12.08.19
Gemini version available ♊︎Can We Quit Celebrating DRM in GNU/Linux?
Or do we want the system to become another Vista?
Summary: Over the past couple of days various news sites and “Linux” sites expressed great satisfaction [1-5] over the passive embrace of Disney’s DRM ploy (Disney+), even when Disney itself rejects DRM, seeing the harms practically caused by it [6,7]
References:
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Disney+ Now Works on Linux, No Workarounds Required
Disney launched its new video streaming service in the USA and Canada last month to much hype and attention (it scores 10 million subscribers in the first day alone).
But many Linux users in those countries who’d been hoping to tune in to watch shows like The Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series were left disappointed.
For although rival streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime work “out of the box” on Linux in web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Disney+ didn’t.
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Disney+ Now Works in Linux After DRM Tweak
Linux users can now stream shows and movies from the Disney+ streaming service after Disney lowering the level of their DRM requirements.
When Disney+ was first launched, Linux users who attempted to watch shows and movies were shown an error stating “Something went wrong. Please try again. If the problem persists, visit the Disney+ Help Center (Error Code 83).”
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Disney+ finally works on Linux!
A little more than three weeks after the new Disney+ movie streaming service went officially live, the Disney company has added Linux support to their Widevine DRM protection. No more “Error 83”. No more need to install the Windows version of Chrome in Wine. Watching your favorite movies is now possible in the native Linux browsers – both Mozilla and Google based. Firefox will download the Widevine CDM (content delivery module) automatically, Chrome has the support built-in and for my Chromium package and other Chromium-based browsers you;ll have to install my chromium-widevine-plugin package.
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Disney+ finally works on Linux!
A little more than three weeks after the new Disney+ movie streaming service went officially live, the Disney company has added Linux support to their Widevine DRM protection. No more “Error 83”. No more need to install the Windows version of Chrome in Wine. Watching your favorite movies is now possible in the native Linux browsers – both Mozilla and Google based. Firefox will download the Widevine CDM (content delivery module) automatically, Chrome has the support built-in and for my Chromium package and other Chromium-based browsers you;ll have to install my chromium-widevine-plugin package.
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You Can Now Stream Disney+ On Linux Computers
With Disney+ now lowering the DRM requirements, Linux users should be able to watch their favorite shows like The Mandalorian and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
In order to stream the Disney+ service on Linux devices, users need to ensure that DRM is enabled in their browser.
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Disney’s Decision Not To Renew SecuROM License Bricks ‘Tron: Evolution’
Show of hands: who remembers SecuROM? Alright, put your hands down, we can’t see each other anyway. So, SecuROM was a really bad DRM used by several publishers to “protect” video games, by which I mean it mostly just annoyed legitimate buyers, got some of those publishers sued, and ultimately made the game unplayable on modern operating systems. The track record is enough to make you wonder why anyone would use DRM at all after this whole debacle.
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The Curse of Outdated DRM Claims Another Victim, ‘Tron: Evolution’
As of this week, players who owned a legitimate copy of Tron: Evolution they paid for but never played it, no longer can. Tron: Evolution, a tie-in game for the 2010 Tron: Legacy film , used SecurRom, a form of digital rights management (DRM), and publisher Disney hasn’t paid its bill. This means Disney can no longer authenticate purchases and “unlock” copies of the game that people bought but haven’t used yet.
Players first noticed they couldn’t play the game after purchasing it in October, but a thread on Reddit today brought more attention to the issue.
“I often buy games on sales, but don’t play them immediately,” user Renusek said on Reddit. “Yesterday I decided to play Tron: Evolution, maybe even practice speedrunning it, so I install the game, try to activate it (game still uses SecuROM DRM) and… the serial key has expired (?!).”
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