[gst-devel] GStreamer DRM support

[Ted Gould]

Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller wrote:
> All the code will be licensed under the BSD or MIT license. There will
> be nothing in this package actually useful to begin with. This is more
> about creating a toolkit for Fluendo or anyone else who needs to make
> DRM enabled products and wants to use GStreamer. It is also worth to
> mention that the design we come up with for the DRM and GStreamer do not
> touch the core or any of the plugins module. It assumes a untrustable
> GStreamer core in fact.
> 
> So the question is where to host these things. My/our initial idea was
> to put it into a separate module the GStreamer CVS repository as the
> code is not tied to Fluendo in any way and is meant to be
> used/contributed to by anyone interested. But we felt it was prudent to
> ask the community first if people do not want this module into the
> GStreamer repository, cause if that is the case we will host it together
> with the Fluendo plugins in Fluendo svn instead.

Well, I'm basically a lurker here, so take my opinion as thus.  But, I'm
for putting this code in GStreamer CVS.

I know, I probably hate free software and want to sell everything to
Microsoft -- I assure you that is not the case.  I think this is perhaps
because I look at DRM a little bit differently.  DRM protects the rights
that were given when the content was published, in the way the publisher
intended.  Releasing software under the LGPL restricts the user to never
take that software and make it closed source.  This is a restriction
that could be enforced using DRM.  We'd all love a system that wouldn't
let Linksys publish the Linux kernel in their routers without providing
the source, right?

Why do I want DRM in GStreamer?  Because I want to see a Creative
Commons DRM module.  When I add audio to my home movie, and that audio
requires attribution, that should be added into my final product.  And,
when I use something that is restricted to non-commercial use, I should
be asked (perhaps through an application preference) whether my final
product is non-commercial.  These are also examples of digital rights
protection.

No, I'm not going to start downloading audio from iTunes or use the
Windows Media plugin from Fluendo -- I'm going to stick with clipart
from the Open Clipart Library and Ogg.  But, that doesn't mean that
digital rights are an invalid thing to support.

Again, I'm not a GStreamer contributor, I just wanted to provide an
alternate opinion.  Thank you for your time.

		--Ted