> An example of this is netflix who use silverlight
> DRM on all of their streams so I cannot play them
> on my Linux HTPC.
Just thought I'd thank you for this bit of info. I'd been considering subscribing to Netflix for a while. Glad I found out it won't work on my computer before giving them any money.
I guess I'll have to see if I can find some other way to get access to films and TV shows via the Internet. Wish me luck.
Good luck, but I think you'll have limited success if your looking for something legal that will work on Linux.
It seems that it is the rights holders who are insisting that everybody who distributes their stuff online must use the silverlight DRM rather than the service providers themselves who I'm sure full well realise how pointless it is.
In the UK we have a service called "LoveFilm" which is similar to netflix, they used to allow streaming of all their content using Flash which wasn't ideal but it worked.
However recently they were forced by the studios to switch to silverlight, they sent an email around to all of their Linux users apologizing but saying that it was basically out of their hands.
Luckily I have spare Windows XP licenses to use on my HTPC because I'd really hate to have to pay Microsoft £150 for another copy of Windows 7 just for the privilege of running their (now deprecated) plugin.
I guess I'll have to see if I can find some other way to get access to films and TV shows via the Internet. Wish me luck.