The HTML standard might get support for copy protection. The World Wide Web Consortium is discussing to include a Digital Rights Management (DRM) framework in the standard. The framework was developed and proposed by Google, Microsoft and Netflix.
An employee of the W3C, which controls the HTML standard, has announced in a mailing list that the W3C will investigate the so-called Encrypted Media Extension (EME) specification. The proposed EME framework itself does not provide copy protection but offers websites an API which enables them to implement a form of DRM.
Google, Microsoft and Netflix proposed the first version of the EME-specification in February 2012 to the W3C. Now it has become clear that the W3C is actually considering the specification. That doesn't mean the specification will be approved. "This is not an endorsement of the specification", writes the W3C employee in the mailing.
At the moment websites that want to use DRM, such as Netflix and the web version of Spotify, are providing this through browser plug-ins. For example Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight offer support for DRM. The technology is used to prevent users from copying information and is mainly used for copyrighted content. Currently is DRM mainly used on video streams, but some games, e-books and music stores also use the technology.
