W3C recommended EME, standardization and opposition Opinion was down, EFF to withdraw from W3C



On September 18, 2017World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)API that realizes copyright protection of movie content playback on the web "Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)Officially to recommend and standardizeDecisionDid. Although there was an objection to the introduction of EME and discussion was confused, the official go-a-in was given to EME. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which was opposed to introducing EME, criticized himself not to be open discussions and withdrew from the W3C.

An open letter to the W3C Director, CEO, team and membership | Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and-membership

W3C DRM appeal fails, votes kept secret | Network World
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3225456/internet/w3c-drm-appeal-fails-votes-kept-secret.html

EME is a technology DRM that prevents unlimited use of digital contents, and as a mechanism for playing restricted contents on the web, Google including YouTube and Microsoft and Netflix with Xbox Live etc. are standardized as the center Has been pushed forward. EME provided as an API makes it possible to manage content on the web of copyright-protected content without using a plug-in.


For EMEs that can control content copyright restrictions, EFF says "Security researchers bypassing DRM to discover defects that may jeopardize Web users are at risk of suffering copyright infringement "People who reuse movies for people with disabilities can be sued," "it will be difficult to archive web content for posterity", and so on.

EFF officially announced the withdrawal from W3C in response to the official recommendation by the W3C of EME, which has been debated over a long time of 6 years. EFF, W3C has been operated mainly by members of large companies, despite the dissenting opinion by people seeking an open web within W3C but unilaterally dismissed "activities based on agreement "The W3C will regret this decision," stating it criticized severely that the policy of being only a seemingly abstract state is criticized.

Bryan Lunduke, founder of Linux Action Show, also criticizes the W3C as voting for EME adoption is done in a closed room. For W3C who had decided the policy to recommend EME, Mr. Lunduke orders W3C to increase the transparency of the discussion, and if the EME is officially recommended, the process will be fully disclosed I was asking for that. When Mr. Lunduke urged individual members to vote on their votes, the W3C responded that "an option to publish the vote was provided, but no one picked it up."


Mr. Lunduke is constantly confirming whether members were given the option of publishing the vote.


Mr. Lunduke who is not convinced confirmed to EFF who was a member, EFF representative Cory Doctorow said, "To the best of my knowledge W3C never asked members whether it is possible to publish the vote. If any, EFF would have been honored to have officially recorded that it cast a vote.In order to increase the transparency of the standardization work affecting billions of web users, a minimum step I feel that it is. "

According to a press conference held online on September 18, 2017, 185 out of over 400 members participated in the final vote, 108 people supported EME, 57 people opposed, 20 people abstained That was. Lunduke, who took part in the online press conference, asked each member's voting results to be released, but the W3C said that it is not going to be released.

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