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drm wrecking firefox

  • 19 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by user633449

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since the last firefox update, I have noted that DRM has wrecked my viewing video experience. Most players malfunction by freezing, blacking out screen, video not playing, while sound can be heard, etc. Display downloads is also malfunctioning and will not display, when downloading free videos. Also I have noted that video play has been sluggish and pausing a LOT in middle of streaming.

Its bad enough dealing with ISP and the like but DRM just plain kills the experience and is causing me to seriously look for a browser that actively circumvents DRM all together.

I been a big fan of mozilla for many years and its been my go to workhourse of a browser.

BUT the caving into DRM, rather than say to users that - hay because of DRM, we are unable to supply you with DRM content. we do not believe is forcing a flawed system onto you, which leaves you scratching your head as to why your unable to view content or impose DRM that deliberately breaks your hardware without informing you of the fact the DRM just broke your hardware.

your enabling bad behavior and awarding bad behavior by the content provider.

your actively screwing the end-user, because most end user has NO IDEA that its the DRM that is breaking their computer or wrecking their internet experience . Most if not all instances that DRM engages it fails to inform the end user that that is the reason that what they are tempting to do is being blocked by DRM.

I am actively using no-script blocker, ABP, and ghostery, private browsing, grease monkey

since the last firefox update, I have noted that DRM has wrecked my viewing video experience. Most players malfunction by freezing, blacking out screen, video not playing, while sound can be heard, etc. Display downloads is also malfunctioning and will not display, when downloading free videos. Also I have noted that video play has been sluggish and pausing a LOT in middle of streaming. Its bad enough dealing with ISP and the like but DRM just plain kills the experience and is causing me to seriously look for a browser that actively circumvents DRM all together. I been a big fan of mozilla for many years and its been my go to workhourse of a browser. BUT the caving into DRM, rather than say to users that - hay because of DRM, we are unable to supply you with DRM content. we do not believe is forcing a flawed system onto you, which leaves you scratching your head as to why your unable to view content or impose DRM that deliberately breaks your hardware without informing you of the fact the DRM just broke your hardware. your enabling bad behavior and awarding bad behavior by the content provider. your actively screwing the end-user, because most end user has NO IDEA that its the DRM that is breaking their computer or wrecking their internet experience . Most if not all instances that DRM engages it fails to inform the end user that that is the reason that what they are tempting to do is being blocked by DRM. I am actively using no-script blocker, ABP, and ghostery, private browsing, grease monkey

All Replies (19)

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Why do you think that DRM is wrecking your Firefox experience, when Firefox 36.0.1 doesn't have any DRM at all? It sounds to me like you are assuming that and not knowing the facts.

If you are having trouble with Videos playing, it's likely a problem with Flash player. Try updating to the latest Flash player 17 (you are running 16) and updating your graphics driver Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

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@tyler read cor-el link about Adding DRM to be compliant to content providers. I have most recent video drivers which downloaded few weeks or more before the most recent firefox update. This is what ticks me off blame drivers when its the DRM and other forms of content protection. (I had no issues with previous firefox versions. There is NOTHING wrong with my browser when viewing NON-DRM restricted content.

I also view adobe flash which is a DRM proprietary module/add-on as part of browser, because it can not be used as stand-alone, and firfox can not view video without it.

What does that tell you? when I have no issues viewing content that had no DRM scheme?

Quote from cor-el's link "People want to watch video, including movies and TV shows. Browsers must provide the ability to watch video or the browser becomes less and less the tool users need. A number of content owners (in particular film and TV studios) require technical mechanisms to reduce the ways in which people can use that content, such as preventing people from making copies. This technical mechanism is generally called “DRM” for “digital rights management.” Browsers must implement DRM in a way that makes the content owners comfortable. Otherwise they won’t allow their content to be viewed through that browser."

Other Mozilla content I have read indicated they allowed the proprietary DRM on firefox to appease content providers. It was that or loose ability to view video content especially.

Are you telling me that other people who write for mozilla don't know what they are talking about? They are the ones saying that there is drm in firefox not me.

Only way I am wrong tyler is if the timeline of when they said they would use drm vs update, vs failure of browser happens to be entirely coincidental. too many pieces point to the same thing -->> DRM or other content protections, NOT driver

tyler- I will follow the adobe suggestion see if that helps and will get back to you after doing some testing. But there is nothing wrong with video driver. It is the driver ATI recommends for my card. which is suppose to be HDCP compliant.

hardware acceleration causes more problems than it solves on the ATI graphic cards I have owned. Most solutions that I have read say to turn the acceleration off and it works.

I was trying to bring it to mozilla's attention that the content providers or who ever your working with regarding allowing DRM on firefox may not be living up to their end of the deal. I am blaming the drm or content protection for my issues not mozilla itself.

@cor-el I read that article and others from the help page, before posting my issue, doesn't help me fix my browser, which is why I was pointing out that because of caving to content providers regarding DRM, I am now having trouble. despite using only legal hardware/software.

I personally suspect that the problems I am having with firefox is not intentional by Mozilla staff but by those requiring DRM that is mentioned in your link, that is mandatory to view video on firefox browser. maybe to create frustration that We end-users run to propriety and privacy invading browsers like chrome and internet explorer.

off to update adobe see if that has any effect.

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Sometimes, when I can't play the clip, I download it.Have you tried this?

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FredMcD said

Sometimes, when I can't play the clip, I download it.Have you tried this?

That is one of the issues I been having "downloading" its not showing in the "display progress of ongoing downloads" (This is one of the first things noted after most recent update of firefox) or wouldn't download at all. Now If I minimize browser I can see that there is a green bar indicating there is a download happening, but I have No idea which download is happening especially if I have more than one in que,

I also updated adobe "DRM player"(flash player) as tyler suggested. video playing correctly now and will download, but I am having other download issues as well. (I suspect adobe is deliberately breaking previous versions of flash to force people to update to most recent DRM schemes,( this is an example of the DRM issue I was referring too when breaking firefox expierience). And if your like me, who only puts computer to "sleep", you never get a warning from adobe to update, because the warning only occurs when you restart computer, and I have never been able to figure out how to give me update notice on my taskbar like avast, java, etc. )

I NEVER allow auto update due to "crackers exploiting installers/updater without user knowledge of something being put on computer.

Now just need to figure out how to fix the download issue.... and getting it to display properly in firefox "display progress of ongoing downloads"

I am getting the green arrow pulse at the beginning of download and at end but nothing is showing when clicking on arrow.

I am really not in the mood to reset browser in attempt to eliminate an "off chance unknown issue" with an add-on. Why? Because I have some oddball extensions/add-ons within grease monkey, and settings in no-script and settings in ABP, and ghostery I do not want to go hunting for or loose settings, when having to reinstall all the add-ons example the noscript whitelist and exemptions. these settings took months to set up and I can't remember them all.

and tyler thanks for reminding me to update adobe "DRM player" at-least can watch video again.

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Frugal, DRM is not in Firefox 36. Your problems are not because of DRM. If you have issue with Mozilla's inclusion of DRM so that it's users can't continue to use the web, then there are forums where that can be discussed. But your problem simply isn't because of DRM because it isn't in 36.

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You can check for problems with current Shockwave Flash plugin versions and try this:

See also:

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frugal said

Are you telling me that other people who write for mozilla don't know what they are talking about? They are the ones saying that there is drm in firefox not me.

So who from Mozilla (if that is even the case) is saying DRM is in Firefox.

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DRM for Firefox is under development as EME (Encrypted Media Extensions)


  • Bug 1015800 - (EME) [EME][META] Implement Encrypted Media Extensions

Please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

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If your favorite video downloader is not working correctly in Firefox 36, you could try DownloadHelper: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

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frugal said

That is one of the issues I been having "downloading" its not showing in the "display progress of ongoing downloads"

Check these out;

(Video) DownloadHelper {web link} The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.

Download Status Bar {web link} If you are the kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect of your downloads, "Download Status Bar" is the add-on you are looking for.

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all down-loaders I have tried have the exact same effect after firefox update to 36.0.1. I was using downloadhelper at the time of update (it worked fine before update) and tried several others which most recent being "video down-loader professional" after It stopped listing downloads. All of them have been effected the same way. downloading was fine after the most recent noscript update.

Is there a chance that display the progress of ongoing downloads in firefox uses script to tell it what to display?? I do not know how firefox tells it which files are downloading and progress that is why I am asking.

reason I ask, (just thinking aloud in trial and error mode) is if there is a script involved that was somehow changed in the most recent update, noscript which blocks scripts "might" be responsible. being it doesn't recognize that script as being white listed.... (I do not want to give up noscript because it blocks things like the "canvas fingerprinting" done by "Addthis" and google analytics

Cor-el thanks for the hackers link to cdm "Wc3 eme scheme"

Joshua Cogliati is "right on" in my view, about ugly vs good firefox. It gives an enduser like me a clear access of knowing cause of why you can't/can view certain contents.

I would add that I wish there was a way to have these two firefoxes one clean one ugly that can be switched between using separate icons on desktop and not having to disable/activate add-ons/extensions as needed based on need of how you want to view web.

reason I want to separate firefox browser one with and without DRM is, I do not want any risk of unforseen crossover of invasion of the drm to the drm free browser.(I have dealt with too many instances where DRM and security restriction scemes have "BROKE" legitimate functions when let near those legit functions ) industries have proved themselves to be untrustworthy look to Sony rootkit scandal as example. By having two physically seperate browsers in my view, proofs one against the other. So if the industry breaks the "DRM browser" I still have the other as my workhorse browser.

Cor-el so EME is not part of current firefox 36.0.1 and is currently in development? Reason I am asking is I heard about EME DRM back in May 2014 and also noted the article you linked to be from may 2014 . I would have thought that it was implemented already.(switching one drm for the other, that is, and keeping the flash for sites that have not switched to W3c scheme yet?

And currently my main issue resided in the Adobe "DRM player" (flash player) ? Then updating flash answered the last question about which DRM was breaking the main part of my firefox experience.

@tyler- Then I need to explain why I say "DRM in firefox" I am using a car analogy since I lack ability to remember most "computer lingo" I view firefox itself as the body of the car. I view the extensions addons and such as the components of the car that makes it go and soups it up that is supplied by third party and not the manufacturer. Example Adobe flash would be radiator or oil filter or tires. The car won't go unless you have those components. which means they are a "PART" of the car. These components are NOT supplied by the company the car was made by but yet become part of the car once added. the NPAPI and the CDM would be the connection points from which the components connect to the car body.

tyler when you say no "DRM in firefox" your referring to the car body itself

So the point is when we are talking drm in firefox or not we are talking about two different things. I am talking about "the whole" your talking about "one part" of the whole. So if CDM is not yet in firefox that mozilla said it was going to do, to the "car body" then your absolutely right about DRM "not yet" in firefox.

But if your looking at it as I described the car analogy then I am right. that DRM is very much a part of firefox but its supplied by a 3rd party as oil filters and tires would be, but are necessary to get the car body(firefox) working.. So in this instance the DRM loaded oil filter[filter that doesn't allow the oil to flow properly](flash) is causing the car body(firefox) to malfunction and not operate correctly.

So to sum up current status: video playing is fine now. (drm Player was the cause) "Flash"

Listing within "display progress of downloads" is not showing details despite flash update.

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frugal said

Is there a chance that display the progress of ongoing downloads in firefox uses script to tell it what to display?? I do not know how firefox tells it which files are downloading and progress that is why I am asking.

You can customize style rules that may show/hide a progress bar, but there's no way to easily script Firefox's built-in features or an add-on's feature without actually modifying the add-on.

Regarding DownloadHelper, make sure you have version 5.0 or higher. It look a long time before that made it to the Add-ons site.

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FredMcD said

frugal said
That is one of the issues I been having "downloading" its not showing in the "display progress of ongoing downloads"

Check these out;

(Video) DownloadHelper {web link} The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.

Download Status Bar {web link} If you are the kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect of your downloads, "Download Status Bar" is the add-on you are looking for.

I added the download-status-bar as you suggested.

It only partly works. it has the "exact same problem" as the default firefox "display the progress of ongoing downloads" I know its partly working because I enabled the audio sound when file finishes downloading. which dings at me. But it fails to list the files and progress of the downloads. I have it at the top where it shows the "little green arrow and 0:0" Click on the green arrow while download is in progress it just shows the default green status bar unchanged from when not downloading.

I assume there is suppose to be a list in that green bar with current status of download. BRB going to disable all addons and such except status bar and downloader. to test to see if its addon conflict.

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I disabled all extensions had no effect on display download issue

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jscher2000 said

frugal said
Is there a chance that display the progress of ongoing downloads in firefox uses script to tell it what to display?? I do not know how firefox tells it which files are downloading and progress that is why I am asking.

You can customize style rules that may show/hide a progress bar, but there's no way to easily script Firefox's built-in features or an add-on's feature without actually modifying the add-on.

Regarding DownloadHelper, make sure you have version 5.0 or higher. It look a long time before that made it to the Add-ons site.

download function works, its the "display that fails to show "what" and "progress" malfunctioning. it acts like there is a break between the down-loader and the display function. (downloader not talking to display function.) Hey I am downloading something here let the user know what I am downloading and how long it will take.

changing down-loader extension or display extension has NO effect

disabling all extensions had no effect on display not showing details. which told me noscript is not at fault of blocking display of download.


I wasn't thinking in terms of "modifying scripts and add-ons", I was thinking in terms of Noscript "accidentally blocking" "built in" firefox coding from displaying, "if" it was in "script form". Being noscript is "very" aggressive at blocking script in default setting.

I answered my own question of if noscript was at fault when disabling it  to see if there was a change in the download display data. no change
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Just to go back to the DRM in Firefox, not only is it not currently in Firefox 36, but when it does hit Firefox release in the future you will easily be able to fully uninstall it from Firefox (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1145694)

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this is weird, I do not know why it worked, but it worked. In correcting the display downloads progress

I changed all the "add-ons to "never activate" restarted firefox did a download and viola its displaying the download information progress.

then I reset the add-on settings the way I had them "before" i changed them to "never activate" restarted my browser and did another download and the download display continued to work correctly.

any ideas why this happened?

now video is playing correctly by updating "DRM player" (flash) which was the cause of videos not displaying and working correctly

download display progress was restored by changing all add-on settings to "never activate", restart browser, download file, reset the settings for add-ons back to what I had them before problem with download display progress, restart firefox, then do another download to see if display progress stayed fixed or reverted back to broke. It stayed fixed(how weird is that?.?.?) Only thing I can see is there was some kind of glitch in code somewhere and by flipping the switch back and forth so to speak(add-on flipped to never activate back to previous setting) corrected said glitch. Similar problem happens with VLC and subtitles. where I flip a setting and then back gets the subtitles to work correctly.


(Following I am NOT stating as fact, I am stating as strong suspicion based or regular consistent behavior by adobe since implementing DRM in flash) Following link may explain why previous versions of flash quits working after each update(at least that is the way it appears to be if you do not update flash ASAP and turns the auto update off, like myself) http://boingboing.net/2008/02/22/adobe-cripples-flash.html

I suspect Adobe is intentionally breaking previous flash versions  has to do with forcing restriction on "fair use users". by using the   enforceability of the  DMCA "regarding DRM" to circumvent "fair use" like mix and mash, sharing for educational purposes, archiving, etc.

DRM player was responsible for DRM-protected videos from playing correctly. this is based on NON-drm protected content played fine in previous flash player and that is why I had not originally suspected flash as being the problem till Tyler suggested to update flash..

Thanks tyler for the flash update suggestion and thanks cor-el for the link to CDM EME

This issue is solved through help and trial and error.

only question I have remaining but not related to "my browser" is is the CDM eme still in development or is it already part of firefox? all the info on it I can find is from may 2014.

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As I said above, it isn't yet included in Firefox and once it is it will be easy to remove.