video streaming and caching proxies

[Ben Scott]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:
> On 01/26/2009 04:43 PM, Thomas Charron wrote:
>>    No idea, but I know that DirecTV PC clients specifically require
>> drivers which disallow framegrabbing, etc while the app is running.
>
> I wonder if this means they'll be restricted to folks running binary
> blog x.org drivers.

  The very open nature of Linux and all its friends make implementing
copy restrictions of that sort... um... "challenging".  The X11
protocol has framegrabbing built-in.  So does the X.org X server, I
believe.  The kernel has similar provisions.  The only way they have a
hope in hell of doing anything is by locking up the binaries from womb
to tomb.  In essence, you'd have to run a binary-only Linux
distribution, provided and controlled solely by NetFlix (or whoever).
And the GPL has a few words to say on that.

  Needless to say, I'm not overly upset about this, but I guess some people are.

  One of the BSD's might be a better choice if one is looking to take
control of the computer away from the computer's owner, but I'd say
it's still a pretty weak idea, since even if you don't allow others
access to "your" source, with most of the source readily available,
it's going to make disassembly, shimming, etc., a lot easier.

  This is prolly the only area where close-source OSes like MS Windows
and Apple Mac OS X have an advantage over open-source like Linux and
BSD.  Of course, that's a heck of a feature to sell to end-users: "Our
product makes it easier for others to take control of your computer
away from you!"

-- Ben