Was Brendan Eich removed to get closed source DRM into Firefox?
This is a problem because under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the public is prohibited from researching whether DRM software is safe to use or not, because such research constitutes reverse engineering, and reverse engineering DRM software is specifically prohibited under DMCA. This is why DRM is such a nasty thing under US law, and why many people (including the late Steve Jobs) have gone to lengths to fight back against it.
So Firefox’s support for DRM would be a big deal. Additionally, it turns out that the DRM software used by Firefox would not be open source, like the rest of the Firefox project. Mozilla has claimed that Firefox will use various wrapper schemes as a shell game to get around free software licensing issues with respect to the Adobe-supplied DRM software, but to many this is still a violation of the principles of the project.
For reasons like these, Brendan Eich was opposed to DRM in Firefox. But now that he’s out of the way, Hollywood gets its way in Firefox. How convenient.
You will be made to care and you will be made to DRM.
This is a problem because under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the public is prohibited from researching whether DRM software is safe to use or not, because such research constitutes reverse engineering, and reverse engineering DRM software is specifically prohibited under DMCA. This is why DRM is such a nasty thing under US law, and why many people (including the late Steve Jobs) have gone to lengths to fight back against it.
So Firefox’s support for DRM would be a big deal. Additionally, it turns out that the DRM software used by Firefox would not be open source, like the rest of the Firefox project. Mozilla has claimed that Firefox will use various wrapper schemes as a shell game to get around free software licensing issues with respect to the Adobe-supplied DRM software, but to many this is still a violation of the principles of the project.
For reasons like these, Brendan Eich was opposed to DRM in Firefox. But now that he’s out of the way, Hollywood gets its way in Firefox. How convenient.
You will be made to care and you will be made to DRM.