to worry about, it may not be possible. One more instance of theoretical digital protection being more likely to drive people to seek illicit sources when they would rather pay and get it legitimately.
 
Netflix wouldn't care about 5 or 10 individuals submitting what they will consider to be feature request. Even if they did, it would rank very low on their TODO list considering the marketshare of FreeBSD.

The foundation on the other hand has not only more weight, but also more credibility and legitimacy to talk about what is important for the platform. If it is really important for the platform then the foundation should carry the message, not individuals.

This is precisely what I was saying: we need to change our mindset and approach on these matters as a community because these aren't about engineering, they are mainly about negotiation. Finding ways to maximize the importance you have in the eyes of the other party is already part of the negotiation.

For this is without even mentioning the fact that many people have been contacting Netflix and Google on this for many years for the results we know. So in light of many things, both efforts produced and results obtained, and in light of the results Linux has obtained, the way we have been handling this does not look like the right one to me.

I therefore suggest that we could probably extrapolate this specific issue and look at the situation as a test on how efficiently organized we are to approach and convince vendors to support the platform because while there is some adversity, the situation is very favorable with a vendor already acquired to the cause and no technical challenge / legal risk (all they have to do is distribute a binary, which they already do on other platforms, even Linux).

So really, the results we are getting on this should be seen as a (rarely available) metric on how we are doing on these aspects as a community all other factors being absent. These results also inform on the effectiveness of using users and engineers to lobby vendors.

To say it differrently, if we can't even get Netflix (the zealous FreeBSD supporter boasting about having a zero-line diff with master) to help on this, the problem is not the world, we are the problem. Not denigrating FreeBSD, just saying there is probably vast room for improvement on this front.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
Has anyone bothered to email them and ask them? All I hear is chatter on this forum but I never hear of any action taken.
Click to expand...

reddy said:
For this is without even mentioning the fact that many people have been contacting Netflix and Google on this for many years for the results we know.
Click to expand...

This is an old issue, in this thread like in other parts of the web there are many reports of people having contacted Widevine to request FreeBSD support without success. I am one of them by they way, the feedback I can report is the one you can expect from a corporation having the size of Google to which you submit "ideas". Something along the lines of: "Thank you, your request has been received. We cannot guarantee an answer", and then nothing.
 
reddy said:
no technical challenge / legal risk (all they have to do is distribute a binary, which they already do on other platforms, even Linux)
Click to expand...
@reddy You have touched right points. When user like me understand the need and ways then policy makers must have realized the same. Only they need to convince themselves.
 
YuryG said:
Surely many letters have departed to them. With no response, obvioulsy.
Click to expand...
Nothing is obvious to me.
YuryG said:
What action do you suppose can be more useful?
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I am positive there is a way to contact a Netflix engineer who can answer our question. I would bet money that getting Netflix working on FreeBSD is a simple effort on their part since a Linux port works and no one has pressed them on it.

If no one has done this within a few weeks, I'll do it cause I should have time then.
 
I asked their support--or put forth the suggestion, asking who to write--their support person said ask them (support) and they'd pass it along. I didn't look more deeply into it. My thought had been that pure Netflix shows might be able to do this without worrying about rights, but as someone on these forums pointed out (I feel as if it was SirDice but might be wrong) even if something is a Netflix original, there are probably too many other copyrights held by someone to allow Netflix to do it without some sort of digital rights.

Personally, I think when it's been shown, time and time again that most people would rather pay legitimately to watch things rather than pirate, the stupidity of those insisting upon DRM that blocks people such as FreeBSD (or OpenBSD users, or anyone else with workign media players, amazes me, and yet, they keep their jobs and are probably well payed. So, media companies, try firing them and watch your sales rise.
 
Code: 
Bug 1295853 - Only enable Widevine on whitelisted Tier-1 build targets.

Approval Request Comment
[Feature/regressing bug #]: Widevine EME on Linux
[User impact if declined]: Tier 3 builds, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, penBSD, 
etc, will have Widevine enabled in their UI, even though Widevine won't work
there. [Describe test coverage new/current, TreeHerder]: This is a build only
fix. [Risks and why]: None; this is a build only fix. [String/UUID change
made/needed]: None.
This is from 2 years old bug report from this mozilla link. Some one want to help may have some idea from where to start.
Code: 
Another option is to ask FreeBSD Foundation to get Google to provide
 source for Widevine CDM under NDA, so the Foundation can build FreeBSD
binary and then distribute it to users (a la Diablo JDK). The code has only
few dependencies (glib2, nss) and may not even require porting to FreeBSD.
This is from a recent link also. I think content providers need market. Problem is market share vs effort needed. Many legitimate users may be from this forum would like its implementation.
 
The second link sums up the current situation and I totally agree with your assessment. This is why I think that the foundation must step in at this point. It will be more credible and more productive for Widevine to work out the situation if they can deal with an entity having legitimacy and weight.

For example, entrusting the foundation to produce builds under NDA is an option while it would be a non-starter if an individual makes the request on his own.

To me, at this point, in light of all the efforts already made by individuals without success, I think the most productive course action would be to get the senior management of the foundation to activate this issue. If someone has connections it would be great, emails have been sent to them without success so far.

Thanks to gnath, this thread is all they need to have the full background story, just need to somehow get them to take a shoot at it.
 
reddy I forgot I talked about this here.

Netflix says it's all based on Vine from Google and it is Google that needs to write the code to make it work on FreeBSD. I have no faith that Google will pay any attention and I have seen the request posted there before.
 
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