Widevine Brave
After 4 months of waiting, that is the response I got from Widevine, Google’s DRM for web browsers, regarding a license agreement. For the last 2 years I’ve been working on a web browser that now cannot be completed because Google, the creators of the open source browser Chrome, won’t allow DRM in an open source project.
The browser I’m building, called Metastream, is an Electron-based (Chromium derived), MIT-licensed browser hosted on GitHub. Its main feature is the ability to playback videos on the web, synchronized with other peers. Each client runs its own instance of the Metastream browser and transmits playback information to keep them in sync—no audio or video content is sent.
Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) now officially supports Widevine, allowing its users to stream content from popular websites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Go, Disney+, Spotify, Pandora and more, using its default Chromium web browser. Widevine is not installed / enabled by default on Raspberry Pi OS though. Widevine CDM WidevineCDM (Content Decryption Module) is a DRM component used in Chromium based desktop and Android browsers. It is used to decrypt, decode, or enable playback of DRM protected video content. Widevine is disabled in Brave by default and must be explicitly installed before it can be enabled. Digital Rights Management (DRM) provides software and hardware level tools to protect digital content and facilitates its control, use, and distribution. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and HBO are providing a huge library of content to their end-users. Widevine DRM is now used by almost all major streaming content providers. Even though you may have Widevine configured correctly on your. As Maddock points out, Brave faced delays over Widevine's lack of responsiveness in 2017 while trying to support Netflix videos. Other developers using Electron have observed that it can takes months to get a certificate, passphrase, and key from Google to integrate Widevine.
If someone is creating a browser that wants to playback media, they’ll soon discover the requirement of DRM for larger web media services such as Netflix and Hulu. There are a few DRM providers for the web including Widevine, PlayReady, and FairPlay.
As far as I’m aware, Widevine is the only available DRM for a Chromium-based browser, especially so for Electron. Chromium accounts for roughly 70% market share of all web browsers, soon to include Microsoft’s upcoming Edge browser rewrite. Waiting 4 months for a minimal response from a vendor with such a large percentage of the market is unacceptable.
This isn’t something I’m alone in either, several Electron users have waited months for a response. More prominently, the creators of Brave Browser also had issues waiting for replies from Google Widevine.
“This is a prime example for why free as in beer is not enough. Small share browsers are at the mercy of Google, and Google is stalling us for no communicated-to-us reason.”
- Brian Bondy, Co-founder & CTO of Brave
I’m now only left with two options regarding the fate of Metastream: stop development of a desktop browser version, or pivot my project to a browser extension with reduced features. The latter requiring publishing to the Google Chrome Web Store which would further entrench the project into a Google walled garden.
Widevine Brave
If you know of any way to help out, please get in touch.
Install Widevine On Edge
April 4th edit: No response from Google Widevine yet. Because a few folks asked, here is the full email exchange I had with Widevine. The initial response was received after getting in contact with another browser vendor to ping a Widevine contact they have. If you intend to inquire about a license agreement for your project, including the information they requested upfront could help.
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