Firefox 38, the latest update for the free browser from Mozilla, comes with support for the closed-source Adobe Content Decryption Module (CDM) which will support copyright protected video content. This means that DRM protected content (Digital Rights Management) which has been placed inside the HTML 5 Video Tag on sites like Netflix, etc will play automatically on Firefox without users being prompted to install Microsoft's Silverlight or Adobe's flash. "The CDM will be downloaded from Adobe shortly after you upgrade or install Firefox and will be activated when you first interact with a site that uses Adobe CDM," Mozilla said in a blog post. Given that 'open source' has been a mission with Mozilla and Firefox, the decision to go with the 'closed-source' Adobe CDM did not really go down well with supporters of the community. The official blog post notes this, "It was was a hard decision because of our Mission and the closed nature of DRM. As we explained then, we are enabling DRM in order to provide our users with the features they require in a browser and allow them to continue accessing premium video content." As this post on PCWorld the issue with Adobe CDM is one of use privacy and other security vulnerabilities. However Firefox has pointed out that they are putting the CDM within a sandbox for additional security and also giving users the option of removing CDM from their browsers or downloading a version of Firefox without CDM.
