Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft and Its Partner Netflix Pollute the Web With DRM Because Silverlight is Dead

Time to eject Jaffe


Jeff Jaffe at the event announcing the Microsoft/Novell deal (2006)



Summary: Jeff Jaffe, who became (in)famous for designing the Microsoft/Novell deal which started Linux 'patent tax', is now threatening to pollute the Web with DRM because Microsoft and its satellite say so

JEFF JAFFE is poison inside the W3C. He not only promotes software patents but also Microsoft software such as .NET, Mono, and Moonlight. He really loves software patents, and wants more of them. How can such a guy have been given the CEO position at the W3C, whose founder, Tim Berners-Lee, is so openly hostile towards software patents [1, 2]? This never made sense.



Over in the DRM category we have many stories which warn about the main 'advancement' in the Windows Vista series, including Vista 8. That massive failure of an operating system gets a "say for pay" review from Microsoft mouthpieces, apparently some who troll writers. "Enderle is still being hired," iphk says. "Hadn't seen him for a while."

Yes, well, and if one talks to actual professionals in the market, hatred of Vista 8 is evident. As Pogson puts it:

Two pictures speak 1000 words here. Consider share of page-views according to StatCounter for the United Kingdom from 2008 to 2013. First there was growth for GNU/Linux and then stagnation for years as “7″ seemed good enough for many. Along comes “8″ and both “7″ sees a drop to a plateau and GNU/Linux sees a spike. People are choosing and enjoying that they finally have a visible choice. That’s the result of the ubiquity of small cheap computers running */Linux and the horror that is “8″ for people who love the desktop.

[...]

What GNU/Linux lacks in salesmen, M$ makes up for with its salesmen serving as software-designers. Now, GNU/Linux is finding its way onto retail shelves and onto UK desks. According to these data, about 10% as many choose GNU/Linux as choose “8″ but about 15% as many as choose “7″ are choosing GNU/Linux. The future is a lot higher than ~1% GNU/Linux because those choosing GNU/Linux are just the early adopters and they have friends and associates who will see, at last, that GNU/Linux works for them. I expect to live long enough to see ~30% going with GNU/Linux. There’s no telling where the trend will end once it reaches about 10%.


Microsoft sure lost its momentum and Silverlight died because, taking mobile devices in account as well, Windows has minority market share. Netflix, which has a CEO strongly connected to Microsoft, is dropping Silverlight and is now trying to pollute web standards with DRM, demonstrating this with Microsoft to advance Vista 8:

Netflix today announced that it has finally taken the first step towards ditching Silverlight for HTML5, largely thanks to Microsoft, no less. The company has been working closely with the Internet Explorer team to implement its proposed “Premium Video Extensions” in IE11 on Windows 8.1, meaning if you install the operating system preview released today, you can watch Netflix content using HTML5 right now.


Blame that lackey from Novell (the man behind the Microsoft deal, Jaffe), who probably needs to be ousted already because he thinks he works for Hollywood, not for the Web. Jaffe now works for the W3C as CEO and Dr, Glyn Moody calls his claims "rubbish," adding that the "W3C [is] getting desperate" (see Twitter for original quote).

Here is an offensive article from ZDNet. It parrots Jaffe as saying: "The web would be in danger of losing content if it were to turn its back on DRM-protected media, said Dr Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the web standards body W3C."

Nonsense.

As another article put it in the headline, Jaffe implies "Developers need to quit worrying and learn to love DRM".

Slahsdot did some Microsoft promotion over this and the FSF campaign took it up a notch with a new push to cancel Netflix.

Soon enough (maybe next week) we'll have an interview about this with Richard Stallman.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day