9 years ago
4
JPEG Looking To Add DRM To Images... Supposedly To Protect Images From Gov’t Surveillance
You may recall the mess a few years ago when, under pressure from the movie studios, along with Netflix and Microsoft, the W3C agreed to add DRM to HTML5. This resulted in lots of debates and reasonable anger from people who found that the idea of building DRM into HTML5 went against the idea of an open internet. And, now it appears that the organization behind the JPEG standard for images is heading down a similar path...
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When will it end...
Probably not in our lifetime. There's too many interest groups on both sides of the argument, basically guaranteeing a to and fro. We can just hope for long periods of balance, if we don't decide to help with the efforts that is.
Regarding the article... I absolutely hate to see the need for internet connectivity and geolocation feature. Not intended people will find ways to make the transmitted data useable, and I can already see all the data mining corporations and marketing agencys getting giant boners. Watch them attach DRM to embedded 1x1px images and sieve through all the visitor data, then selling it to everyone's aunt.
I really don't see a way to make this workable, without breaking all kinds of stuff, and I'm not certain I really see the need for it. At least not in this fashion...
Looks like PNG will have to become the next standard file type for web users. Or another more open filetype can rise up and take JPEG's place. I can't say I'm familiar with any of the newer stuff that could compete.