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A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight RSS

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Last post May 08, 2012 03:45 AM by garrydb75

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  • A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 09, 2009 05:50 PM | LINK

    I thought maybe that the Bugs forum would be better for getting the developers attention, but I thought it wasn't really appropriate, so I'd post it here.

    I am a native linux user, both by choice and out of necessity by work.  I'm excited for the release of Moonlight 2.0 and the support for silverlight 2.0, but saddened to learn that it doesn't include support for DRM, and specifically the ability to play Netflix movies.  The moonlight members mentioned that they are not able to implement DRM themselves, and would need the help of microsoft to push forward.  This is important to me and other linux users.  Considering I maybe go through 2 shipped DVDs over 2-3 weeks and stream about 8 movies in that same time period, Netflix's Watch-It-Now is really the only reason subscribe to their services.  Assuredly, I'm not alone in this opinion.  Without linux support, linux users are limited to only a few options.  One of these, which I've chose, is to use Sun's Virtualbox and an installation of Windows XP.  It works, but it's definitely not the way I want to go, and I know this option isn't available to everyone.

    linux DRM Moonlight

  • SharpGIS

    SharpGIS

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    Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 09, 2009 06:02 PM | LINK

    Where did you hear that? Last thing I read was that Microsoft is actively supporting the DRM part, by giving novell the DRM stuff they need for moonlight 2.0 (not sure if thats in their first preview though). AFAIK that part wont be open source though, but that shouldn't really matter to the end user.

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  • Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 09, 2009 07:33 PM | LINK

     I read it on one of the developer's blog post on the release of the Moonlight preview.  He said this to someone else in reply to the DRM question (two days ago)

     

    Hello Jack,

    This is still up in the air.

    We are making our case to Microsoft that they should port their DRM to Linux, but this is a complicated issue.

    If we manage to sway Microsoft in this direction it would happen.

    We hope that we convince them of the importance of Silverlight's DRM on Linux, but this is not something we can implement ourselves, they would have to do it, and we would end up licensing the bits for redistribution.

    We need folks to articulate to Microsoft why this is important, it would help more than just my team raising this issue with them

    Posting these articulate caes in blogs, mailing list and the silverlight.net forums is probably a good place to start. Also, convincing the providers that are using Silverlight DRM to ask Microsoft for the feature would probably go a long way.
     

     

  • SharpGIS

    SharpGIS

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    Re: Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 09, 2009 07:49 PM | LINK

    Hmmm I must be confusing it with something then. But yeah you got my vote. I'm not a linux user (and probably never will be), but I make a living on Silverlight, and the more platforms my products support the better.

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    /Morten | Silverlight MVP | blog - twitter
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  • jdeslip

    jdeslip

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    Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 10, 2009 01:05 AM | LINK

    I third this request. Please port the DRM stack to linux to enable novell's moonlight project to be able to support netflix etc...  
  • Chronon

    Chronon

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    Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 10, 2009 02:47 AM | LINK

     I support this request as well!

  • ace214

    ace214

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    Re: Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 12, 2009 02:16 PM | LINK

    SharpGIS

    Hmmm I must be confusing it with something then. But yeah you got my vote. I'm not a linux user (and probably never will be), but I make a living on Silverlight, and the more platforms my products support the better.

    I believe that what was imported from Microsoft were the codec packs and that the DRM has still not been handed over.

    I fully advocate for this. I hope that Microsoft can get it's brain out of it's profit margin and start being a responsible business.

  • dsagias

    dsagias

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    Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 13, 2009 01:17 AM | LINK

     One more vote for DRM support in Linux

  • SharpGIS

    SharpGIS

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    Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 13, 2009 07:30 PM | LINK

    "I hope that Microsoft can get it's brain out of it's profit margin and start being a responsible business."

    I think most businessmen would argue that making money is the responsible thing to do.

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    /Morten | Silverlight MVP | blog - twitter
    Please click on "Mark as Answer" if this answered your question.
  • ace214

    ace214

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    Re: Re: A plea for DRM support in Linux/Moonlight

    May 13, 2009 07:40 PM | LINK

     Well, lucrative does not equal responsible. Also, Microsoft is probably not gaining any customers by using DRM. No pure Linux user is going to buy a copy of Windows so that they can use Silverlight. More so, I would say, companies like Netflix are losing those customers.