[GTALUG] End of independent web browsers

[o1bigtenor]

On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 8:59 PM Christopher Browne via talk
<talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
>
> The material takes somewhat extreme position, but it's curious that there are only 3 "content decryption modules" out there, Widevine (Google), Fairplay (Apple) and PlayReady (Microsoft), all of the vendors having expressed some reluctance to license to small fry.  (Apple being uninterested in sublicensing.)
>
> https://boingboing.net/2020/01/08/rip-open-web-platform.html
> https://blog.samuelmaddock.com/posts/the-end-of-indie-web-browsers/
>
> Google seems, marginally, the "good guys" here, licensing their CDM to various web browsers we know, but I'd not assume too much "goodness.". It's not good to need to be so dependent upon their good graces.a
>
> I'd never heard of these three technology names until today.

Ditto your last comment!!!

I'm finding that as the assumption that the web contains all knowledge
has become pervasive that the idea that if knowledge is more than 3
years old its been superseded has also taken hold.
This means that a lot of scientific information is disappearing - - -
- and its hard enough to find good information in the flood of drivel
that pervades the web today.

Its starting to look like the web is becoming a tool for manipulation
of the masses and not much else.

Too bad - - - - the promise was for so much more than that!