Mozilla adds Adobe DRM module to Firefox by default

Mozilla has added HTML5 support for Digital Rights Management to Firefox. The browser developer wasn't too keen on adding DRM but states it can't get around adding it to their browser. The DRM support allows companies like Netflix to protect their video streams without plugins.

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Last year Mozilla announced it wanted to add support for DRM in Firefox for Windows, OS X and Linux. The organization was reluctant in adding DRM as it's fundamentally against the technology. The alternative however, would be that services like Netflix no longer work in Firefox.

Companies like Netflix use DRM to prevent users from ripping video streams. Currently companies use the DRM features of plugins like Flash and Silverlight to protect their streams, but these are considered outdated. Instead the HTML5 standard has built-in support for DRM. Through an encrypted media extension API, companies can use the DRM feature of HTML5.

Mozilla has added the content decryption module of Adobe to Firefox which allows DRM content to be streamed in a wrapper. The module is automatically downloaded as soon as Firefox is installed or upgraded. The software is only activated when a site requires this, such as Netflix, that currently tests the Firefox technology.

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Mozilla has stated it has added several protection layers to prevent that their DRM can be abused. The technology is closed source which means that nobody can check the source code and therefore it's unclear how the software exactly works. To give users some kind of control, Mozilla runs the module in a sandbox and a Firefox user can remove the module at anytime from the browser.

Users that don't want a Firefox version with added DRM can download the browser without DRM, for users that want more information on the decision to add DRM to Firefox, Mozilla has released a "teaching kit".

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