Video Remixing In Danger? Adobe Messing Around With Flash DRM
Adobe is now playing around with DRM in Flash. What are the possible implications? Well, sites like YouTube will not have as much content because people possibly may not be able to download Flash Video (FLV) files.
It’s entirely possible to read too much into this to claim Adobe is trying to be like Microsoft. It’s not like they’ve done anything suspicious in the past that couldn’t be explained.
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Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement — any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so — but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
It’s a competitive move to go up against Microsoft Silverlight and it’s entirely possible that this DRM, like others, will be circumvented in some way. All I care about is that pretty soon it could mean when the next Chocolate Rain hits the tubes we’ll be stuck with that and NO remixes like this. And if I can’t have a YouTube with Chocolate Rain/Souljaboy Remixes, well, I don’t want any YouTube at all.
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