EME extends HTMLMediaElement to let it talk to Content Decryption Modules, which must be provided elsewhere. This is just a standardized API for being able to handle protected content. I do not understand all the hyperbole surrounding this.
You're also a bit off your rocker if you're trying to paint "the copyright industry" as some kind of secretive cabal of people who just want to cram DRM on users' computers. Not to mention the fact that sites that don't use this won't even be affected by it. The vast majority of websites out there won't even care, and the ones that do care already have a solution to deal with protected content today, it's just a crappy solution (e.g. requiring Silverlight). Hell, using EME to handle protected content is a far better experience for the user than requiring the installation of a third-party plugin that can has far more capabilities than just decryption content. So if anything, this actually limits the scope of what protected content playback code can do on users' machines.
I never said the copyright cabal was secretive but they absolutely want control over our computers' playback mechanisms.
There was a proposal, I think in the HDDVD spec maybe, wherein the dvd drive itself would be remotely disabled and prevented from playing future content based on the sole discretion of some nebulous 3rd party.
There's the Sony BMG rootkit thing that Mark Russinovich uncovered.
Yes, they absolutely want to cram your computer with DRM and you're a fool for thinking they don't.
They want to control how their content is played back on your computer. That is not the same thing as wanting to arbitrarily stuff arbitrary computers full of arbitrary DRM. Yes, they've gone ridiculously overboard in the past, but DRM is not the goal in and of itself.
You're also a bit off your rocker if you're trying to paint "the copyright industry" as some kind of secretive cabal of people who just want to cram DRM on users' computers. Not to mention the fact that sites that don't use this won't even be affected by it. The vast majority of websites out there won't even care, and the ones that do care already have a solution to deal with protected content today, it's just a crappy solution (e.g. requiring Silverlight). Hell, using EME to handle protected content is a far better experience for the user than requiring the installation of a third-party plugin that can has far more capabilities than just decryption content. So if anything, this actually limits the scope of what protected content playback code can do on users' machines.