Is there a way to use DRM on HTML5 video?

Asked 6/6, 2010 at 8:19 Answered 19/10, 2016 at 2:55

Since Flash is losing ground I would like to know if there are ways to protect html5 videos with DRM (H264, .ogg and WebM).

Contraception answered 6/6, 2010 at 8:19 Comment(4)

I can't find the spot on that page specifically mentioning DRM support with MOV files. Can you please clarify the exact source? (I might just be missing it.) Thanks! – Piscina 23/6, 2010 at 16:40

Quicktime streaming uses hinting which at least prevents users from using save as feature. It's not a true DRM solution since it's very easy to find out what files to directly point to. – Contraception 24/6, 2010 at 9:52

The movie industry hasn't found a way to "protect" Hollywood movies. The internet hasn't found a way to "protect" other media on the web that the user can view, like even static images. You're looking for something at the intersection of these two. And any 'solution' you find will still be trivial to bypass with any of the free/cheap programs which can capture any video my computer is playing. I would say your time is better spent elsewhere, like improving your content, e.g., Spielberg isn't losing sleep over this. :-) – Deportment 21/10, 2010 at 15:48

The W3C bug tracker has a good discussion on this subject if anyone is interested: w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10902 – Contraception 28/7, 2011 at 9:11

On the W3C FAQ on HTML5 it states:

Is there support for digital rights management (DRM) in HTML5 video? HTML5 doesn't provide direct support, nor any barrier, to using DRM in video. It currently expects this to be handled by the particular codec/implementation. There are implementations which allow for DRM in HTML5 video.

Is dealing with DRM in scope for HTML5? If enough stakeholders want to standardise some aspect of handling DRM in HTML5 itself as part of the inclusion of video and audio media, then it makes sense for W3C to help standardise an approach which meets the needs of the market. However like all W3C work, relevant stakeholders need to be and show they are committed to developing it rather than expecting it to happen on its own.

Which means it's currently not supported, but there has been a discussion about it on the W3C bug tracker here.

Update: People interested in this subject might want to consult the working draft of the new encrypted media extension standard.

Updated: EME is currently supported in major browsers.

Contraception answered 28/7, 2011 at 9:25 Comment(6)

I added this as answer since it adds some relevant new information. – Contraception 28/7, 2011 at 9:26

Netflix recently is going to try to implement their approch techblog.netflix.com/2013/04/html5-video-at-netflix.html to protect their content and also use Html v5 – Rascally 17/4, 2013 at 15:58

@Contraception : I need more details about the browser versions which support EME. – Zarger 2/3, 2015 at 1:8

Chrome 34+, IE 11+, Chrome for Android 34+, and Safari 8+ support versions of EME (maybe not the latest, feel free to look up more detailed information). Firefox EME support is in the works bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=eme – Contraception 2/3, 2015 at 15:1

@Zarger also see Tony's answer. – Contraception 2/3, 2015 at 15:19

@Contraception : Sorry, but I need to the first versions (including Opera) which introduced support to EME, not the actual browser version. Another question of mine is how to put DRM on a DRM free MP4 video with javascript only. So the video would no longer be playable after 7 days. – Zarger 3/3, 2015 at 22:1

It does now. https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-media/raw-file/tip/encrypted-media/encrypted-media.html

Here is an example. http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/eme/basics/

This is the best page that I could find on current browser support. http://www.jwplayer.com/html5/mediasource/

At the time of writing this, EME is supported in

IE11 in Win8.1
Chrome (Desktop and mobile)
Safari 8 in OSX Yosemite

Erund answered 28/7, 2014 at 17:50 Comment(0)

Probably not, even though there's an EME DRM plug-in interface.

Some browsers now support another type of a plug-in called EME (Encrypted Media Extension CDM) for vendor-specific DRM implementations such as Microsoft PlayReady, Google WideVine, Apple FairPlay, etc.

However, the only part of it that is a public standard is a JS API that launches a vendor-specific EME plug-in.

The actual DRM API required to make use of it is vendor-specific, secret and proprietary. To have working DRM across browsers you will have to sign separate contracts with Adobe, Microsoft, Google and Apple (which may be difficult if you're not Netflix).

Consider abandoning idea of DRM, as it's more likely to backfire than protect the content.

This is an updated answer, comments don't make sense any more

Chickenlivered answered 16/7, 2010 at 2:30 Comment(2)

Out of general interest in HTML I thought this was interesting to ask, maybe test some hacks. Your suggestions seems easily fooled with a simple plugin. One 'hack' I found out is a way for video to be impossible to completely download. I do this by letting the download not complete by infinitely delaying/sleeping the process when it's almost finished downloading. This will still allow the video to be viewed but not downloaded using only html5 and a server side hack. This hack is of course not 100% safe and bad for the resources on the server side, but there should be a solution for that. – Contraception 2/8, 2010 at 8:11

Of course these tricks can be easily worked around. Hack with server never completing download won't stop anyone either – in most browses user can simply click "stop" to stop download and keep data that's been downloaded so far. – Chickenlivered 3/8, 2010 at 13:20

Already in chrome.

Here is a running example using it.

Mumbletypeg answered 16/2, 2013 at 16:35 Comment(2)

Good point. Though still you have to Encrypted Media Extensions on <video> elements in chrome://flags/ and restart Chrome for this to work. – Contraception 16/2, 2013 at 19:29

what is this answer explaining? – Press 26/10, 2021 at 9:29

Widewine provides video DRM for HTML5 and h.264. Recently, another company Haihaisoft said they released HTML5 DRM for MP4 and WebM video: . It doesn't need Flash anymore. You might try it online. HTML5 Demo in Xvast browser DRM-X 4.0 in the news

Rubinrubina answered 19/10, 2016 at 2:55 Comment(1)

is there any DRM for a webpage containing images? – Press 26/10, 2021 at 9:28

You could implement some kind of encryption scheme with public/private key - I recently heard about http://www.widevine.com/ who seem to be doing something like that for html5 and h.264 . But I am not aware of anyone having applied to web video in general.

Barraza answered 6/6, 2010 at 15:20 Comment(3)

They don't seem to offer anything html5 related. It's mainly a flash implementation. Also Netflix uses Widevine but isn't moving to HTML5 anytime soon because of the DRM concerns. – Contraception 7/6, 2010 at 7:50

I recently saw a presentation where they claimed to be supporting HTML5 (i.e. H.264 probably) – Barraza 7/6, 2010 at 12:31

Their Demo page seems to require flash... (Flash 10.x+) – Standoff 24/2, 2012 at 10:27

-2

Sure you can stop someone from downloading the file simply by not giving them permission to download anything from certain folders on your server. Maybe there is something I am missing here. Seems like that would be a relatively easy solution.

Bidwell answered 29/9, 2010 at 10:54 Comment(1)

The idea with DRM is that the user can access a file under certain conditions. You would be able to let the user view the video, but not to download it. Silverlight and Flash provide DRM video for the web but it's of course better to use native HTML elements. – Contraception 1/10, 2010 at 10:16

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