We must thank EZDRM for bringing to our attention news that Google is retiring its Widevine Cloud License Service (CLS) in April 2027. The urgency of EZDRM’s blogpost, spying a potentially sizable business opportunity, urged us to clarify for readers that Google’s license withdrawal does not mark the end of Widevine itself. Google’s Widevine DRM remains essential for video streaming playback, and the Widevine system will continue to exist in browsers and operating systems for the foreseeable future. Sunsetting Widevine would break half of the world’s streaming ecosystem. What Google is sunsetting next year refers to the specific cloud-hosted license server infrastructure used by operators to issue licenses to clients in real-time. Widevine CLS is essentially a narrower part of…