Just because Mozilla says they will lose users if they don't do this, doesn't make it true. They've shown no evidence of trends that this is happening. They are simply adopting DRM out of fear.
Also chasing popularity is like chasing money. It shouldn't be the goal. Those things follow after doing the right thing, and I believe for an organization with the kind of community and userbase Firefox has around it, not implementing DRM would've been the "right" thing to do.
Indeed... this is just throwing in the towel completely without putting up a fight. Here are various other ways:
- do the work to implement the DRM thing but keep it disabled ready to hot patch in once evidence shows that they'll be fucked without it
- display "this is bullshit DRM content you shouldn't support, read more HERE, and click HERE if you really don't care and will use another browser to view this anyway" in place of the DRM content initially
etc.
Immediately giving in is hardly "dragged kicking and screaming".
Er... We have been fighting this proposal for several years, thank you very much.
Also:
> - do the work to implement the DRM thing but keep it disabled ready to hot patch in once evidence shows that they'll be fucked without it
So when do we decide that? After we have lost our user base? Or when it becomes evident that just almost everybody is already watching movies on the web using proprietary blackboxes that may or may not use DRM, may or may not identify you and may or may not leak your info? Because that has been the case for quite a few years already.
> - display "this is bullshit DRM content you shouldn't support, read more HERE, and click HERE if you really don't care and will use another browser to view this anyway" in place of the DRM content initially
So, lecture users and invite them to change browser? That doesn't sound like a good strategy.
Also chasing popularity is like chasing money. It shouldn't be the goal. Those things follow after doing the right thing, and I believe for an organization with the kind of community and userbase Firefox has around it, not implementing DRM would've been the "right" thing to do.