There isn't a DRM spec at the W3C. There is EME spec - DRM *extensions*, which is an interface for running DRM plug-ins.
A browser that implements 100% of the W3C EME spec will *not* be able to play Netflix at all. W3C EME is only one part of the two-part system. To play Netflix browser will need to implement W3C EME spec *and* license non-standard, closed-source fully proprietary DRM plug-in code from Netflix (which is what Google did for ChromeOS).
Therefore W3C's patent protection is useless, because it only protects the nearly-irrelevant easy bit.
Technically it's very similar to HTML4 [object] tag and Flash plug-in. A browser that supports [object] can't play Flash without Flash license, and the fact that [object] is part of the W3C HTML4 spec doesn't help much.
There isn't a DRM spec at the W3C. There is EME spec - DRM *extensions*, which is an interface for running DRM plug-ins.
A browser that implements 100% of the W3C EME spec will *not* be able to play Netflix at all. W3C EME is only one part of the two-part system. To play Netflix browser will need to implement W3C EME spec *and* license non-standard, closed-source fully proprietary DRM plug-in code from Netflix (which is what Google did for ChromeOS).
Therefore W3C's patent protection is useless, because it only protects the nearly-irrelevant easy bit.
Technically it's very similar to HTML4 [object] tag and Flash plug-in. A browser that supports [object] can't play Flash without Flash license, and the fact that [object] is part of the W3C HTML4 spec doesn't help much.