this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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it says "Remember that it's not possible to play films on GNU/Linux, but only on other compatible devices"... ahh what a wild world we live in

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[–] [email protected] 190 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Respectful enough to call it GNU/Linux, but not support it... lmao

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago

my exact thought XD

[–] [email protected] 98 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Wait, they're not letting you stream because of your OS? That's bullshit, I'd pirate it on principal at that point. No sense in waisting time trying to get your browser to report a different OS to work around it.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Using Linux means DRM protected content either plays in terrible quality or in RakutenTV's case not at all. Netflix is limited to 720p with low bitrate and Amazon limits to ~540p.

Changing user agent doesn't work because it's the DRM who decides whether the OS is supported.

Linux users have to decide between low quality legal streaming services, or piracy with high quality. It's not a difficult decision for me and my giant HDD.

Edit: I forgot the third option: streaming sticks (Roku, FireTV).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

a funny thing that I'd like to add, is that pirate streaming sites don't have this limitation. You just open a website, write in a name, and play in on any platform, with good enough quality, free from all streaming services. Piracy is just too good to be true.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago

Because without the proper DRM implementation it's trivial to rip it. So they're only letting you rip the low quality version. Which feels really stupid, because people who know how to rip the 4K content exist and are happy to share the results.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

On Windows Microsoft/Nvidia/AMD sign their graphics drivers, which guarantees the DRM that the content isn't recorded on the system.

Disclaimer: The following is my understanding from reading things here and there. I'm a layman on this topic, so please don't quote me.

On Linux drivers aren't designed to prevent users from recording on their system, so the DRM doesn't play high quality content. Also, because drivers aren't directly provided and signed by MS/NV/AMD, there'd be no way to prevent users from patching the graphics drivers to allow recording again.

That is, if DRM support was implemented in the driver, which it won't, because there's no interest and the current distribution model makes it near impossible.

tl;dr

DRM is (always?) closed-source, else it could be easily circumvented. The Linux driver/desktop stack isn't designed to prevent users from accessing content played on their own device, so rightsholders disallow playing high quality content on Linux.

PS: I've noticed on Amazon or Netflix some shows are higher quality than others on Linux. I guess this might be due to rightsholders requiring different Widevine levels for the same quality.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I have a question:

Can you not use OBS on DRM content? Or a capture card? I know those may lose some quality, but aren't these ways good enough/working?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

A regular capture card will adhere to the HDMI DRM HDCP, which means it'll only record a black screen. As you guessed, there're capture cards which either don't implement HDCP (unlikely for major brands), or which have been hacked and can be flashed with custom firmware.

I've read OBS on Windows also only records a black screen, at least with hardware encoding enabled (NVENC, AMF, Quicksync also implement DRM as part of the driver). Software encoding might work.

As always with content: If it's on your device, it can be copied.

PS: Now I remember Crunchyroll also uses Widevine, but I've seen it streamed over Discord. So either Widevine L3 doesn't prevent recording, or it doesn't work in Firefox, or Discord doesn't use hardware encoding on Windows (unlikely), or something in my comment is wrong information -> Disclaimer, I'm just repeating from memory what I've read.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago

It's the only way, they can go fuck themselves

[–] [email protected] 69 points 9 months ago (3 children)

To add extra insult, Roku use linux on their boxes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku_OS

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Fuck Roku, they won’t let me set the dns server to my pi hole

“The consumer’s kids could change that setting and the consumer wouldn’t be able to change it back to a valid dns server”

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago
% rg googl /etc/pf.conf
29:google_dns_block = "{ 10.68.80.59, 10.68.80.57, 10.68.80.64, 10.68.82.36 }"
30:google_dns = "{ 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 }"
101:rdr pass on {wg443, $int_if} proto {tcp, udp} from $google_dns_block to {$google_dns} port 53 -> 10.68.86.53 port 53
[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Ah, my bad, I read the "A" as an "O". I've never heard of rakuten.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

Roku is really locked down, which allows them to control what users can do. This means DRM is more powerful on Roku Linux, than on desktop Linux. Same is true for Android. Not allowing Linux makes sense from the rightholders standpoint (just like it makes sense for me to pirate).

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago

But then it probably works on Android.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago

I'd honestly prefer this than to what Netflix does: Don't warn you at all but then limit you to 480p or whatever. Now THAT is some bullshit. But hey, at least this way no one will ever be able to pirate 4k shows off Netflix, right? RIGHT?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

What you get for running something that doesn't let them use your computer for their gain how could you?!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Because he said so

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I always just turn DRM off and don't subscribe to these things... Now I know I had a better reason than I thought I did.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I didn't subscribed to it either and never will. My father received a coupon for a free movie and watched it. I then tried to log in on my pc and this happened so... ̿ \(͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡ °)/ ̿

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Well that's another one for the "list of companies that are never getting my money".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Io capitano"?
More like "Io capitano uncino"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

LMAO EXACTLY

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

You could spoof your browser agent if you need to but I would pirate.