“You Must Enable DRM”

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Does anybody else visiting metservice.com see a message at the top saying
“You must enable DRM to play some audio or video on this page”?

Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video on the
page, I can click and it plays fine.

I have seen this sort of thing on some other sites as well.

[Willy Nilly]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Does anybody else visiting metservice.com see a message at the top saying
“You must enable DRM to play some audio or video on this page”?
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video on the
page, I can click and it plays fine.
I have seen this sort of thing on some other sites as well.

Microsoft widget. I don't want to see their extra videos (probably
ads) so I never check it.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Willy Nilly
Microsoft widget.

I don’t run Microsoft.

[Marco Moock]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video on
the page, I can click and it plays fine.

Maybe already enabled in FF. Check the settings.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video on
the page, I can click and it plays fine.

Maybe already enabled in FF. Check the settings.

I’ve never enabled it.

[Marco Moock]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video
on the page, I can click and it plays fine.

Maybe already enabled in FF. Check the settings.

I’ve never enabled it.

Maybe it is enabled by default.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Does anybody else visiting metservice.com see a message at the top saying
“You must enable DRM to play some audio or video on this page”?
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video
on the page, I can click and it plays fine.

Maybe already enabled in FF. Check the settings.

If DRM were already enabled, it is not clear why would Firefox then
say “You must enable DRM to...”

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
I’ve never enabled it.

Maybe it is enabled by default.

Enough armchair theorizing. Here is a real test visiting metservice.com:
* screen-shot: <Loading Image...>

As shown in the screen-shot
* The error message appears, along with a button “Enable DRM”.
* DRM is disabled.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Ralph Fox
* The error message appears, along with a button “Enable DRM”.
* DRM is disabled.

I am also seeing it on this page
<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hawkes-bay-rse-workers-pay-complaint-widens-to-include-horticulture-nz-become-major-case-in-employment-court/VEJ5MPZHAJGN5NVFKL3TZHS7GQ/>,
but not for example on their home page <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/>.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Ralph Fox
* The error message appears, along with a button “Enable DRM”.
* DRM is disabled.

I am also seeing it on this page
<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hawkes-bay-rse-workers-pay-complaint-widens-to-include-horticulture-nz-become-major-case-in-employment-court/VEJ5MPZHAJGN5NVFKL3TZHS7GQ/>,

Firefox’s ⌜︎ Page Info >> Media ⌝︎ reports 3 videos on this page,
two with https: URIs and one with the blob: URI scheme.

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
but not for example on their home page <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/>.

Firefox’s ⌜︎ Page Info >> Media ⌝︎ reports no videos on this page.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Ralph Fox
Firefox’s ⌜︎ Page Info >> Media ⌝︎ reports 3 videos on this page,
two with https: URIs and one with the blob: URI scheme.

Thanks for checking, but I’m not sure that “blob” indicates anything very
significant: I see it regularly on pages with no DRM-locked videos.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
I am also seeing it on this page
<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hawkes-bay-rse-workers-pay-complaint-widens-to-include-horticulture-nz-become-major-case-in-employment-court/VEJ5MPZHAJGN5NVFKL3TZHS7GQ/>,

Firefox’s ⌜︎ Page Info >> Media ⌝︎ reports 3 videos on this page,
two with https: URIs and one with the blob: URI scheme.

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
but not for example on their home page <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/>.

Firefox’s ⌜︎ Page Info >> Media ⌝︎ reports no videos on this page.

Thanks for checking, but I’m not sure that “blob” indicates anything very
significant: I see it regularly on pages with no DRM-locked videos.

OTOH I would have expected that “no videos” was a significant indication
for you seeing “but not for example on their home page”.

[BungleBob]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Firefox keeps telling me that, but I can’t see why. I see a video on
the page, I can click and it plays fine.

Maybe already enabled in FF. Check the settings.

I’ve never enabled it.

If the message is actually saying "*Yo* Must Enable DRM", then it's
probably a fake message ... or a website trying to act "cool" and jjust
looking lame. ;-)

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by BungleBob
If the message is actually saying "*Yo* Must Enable DRM", then it's
probably a fake message ... or a website trying to act "cool" and jjust
looking lame. ;-)

Websites cannot fake messages that look like they came from the browser.

[BungleBob]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by BungleBob
If the message is actually saying "*Yo* Must Enable DRM", then it's
probably a fake message ... or a website trying to act "cool" and jjust
looking lame. ;-)

Websites cannot fake messages that look like they came from the browser.

A. It was a joke.

B. Websites can and do fake browser messages. That's how some scams
can get people to download and install malware.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by BungleBob
A. It was a joke.
B. Websites can and do fake browser messages.

Those two cannot both be simultaneously true.

[BungleBob]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by BungleBob
A. It was a joke.
B. Websites can and do fake browser messages.

Those two cannot both be simultaneously true.

FFS ... whatever idiocy you want to beleive. :-\
Why do so many people switch their brains off when they connect to the
internet??

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by BungleBob
A. It was a joke.
B. Websites can and do fake browser messages.

Those two cannot both be simultaneously true.

Or were you trying to cover yourself both ways by “pleading in the
alternative”, like a lawyer?

“My client wasn’t there, your honour. And even if he was, he didn’t mean
to do it.”

[Ralph Fox]

Post by BungleBob

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Websites cannot fake messages that look like they came from the browser.

Websites can and do fake browser messages. That's how some scams
can get people to download and install malware.

Indeed. This message appears as a full-width banner across the top
of the web page and could easily be faked with a little HTML on the
website. While the website could not maike the “Enable DRM” button
on the banner actually enable DRM in the browser, none of Lawrence’s
posts have said he checked whether the button worked. Lawrence has
only written about the (easily fakeable) message itself.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

This message appears as a full-width banner across the top of
the web page ...

It appears above the panel containing the address and search fields and
other buttons. No website can put anything there.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

This message appears as a full-width banner across the top of
the web page ...

It appears above the panel containing the address and search fields and
other buttons. No website can put anything there.

Not here it doesn't. See my screenshot link in my earlier post
<URL:news:***@4ax.com>.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
It appears above the panel containing the address and search fields and
other buttons. No website can put anything there.

Not here it doesn't. See my screenshot link in my earlier post

You’re right, I did get it the wrong way round.

How to tell it’s not from the website?

Here’s a more subtle way: the page can intercept right-click, but it
cannot intercept shift-right-click. You can shift-right-click on any part
of the page proper, and see the usual menu including the “Inspect” option,
no matter what event handlers the page may have installed. Whereas the
panel showing that message does not respond to shift-right-clicks.

I really thought there would be a better demarcation than that.

[Ralph Fox]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Here’s a more subtle way: the page can intercept right-click, but it
cannot intercept shift-right-click.

In the Firefox and SeaMonkey browsers. But in the Chrome and MS-Edge
browsers, the page *can* intercept shift-right-click.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Ralph Fox

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Here’s a more subtle way: the page can intercept right-click, but it
cannot intercept shift-right-click.

In the Firefox and SeaMonkey browsers. But in the Chrome and MS-Edge
browsers, the page *can* intercept shift-right-click.

Guess which one I will stick with ...