For quite awhile now I've been baffled by the reason/s for netflix's lack of support for linux. And while I could think of some reasons, none of them made complete sense. The first and most often used one is that "nobody uses linux". While the numbers may be small they are not laughable. It may be a measly 1% or less of the desktop market, but that 1% actually accounts for quite a few people in the U.S.

Let us first get something straight, Netflix does run in Linux -- it supports quite a few embedded devices which run on linux such as the Roku player, the upcoming popbox and Boxee Box as well as a few others (which I'm too lazy to look up). These are all embedded devices which are very locked down from an end user standpoint - far from something like Ubuntu or Fedora desktop OS's. Netflix streaming uses Microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin along with PlayReady DRM to protect the content from being pirated. So my initial thoughts were that perhaps these embedded linux devices use some other sort of DRM which is not as secure but because they are locked down already there is less risk of the DRM being broken. This however does not appear to be true, as I'll explain later. Another interesting note is that Apple's OSX as well as certain apple devices such as the iPad support Netflix. If these all use the same DRM why does Microsoft allow them to use the DRM but not Linux? The obvious answer to that question would have to do with $. So if Apple is paying microsoft for this proprietary DRM is it not possible for Novell who heads the Moonlight project (Silverlight implementation linux) to license the DRM as well. After reading a long thread of posts from the silverlight forums, it appears Novell has contacted Microsoft about getting desktop linux support for PlayReady DRM but Microsoft is unwilling to do so because of the risk of hackers breaking the DRM. So it looks like since Microsoft doesn't build Silverlight for Linux, they will not make the DRM available to moonlight for use in non-embedded linux systems, as described in the following email between a forum member (melstav) and a Novell rep

(Mr.Wayne) :

The problem with supporting PlayReady is that Microsoft does not currently license PlayReady for desktop use, they only license it for embedded systems use. Embedded systems are perceived as being more secure and as being harder for an attacker to break the DRM. I remain skeptic about this point, but those are the rules under which they allow PlayReady to be licensed and we are not in a position to license it for the desktop. We are aware of some vendors using Linux + Moonlight on embedded systems that are engaging Microsoft to license PlayReady DRM and will make those combinations work out of the box on an embedded system.

And then in a follow up email:

> If Microsoft did not license PlayReady for use on non-Windows desktops, 

> that would seem to contradict the fact that PlayReady is currently 

> available on Macintosh systems. ( 

> http://www.microsoft.com/PlayReady/Overview.mspx ) Perhaps the 

> distinction is that Microsoft is actually directly supporting 

> Silverlight for Mac, whereas Linux and BSD users have to use Moonlight.

 

Well, they own PlayReady so they get to do whatever they want with it,

in this case, supporting the Mac.

 

In our case, for us to take advantage of it, we would have to license

it, and they will be happy to license it to us (or anyone else), as long

as we only make it available under embedded systems.

> Would you be able to suggest someone to contact at Microsoft to try to 

> get them to change their minds?

Well, it gets complicated.   The team that does the PlayReady DRM is

under the same umbrella as XBox, while all of my contacts are in the

Server division (where Silverlight comes from).

A grass roots movement to get them to license PlayReady for Linux

desktops might be the best we can do.

 

This is a shame because moonlight is supposed to be cross platform. Right now the only option for running Netflix Streaming on a Linux Desktop OS is to run within a virtual machine(Virtualbox) with a Windows Guest OS. This is usually impractical as the system requirements will be very high in order to have smooth playback, especially with the HD streams.

So what can you do about it? First you should sign the petition here and tell all  your friends to do the same thing. Then you should like this Facebook Page. Another thing you can do is voice your opinion on the facebook message boards here. Perhaps if netflix ditches Silverlight we could get support from Adobe Flash since there are already examples of Flash using DRM in linux. That is unlikely though with the many devices which support Netflix currently. Netflix would have to work out a deal where they use multiple DRM solutions. I'm not sure the technical implications of that but I'd bet its not really an option at this point given how small of a market Linux is. The most likely option would be to get PlayReady DRM support for Moonlight directly -- and not just these embedded linux boxes. Perhaps a few more antitrust lawsuits and Microsoft will learn what "open" really means. Another thing you might do is frequently visit netflix's website with a linux browser. Perhaps they use an analytics service and check how many people visit their site with various browser/operating systems. 

And if you are really motivated you can cancel your netflix account! Just make sure to tell them why. With enough pressure Netflix could probably convince Microsoft to license their DRM to Linux/Novell for use on non-embedded systems. 

Comments welcome. Let me know what you think.