> The alternative is that people complain "netflix doesn't work on firefox", switch to chrome instead, which is even worse.
So what if users complain? How is it better for Firefox to do something bad just because Google is doing something bad?
Firefox is supposed to provide an alternative to what's out there. Firefox also didn't support some popular proprietary Internet Explorer features, and they never attempted to. For a time, much of MySpace didn't work as well in Firefox. But I'm glad that Firefox didn't cave, even if some users complained that they couldn't make the scrollbars neon green or make music autoplay.
Not letting Microsoft or Google dictate how they implement a web browser worked out really well for them.
Chasing proprietary platforms has ruined them.
At the time EME was adopted Firefox was much more popular, I think 20% back in 2012. Video platforms were using Silverlight for DRM. There's a good chance that EME would not have gotten off the ground if Mozilla didn't embrace it, or at least not as quickly.
Mozilla should have taken a stand and refused to support EME when they had the chance. They would be better off than they are now. And there's a good chance Netflix would not have thrown away a double digit percentage of subscribers.
Instead they embraced DRM and now they have nothing.
That's almost certainly their rationale, bit I'm not convinced it's sound. Firefox's market share is pretty dire anyway, and many people watch Netflix through phones and tv apps now, rather than their actual browser, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't an issue at all.
The alternative is that people complain "netflix doesn't work on firefox", switch to chrome instead, which is even worse.