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YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

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Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#61

Post by k33n »

imaginenore wrote: post #57
milankragujevic wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't break any laws since I don't play any videos which have forbidden embedding. Plus, technology like that has been mainstream in VLC, youtube-dl, etc, for ages. It uses the official YouTube API, and respects mosts of the Terms of Service, except the video fetching, which doesn't use the API at all, just loads the page on the server and catches the video stream.

Embedding and scraping into a video tag aren't the same thing. As soon as you store any of their content on your server, even if in just RAM, you're fucked, because that's copyright infringement.

Do you always give people legal advice based on your wild fantasies about how law works?

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#62

Post by Implicated »

B-Con wrote: post #17
JoshTriplett wrote: post #11

Alternative hypothesis (assuming a bug rather than intended behavior): YouTube is testing a new ad mechanism, and the new mechanism (rather naturally) wasn't tested on systems blocking ads; it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. But yeah, I do tend to watch most of my videos through youtube-dl these days, even though the HTML5 player works fine for me in Firefox with…

> it then produces a delay if the ad can't be downloaded, rather than silently skipping it. I've seen at least two other popular video sites over the years that had this symptom. (Can't remember them, maybe Hulu 6+ years ago?) One of them would occasionally have a weird overlap of the end of a commercial and the video. My guess was that the video was was queued to start playing after the length of the ad by some ad-i…

CBS has had this issue in the past as well with their player.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#63

Post by ams6110 »

wpietri wrote: post #52
martinald wrote: post #19

It's quite staggering to think the risk adblocking poses to Google's business. They have virtually no business apart from ads. AFIAK they have marketshare in the UK (and maybe US) which surpasses print+tv. Can you imagine this 40 years ago? An invention which cuts out newspaper ads and time travels broadcast TV past the commercials? Staggering.

Google has two importantly different kinds of ads. One is where you are searching something and they show you relevant offerings. Here, people are often happy to see the results, as they can move them toward their goal. The other is where you are trying to do something (read a blog post, watch a video) and they want you to do something else (read about somebody's product, watch a video advertisement). Here many peopl…

I don't care for either type of ad. I've never intentionally clicked an ad that came up in a search result.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#64

Post by ams6110 »

kirykl wrote: post #10

I'd sign up for a low tier Red. Don't watch too many videos maybe $1/$2 month for an ad free vid limit or ability to buy instant skips

I've signed up for the family plan on Google Play which also includes YouTube Red. $15/month for up to five family members, can't beat that and that eliminates the YouTube ads.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#66

Post by xrstf »

milankragujevic wrote: post #59
milankragujevic wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't break any laws since I don't play any videos which have forbidden embedding. Plus, technology like that has been mainstream in VLC, youtube-dl, etc, for ages. It uses the official YouTube API, and respects mosts of the Terms of Service, except the video fetching, which doesn't use the API at all, just loads the page on the server and catches the video stream.

@imaginenore: They're not, but if the video is licensed for embedding that means that I can't be sued for copyright infringement, plus the standard "linking != infringement" applies.

You are breaking several of YouTube's TOS (https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms)

> (5A) you agree not to distribute any part of or parts of the Website or the Service, including but not limited to any Content

By downloading and sending the videos from your servers, you are distributing their content.

> (5C) you agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Website itself, the YouTube Player, or such other means as YouTube may explicitly designate for this purpose

Downloading a video via CLI is not using the YouTube player.

> (5D) you agree not to (or attempt to) circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security related features of the Service or features that (i) prevent or restrict use or copying of Content or (ii) enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content accessible via the Service

By removing ads you are interfering with the restriction that users must watch ads.

> (5L) [...] not intended to be downloaded (either permanently or temporarily), copied, stored, or redistributed by the user.

Should be obvious.

> (5M) You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content

You are copying and distributing the content.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#67

Post by meritt »

milankragujevic wrote: post #46
cloudwalking wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you going to play YouTube videos without ads?

The server fetches the video page from YouTube, and embeds the VP8+Opus video URL into my site's page with a tag.

Ha. So you're stealing content and then offering it up for free (and presumably you're on the hook for bandwidth bills)?

Exactly what's the goal of your ill-fated plan? You're going to get blocked/banned and when you continue to circumvent it, you're going to get a C&D. This is an absolutely terrible idea.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#68

Post by chejazi »

wpietri wrote: post #52
martinald wrote: post #19

It's quite staggering to think the risk adblocking poses to Google's business. They have virtually no business apart from ads. AFIAK they have marketshare in the UK (and maybe US) which surpasses print+tv. Can you imagine this 40 years ago? An invention which cuts out newspaper ads and time travels broadcast TV past the commercials? Staggering.

Google has two importantly different kinds of ads. One is where you are searching something and they show you relevant offerings. Here, people are often happy to see the results, as they can move them toward their goal. The other is where you are trying to do something (read a blog post, watch a video) and they want you to do something else (read about somebody's product, watch a video advertisement). Here many peopl…

To phrase the dichotomy more simply...

One type of ad is about recognition.

The other type is about solving a problem.

To me, this largely boils down to CPC vs CPM. It will be interesting to see how the market evolves to embrace (or discard) these different types.

Re: YouTube now shows "An error has occurred" while ads running

#70

Post by meritt »

YouTube is free. It's free because Google pays for it via ads. If you aren't watching ads, then you're effectively not paying for the content. Exactly what are people expecting to happen and why are they mad at Google here? Why do they feel like they're owed something for nothing?

If you don't like it, go launch and finance your own free-to-watch-no-ads-included video site.

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