Hulu begins encrypting HTML content to thwart non-browser apps

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.

[Ben @ Apr 1st 2009 1:13PM]

fun. too bad i have bad bandwidth viewin hulu videos -_-

[Alex @ Apr 1st 2009 1:15PM]

I want hulu in Canada dammit!

[Bizam! @ Apr 1st 2009 2:05PM]

Just use Firefox with Tor / Torbutton. Connect to a node in the US and you're done!

[shanoboy @ Apr 1st 2009 2:21PM]

Screw that and screw Hulu. I've already switched back to good ol' bittorrent.

I didn't want to watch your stinkin commercials anyway HULU!

[samu @ Apr 1st 2009 2:35PM]

Please DO NOT use Tor for this.

"The current Tor network is quite small compared to the number of people trying to use it, and many of these users don't understand or care that Tor can't currently handle file-sharing traffic load."

https://www.torproject.org/faq#WhySlow

In any case, you'll get far better results by other means, such as a VPN. I use Witopia's SSL/PPTP package, which has exit points in the US and UK, allowing access to both Hulu and the BBC iPlayer.

http://www.witopia.net/welcome.php

[waterwagen @ Apr 1st 2009 1:15PM]

The internetz w1ll alwaiz winz!!!111!!!

[Flaystus @ Apr 1st 2009 1:16PM]

I want HULU on my iPhone! Over 3G! Also instead of hulu just make it porn. tia!

[Joseph @ Apr 1st 2009 1:30PM]

Hulu has Red Shoe Diaries.

[Dan Armstrong @ Apr 1st 2009 1:16PM]

I swear to god these big companies are all run by idiots! This is basically DRM. DRM doesn't do anything but cause customer headaches. What are you afraid of hulu? Customers? Your evil plot to take over the world is failing.

[Derek @ Apr 1st 2009 1:17PM]

"Your evil plot to take over the world is failing."

+1

[SureWhyNot @ Apr 1st 2009 1:35PM]

It is DRM, and because you're giving users the key to their own cell (but trying to stop them from leaving), it's breakable. However, Hulu just has to make it a pain in the ass enough to stop people from using their videos like Boxee where it doesn't work on a regular basis/reliably to the point where most people are willing to either watch it through Hulu instead, or, better yet (ad revenue is better), watch it from broadcast/cable/satellite.

[OneLove @ Apr 1st 2009 1:47PM]

"Your evil plot to take over the world is failing."

+2

[THJ @ Apr 1st 2009 2:25PM]

Here's what hulu is afraid of:

Content providers (Fox/NBC) pulling out, leaving hulu with a vastly reduced library.

Here's what the content providers are afraid of:

Cable companies/local network (TWC, Comcast, FiOS, your local OTA NBC channel, etc) filing lawsuits due to breach of contract. (the pay 100s of millions for access to the shows)

Here's what the cable companies are afraid of:

Losing ad revenue due to people viewing ads served by Hulu instead of their local OTA network and/or cable channels.

It's kinda like the whole collect call/pre-paid calling card snafu in the 90s, where pay-phone owners were going broke because the big telcos were collecting all the revenue via collect calls and pre-paid phone cards.

[Meat @ Apr 1st 2009 3:08PM]

exactly. what about the people that use boxee on on their computer monitors? dont they know that you can put hulu on your TV just as easy? and doesnt your TV technically become a "computer monitor" the second you use it as such? i hope they come to an agreement soon because this is annoying.

double up the commercials so everyone is happy, then someone create a 3rd party plugin for boxee to buffer the download so you can fast forward through like tivo, and name it FHULU.

[Jomolungma @ Apr 1st 2009 1:16PM]

:-( I hope this doesn't affect PlayOn. I haven't tried it lately, but was enjoying using it to get Hulu through my Xbox 360. Indeed, it was part of my "dump Comcast cable" strategy. Although if it does hurt PlayOn, I'm sure some other enterprising company will develop a workaround product in 3.....2....1....

[JJ @ Apr 1st 2009 1:32PM]

Just tried it. It doesn't seem to have any effect on PlayOn.

[WinShape @ Apr 1st 2009 1:38PM]

Same here. I'm running PlayOn through my XBOX. So far, no trouble (as long as you keep PlayOn updated). The thing that worries me more is bandwidth caps from ISP's. What's the point in cancelling cable if I'm going to be spending the same amount for internet access?

[Jomolungma @ Apr 1st 2009 1:36PM]

Hooray!

[Paul @ Apr 1st 2009 2:24PM]

Good, I need to catch the episode of 24 I missed and I count on PlayOn to deliver. I bought PlayOn for Hulu on TV, so I hope it always works!

[cinciguy2008 @ Apr 1st 2009 1:17PM]

Yeah, have fun spending money to keep your advertising opportunities limited to the PC...
I'll just go back to rss torrents, it was nice not to have to watch commercials and buffer video anyways.

If you change your mind, I'd still be interested in going "legit" again. Until then, thanks, but no thanks.

[Examancer @ Apr 1st 2009 1:34PM]

cinciguy2008++ ... exactly what I was thinking. Don't complain about "illegal" filesharing when you aren't going to offer a legal alternative that isn't encumbered by DRM or obscured by some other method. Back to bit torrent...

[seamonkey420 @ Apr 1st 2009 1:36PM]

took the words out of my typing fingers :)

just made me go back to torrents again. boxee still does netflix loving :)

i'd like it if hulu offered premium memberships of $10 a month for unlimited, commercial free streaming.

do it! do it now!

[Dorf @ Apr 1st 2009 2:47PM]

Yeah, like you guys stopped using bittorrent to begin with.... heh.

[cinciguy2008 @ Apr 1st 2009 5:31PM]

Actually, yes, I did stop torrenting.

Movies from Netflix (with online streaming of some honestly crappy movies, that at least hold me over till the movies I really want show up in the mail)

And I've stopped downloading music illegally. Between Pandora, SeeqPod and iTunes+ I'm finally happy with getting my music fix online.

[Finger @ Apr 1st 2009 1:17PM]

Yeah! This is completely ridiculous! It represents a huge market opportunity! Too bad they get their content from major networks who run off advertising! And they're the ones controlling Hulu's decisions regarding the HTML encryption!

This is a completely understandable and expected tactic by Hulu. They want to make sure the networks keep providing them content, and the only way (as of now, at least) is to make sure it stays on browsers. The evolution to Hulu-on-TV will come eventually, but it can't happen overnight.

Millions of users want free content streaming to their TVs with only three 15 second ads per 30 minute episode? Yeah, that's TV Utopia right there, but networks can't sustain it...yet. If you want this new golden age of TV to continue, let this all run its course. Networks aren't as ignorant as it may seem.

[drummerjoe @ Apr 1st 2009 1:22PM]

Yes, yes they are that ignorant. They are creating technical obstacles to prevent Hulu-on-TV. We wouldn't have to wait overnight if they were such b!tch3s!

[seamonkey420 @ Apr 1st 2009 1:36PM]

you give them too much credit.

[midmagic @ Apr 1st 2009 6:00PM]

Just like the RIAA?
Just like the printed publication companies? Poor news papers that just don't get it.

Sorry. All of these people are ignorant and scared. The Internet changes the game and they will resist it with their last breath.

[phate @ Apr 1st 2009 1:18PM]

Um the source doesn't look encrypted to me...

[SureWhyNot @ Apr 1st 2009 1:39PM]

Look where the video is embedded ( search for [ link rel="video_src" ] without the brackets in the source). Later on, there is some javascript that decodes that and makes it an actual link.

[Martin @ Apr 1st 2009 3:03PM]

If you want to see the encoding (not encryption), take a look at this URL;

http://www.hulu.com/channels/Action-and-Adventure?ajax=true&type=episodes&kind=videos&sort=release&page=2

That's one of the many URLs that hulu use to push the dynamic content on to your page when you navigate. As you can see, it's all encoded.

[Patrick @ Apr 14th 2009 4:52PM]

As noted by Martin below, there are certain types of responses that are "encrypted". However, to say that they are encrypted is being very generous. This really amounts to a trivial amount of obfuscation. I wrote up a short blog article detailing the approach at http://labs.neohapsis.com/2009/04/14/huluclient-side-encryptionseriously/

[Templarian @ Apr 1st 2009 1:19PM]

Yea, they already updated the player, it no longer shows the Hulu channels. :(

[Chedstone @ Apr 1st 2009 1:19PM]

haha...these guys

[Bradley @ Apr 1st 2009 1:20PM]

The whole Boxxee showdown and now this makes me sad for Hulu.

[eric @ Apr 1st 2009 1:51PM]

Much love for your icon.

[Bradley @ Apr 1st 2009 1:56PM]

Mr. Tastee FTW!

[lawschoolbound @ Apr 1st 2009 1:21PM]

The problem isn't Hulu, it's the content providers. They are the ones who demanded that Hulu not work on Boxee, because if people are going to be watching on their tv, then they want them to watch 'traditional' tv where they get most of their money from. Moves like this will only hurt Hulu and Hulu knows it, but I seriously doubt there is much they can do about it.

[Brad @ Apr 1st 2009 1:43PM]

Yeah, but if you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.

For the metaphor impaired: "If you play with the content providers, they're going to rape you."

For the extremely metaphor impaired: "If Hulu signed agreements with content providers (which is a given), the content providers will take advantage of Hulu by any legal means possible at every possible moment."

[info @ Apr 1st 2009 2:03PM]

Actually it's your favorite affiliates (TimeWarner, Comcas and Co.). There were some rumors about major disconnects of cable subscribers because of Boxee and such so they started to put huge pressure on Hulu.

[extramedium @ Apr 1st 2009 1:22PM]

You act as if Hulu is in charge here. They can't afford to piss off the networks who control the content they provide. If they didn't have 30 Rock available on the web no one would care about Hulu. It doesn't matter how big the market is, if NBC doesn't want their shows streamed to a TV set via Boxee or whatever, Hulu better do what they can to stop it from happening or they're going to lose their only reason for existing.

[Robert @ Apr 1st 2009 1:24PM]

What he said.

[john @ Apr 1st 2009 2:09PM]

Erm... Hulu is owned by NBC and Fox

[randall bennett @ Apr 1st 2009 1:21PM]

The funny part is this doesn't actually hurt Boxee. Boxee added XUL support last week, which means it looks just like a regular browser (in its most recent test build, anyway). I'm watching video in Boxee right now.

And regardless, Boxee's CEO Avner Ronen told us that his goal is to help the consumer, and will always help find publicly available content online.

http://techvi.com/boxeeceo

[Steve Howe @ Apr 1st 2009 1:22PM]

I have started to boycott Hulu, this is exactly how a great idea can turn into a horrible mess by big business NOT understanding their audience. Advertising is still being shown yet they continue to try and eliminate their viewers.

[SureWhyNot @ Apr 1st 2009 1:31PM]

The problem is that Hulu is owned by NBC Universal and News Corporation (Fox). Also, they are trying to attract other content providers (like CBS and ABC/Disney). So they have an interest to prevent Boxee from working (internet video revenue is better than piracy, but far worse than ad rates on TV with the same number of people watching).

It's always cat & mouse; Hulu figures out tricks, Boxee & others break it. It's nothing too terrible, and at least Hulu is not forcing users to install a special plugin (requiring software installs & blocking out non mainstream OSes).

[Taylor. Yes, Taylor. @ Apr 1st 2009 1:23PM]

Yeah.... I just have a PC on my TV. Solves that and many other issues!
-Taylor

[OneLove @ Apr 1st 2009 1:51PM]

How does placing a PC on your TV solve anything? :)

[Alan Strangis @ Apr 1st 2009 2:11PM]

Full-screening video from a real browser neatly sidesteps any issues about not being able to watch Hulu outside of a browser because, well, you're watching it in a browser.

Seemed pretty self-explanatory to me, but thought I'd clear it up. ;)

[booberry @ Apr 1st 2009 2:17PM]

Word! I made a media PC out of a 2003 Shuttle XPC that I bought on eBay for less than $100. I added XP MCE 2005 and Voila! Movies, photos, music and the web all at my fingertips. I just hooked the VGA out to the VGA in on my LCD TV and steer it with an Adesso wireless keyboard.

No hi-def.... but that's a limit of the processor (It only has an AMD Athlon XP 1800+) not the setup.