Home > Anti-Piracy > DMCA > Used by major video platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu to name just a few, Google content protection system Widevine can be found in leading browsers, games consoles, and most mobile devices. Circumvention has been ongoing for years, but after OnlyFans sent a complaint to GitHub, a Widevine decryption project has been ejected from GitHub. For streaming services such as Netflix, Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems provide a level of control over the company’s most valuable assets, including movies, TV shows, and other content for consumer consumption. DRM not only restricts access to customers authorized to consume content, it can determine when and how it’s consumed too. When all goes to plan, DRM should also prevent end users from casually copying movies and TV shows, which should result in a positive contribution towards minimizing the spread of pirated content online; at least in theory. Widevine Everywhere Ultimately, whether users loathe it or just hate it, DRM exists in billions of web browsers and devices. One of the most widespread is Google’s Widevine and avoiding its footprint today is almost futile. It can be found in Chrome, Firefox and similar browsers, mobile platforms such as Android, videogame consoles, plus many set-top boxes and smart TVs. At least five billion of them, most probably more. Unsurprisingly, Widevine has been exploited and reverse engineered over the years, as evidenced by the content it’s supposed to protect ending up on pirate sites, almost without exception. In 2020, Google took action against Chrome extension Widevine L3 Decryptor, which was capable of decrypting Widevine content keys by hijacking calls to the browser’s Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). Problems persisted throughout 2021 and 2022 with Widevine Dump but the problems haven’t gone away. The same goes for individuals and groups committed to countering Widevine, although it’s still possible to attract nega...
First seen: 2025-04-28 21:21
Last seen: 2025-04-28 21:21