Hulu begins encrypting HTML content to thwart non-browser apps
by Nilay Patel 
posted Apr 1st 2009 at 1:10PM
It looks like Hulu's trying yet another ill-fated tactic to keep its content restricted to traditional browsers and off things like Boxee -- TunerFreeMCE's Martin Millmore says Hulu's HTML is now encrypted at the source and then decrypted using Javascript on the client. That means plugins that parse the Hulu site for links to content won't work anymore, but man, what a complicated monkey dance for basically no gain -- it's already been broken, and we're wondering what Hulu's going to do when Boxee or another company stops playing around and simply builds a full-on WebKit or Gecko browser with a tweaked ID string into their app. Keep driving towards that cliff, guys -- millions of users who want Hulu on their TVs and will jump through hoops to get it don't represent any kind of market opportunity or anything.Update: The Boxee folks just pinged us to say what several commenters have also noted: the current Mac alpha now features an XUL-based Hulu component that works no differently than a browser, and the Windows and Linux versions will be updated shortly. We'll see how Hulu responds -- for now we're sticking by our prediction that this all ends with someone building a full-on browser into one of these apps.
Filed under: Internet
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
numerwan @ Apr 1st 2009 1:28PM
You still have to sit thru the commercials... Not sure what the issue is? More and more PCs are coming with HDMI connections, more and more TVs have PC inputs, so more and more people are gonna hook up a PC to their TV regardless of how you look at it... Its the same thing...
Robert @ Apr 1st 2009 1:48PM
If you can see it on your browser, it is possible to get at the code. If they build in WebKit, which I think should be easy to add into a Mac app, with the same user agent string as the current version of Safari, they load the page and then get document.body.innerHTML. I'm sure in the WebKit APIs, there is a method to get the HTML out of the parser. So, given an hour of work (and that may be way more than needed), Boxee can get the content.
Hulu needs to make a deal with Boxee to provide content. Short of shutting down the site, that's the only way they are going to stop Boxee from accessing content.
Dave @ Apr 1st 2009 1:54PM
I guess this also kills the playon upnp program...This Sucks
TLoganK @ Apr 1st 2009 2:00PM
Can anyone confirm this? HOPEFULLY this is not the case...I just bought PlayOn last night!
brn @ Apr 1st 2009 4:45PM
Doesn't PlayOn pull via RSS feeds. I suspect that'd be unaffected.
Ordeith @ Apr 1st 2009 4:23PM
Tlog:
You seriously couldny find ANYTHING better to spend $40 on?
The Fuzz 53 @ Apr 1st 2009 2:10PM
WTF the going on there? Why on Earth would a company restrict the number of people that use their service?
squiggleslash @ Apr 1st 2009 7:03PM
If I understand it, it's because Hulu.com's content providers (read: the networks - Fox, NBC, etc) are freaking out about the idea people might use online streaming services as a full alternative to watching live TV. One network exec recently said that Hulu.com was teaching people "bad habits" (can't find the quote, alas)
We kind of have things wrong. Most people saw Hulu.com as the industry's reaction to the amount of unauthorized content on YouTube and BitTorrent. We assumed the industry felt that making a better product would mean people would stop going via the illegal routes.
Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be how Hulu's backers see it. They see it strictly as a way to catch up on missed shows on a computer, a non-optimal way of watching shows.
It's dumb, it's crippling Hulu, and it's just going to bite them in the rear in the long term.
Rudy @ Apr 1st 2009 2:16PM
And boxee one ups them... They are officially "Powered by Mozilla"
http://twitter.com/boxee/statuses/1432968840
Rudy @ Apr 1st 2009 2:17PM
Gotta love twitter...
Josh Wardell @ Apr 1st 2009 2:38PM
What morons. The ads are embedded in the stream, so we watch them no matter what. We really started watching Hulu a lot when it was easilly viewed on my TV thanks to AppleTV & Boxee. Now I couldn't care less...we just DVR more where we are sure to skip commercials.
S4Rs @ Apr 1st 2009 3:04PM
I couldn't agree more what this post is saying. The internet is accessable to any device with an internet connection. It shouldn't be restrict to what device accesses the web.
Last.fm is doing the same thing right now because some Labels are pissed that you can listen to their songs in the iPhone. They say their contract was for web and not mobile! How can you say that sentence and not swallow your Jaw and vanish into thin air?
Someone is just gonna make a webkit browser for iphones and android to get around those last.fm holes too rather than use their sneaky api which gives them the control.
it is impossible to segregate the web. remove the apartheid this instance!
burndive @ Apr 1st 2009 3:04PM
This is great news: the best way to breed the perfect predator is to make the prey more illusive.
Pretty soon, Boxee will launch videos in what for all intents and purposes is a full "traditional" browser: there are plenty to choose from.
Hulu is making Boxee more robust. Thanks, studios.
Kingpcgeek @ Apr 1st 2009 5:27PM
Get a clue people and stop blaming Hulu, its not their fault. Its the content providers, ie Fox and NBC that don't want their content on Hulu shown on TV's. Fox and NBC make a hell of a lot more money selling commercials on broadcast TV then the meager change they make from Hulu. If people shift from broadcast to online their revenue shrinks greatly.
Rob @ Apr 1st 2009 7:13PM
Maybe you're the one who needs to get a clue. The so-called "content owners" also own Hulu. So, the blame is being right where it belongs, on Hulu. Also, what difference exactly does it make where/how people watch the content? Isn't commercials their motivations? Fine. No one is removing the commercials. Also, it's not like you can fast forward the commercials online. So where is the problem? Oh yeah, they want to extort money from companies for showing something that's already freely available online.
Fine with me. I dropped them after they blocked XBMC. The love is mutual.
glenn s @ Apr 1st 2009 6:59PM
Fox and NBC own Hulu, so it is perfectly legit to blame Hulu.
Paul Witschey @ Apr 2nd 2009 6:12PM
I strongly believe that the reason Hulu and others are making life difficult for content aggregation solutions that use the TV as a broadcast medium is that they are trying to restrict competition through the same medium. They view streaming to the PC as a different marketing channel for their services to TV; but when the Internet broadcast reaches the TV in an easy and convenient way the line between those channels gets blurred and their marketing channels get competition from each other. Since the Internet broadcasts is new they are broadcasting less advertisements on it (on the one hand to attract people to use the internet medium and on the other because companies are provably willing to pay less for the internet advertisement than for the TV broadcast one).
As a user I obviously want to be able to choose how I view TV, and if I choose to stream the internet broadcast to my TV I think I should be able to do it. But if I put myself in the shoes of the media owners I understand what they are trying to do.
I honestly think that they are in a loosing battle here. Sooner or later they will have no choice but to allow users (customers) to see the Internet broadcast the way they want to see it. It is funny how history keeps on repeating itself. Not too long ago we had the music companies trying to go against the trend, and they ended up loosing tons of money because of their stubbornness. Well, I see a very close resemblance with the current situation.
Nobody wants to end up with tons of different boxes next to their TV (one for each channel or network!). People want to be able have 1 box that controls all media. But the networks want to be the owners of the box....or want to license who makes the box. They don't seem to be content with earning revenue from advertising (like they have always done). Now they want control over the reception box. Its crazy, but it is understandable that a paradox shift like the one we are seeing today (with everything becoming digitized and traveling though the public Internet) will make a lot of the companies who used to control the media, and the medium under which they traveled...unease.
They will have no choice but to get used to it...eventually. But in the meantime I do expect a fight from them; just like the record companies did ...and eventually FAILED!
Mojo_Yugen @ Apr 2nd 2009 8:59AM
"...we're sticking by our prediction that this all ends with someone building a full-on browser into one of these apps"
I'm predicting this all ends with some lawyers in a building in a full-on litigation fest.
DrXym @ Apr 2nd 2009 1:19PM
The next thing that will happen is someone will create a custom chrome app for XUL Runner which evaluates the content (including JS) and then exits. Short of sticking a captcha onto the page or constantly morphing the url they're never going to stop determined people ripping their rss.