the title contradicts what's in the actual article.
the proposal is to change the default beahvior, not getting rid of the ability outright. as long as they both retain the ability to change the behavior back to how was before, it doesn't seem like this is as dire as the author is trying to make it out.
I sympathize with the idea of having to add yet another setting change to what I'm sure is a long list of configs/settings updates that most of us have to perform everytime we boot up a new system but this is all that it looks like would be the case here if this proposal goes through
this is true a lot in the world of paintings. there are regularly auctions where you can buy items "attributed" to (meaning it's speculated but not confirmed) very famous Modern Art painters like Van Gogh, Monet, etc for under $5,000 which, if confirmed, would send the valuation many multiples higher
there was already an attempt to take it down back in 2020/2021 [0]. The DMCA claim's main argument was that ytdl was circumventing Techincal Protection Measures (TPMs) in order to access the content. Thanks to a letter from the EFF [1] which explains how ytdl accesses content in the same way that a browser does (i.e. it does circumvent anything such as DRM), github rejected the takedown.
this is also why ytdl has stood firm in saying they will never attempt to be compatible with anything protected by DRM.
Looking at Vizio's financial records[0], the numbers make it clear.
They seperate everything into 2 distinct businesses, Device and Platform+.
Device represents their hardware business of selling physical TVs and soundbars. Platform+ covers all of their other "software-related" business, mainly consisting of ad delivery and selling user data to third parties.
2019:
- Device Net Revenue = $1.7 billion
- Device Gross Profit = $125 million
- Platform+ Net Revenue = $63 million
- Platform+ Gross Profit = $40 million
2023:
- Device Net Revenue = $1.0 billion
- Device Gross Profit = -($8.6 million)
- Platform+ Net Revenue = $598 million
- Platform+ Gross Profit = $364 million
So over the course of just 4 years:
- hardware revenue is down 40% and is actually losing money (confirms they are indeed selling the TVs at a loss)
- Ad/user data revenue, however, is up almost ten-fold (+949%)
- total gross profits of the two combined are up over 54%
I think from the viewpoint of a business/enterprise environment, yes you're right, context-aware authorization is a good thing.
But I think the point of your parent comment's reply was that the inevitable adoption of this same techonology in the consumer-level environment is a bad thing. Among other things, it will allow big tech companies to have an stronger grip on what software/platforms are OK to use/not use.
If your employer forces you to, say, only use a certain version of Windows as your OS in order to do your job, that's generally acceptable to most people.
But if your TV streaming provider tells you have to use a certain version of Windows to consume their product, that's not considered acceptable to a good deal of people.
from what i undersand, minification just involves removing line breaks and tabs and can be un-minified fairly easily with tools such as https://beautifier.io/. obfuscation involves techniques such as changing function/variable names from human-readable to human-unreadable, changing certain strings to concated variations of themselves, base64 encoded, or other similar transformations.
the proposal is to change the default beahvior, not getting rid of the ability outright. as long as they both retain the ability to change the behavior back to how was before, it doesn't seem like this is as dire as the author is trying to make it out.
I sympathize with the idea of having to add yet another setting change to what I'm sure is a long list of configs/settings updates that most of us have to perform everytime we boot up a new system but this is all that it looks like would be the case here if this proposal goes through