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GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

torrentfreak.com

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Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#51

Post by rapnie »

amelius wrote: post #3

Time for a (truly) decentralized version control system?

> version control system?

Better to refer to them as 'code forges', the central locations where clone your git repo from, and that have additional features such as issue tracker, team boards, and what-have-you..

> decentralized

The code forges themselves (github, gitlab, gitea, sourcehut, vervis, etc.) are not decentralized, but the open ForgeFed protocol, under development at https://forgefed.peers.community (an extension of ActivityPub), facilitates decentralization of forges.

---

TL;DR Talking about decentralizing GH / VCS always leads to (correct) reactions such as 'git is already decentralized'. Code forge interactions need to become decentralized too.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#52

Post by [deleted] »

donmcronald wrote: post #6

This is an area where GitLab could have a huge advantage. If they had really good support for mirroring projects between instances then running your own private instance for control while mirroring to GitLab.com for scale / convenience would make a lot of sense. Of course I’m sure that would go into the super mega platinum “we’re only charging 1/5 of the real value” BS tier or whatever they’re pushing these days.

[deleted]

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#53

Post by chmod775 »

mrtksn wrote: post #41
chmod775 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again pretty much any policy can be made unenforceable if a sufficient number of people decide to make it so. Technologists with their ability to automate are at a distinct advantage here again. I'm just waiting for youtube-dl to move development to Tor or i2p or another censorship resistant network - and ship with a built-in client to update from there.

Probably the lawyers will move on when the thing becomes hard enough to use and gets contained to few techies showing off to their few friends and calling it a victory. The issue is that anything that scales needs an infrastructure and infrastructures can be extralegal only if they are not worth the time of the guys with the guns.

> Probably the lawyers will move on when the thing becomes hard enough to use and gets contained few techies showing off to their few friends and calling it a victory.

youtube-dl is a tool mostly used by techies anyways, and they specifically took down the code repository. On top of that youtube-dl is a commandline tool. This is not your typical "google how do I netflix" end-user.

You can bootstrap an application that is hosted on tor or i2p with a short bash script: 1. download and start tor/i2p, 2. download the application, 3. run it.

youtube-dl already has a built-in updater (youtube-dl -U). You'd just change that to use tor/i2p as well.

Anyone who can't get such a script to run wouldn't have been able to use youtube-dl anyways.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#54

Post by mrtksn »

pharke wrote: post #49
mrtksn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the lawyers will move on when the thing becomes hard enough to use and gets contained to few techies showing off to their few friends and calling it a victory. The issue is that anything that scales needs an infrastructure and infrastructures can be extralegal only if they are not worth the time of the guys with the guns.

If only there were a decentralized file sharing protocol that anyone can use to distribute source code and binaries...

decentralization doesn’t work without a centralized tool. Torrents are nothing more than a clever idea without The Pirate Bay & similar, Bitcoin is worth nothing without the exchanges.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#55

Post by elmo2you »

crazypython wrote: post #34

What if we got big, important accounts to repost it, creating a "hostage situation" for GitHub?

Interesting thought. It would definitely call bluff on these bully tactics by GitHub.

GitHub's deplorable behavior might very well be illegal, but fat chance of anyone dragging the company to court over it, considering how much that would cost and the amount of lawyers that Microsoft would put on such a case.

Yet again a tech company making up their own laws and (so far) getting away with it. One might wonder, if anything ever substantially changed in the Wild West.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#56

Post by bnj »

bitwize wrote: post #40
db48x wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing to circumvent. It's not illegal.

Wrong. YouTube obfuscates the URL of the video stream for videos which have been identified as containing copyrighted material and are licensed for streaming only through the YouTube Web player or app. The copyright owner has made the material available under a license which permits ONLY that. Youtube-dl contains code to decrypt the URL of the video stream in order to download and save the copyrighted material, in vi…

Out of curiosity, do you have any insight about how this works when applied to other mechanisms and tools?

YouTube-dl has a lot of use cases, among which are the downloading of potentially copyrighted works, in a way which seems similar in my mind to the way a VCR has a lot of use cases including, possibly, the recording of TV shows in violation of a license.

Why are VCRs permissible to distribute but not this software?

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#57

Post by mrtksn »

chmod775 wrote: post #53
mrtksn wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the lawyers will move on when the thing becomes hard enough to use and gets contained to few techies showing off to their few friends and calling it a victory. The issue is that anything that scales needs an infrastructure and infrastructures can be extralegal only if they are not worth the time of the guys with the guns.

> Probably the lawyers will move on when the thing becomes hard enough to use and gets contained few techies showing off to their few friends and calling it a victory. youtube-dl is a tool mostly used by techies anyways, and they specifically took down the code repository. On top of that youtube-dl is a commandline tool. This is not your typical "google how do I netflix" end-user. You can bootstrap an application tha…

There’s nothing stopping you from writing your own downloader too. It’s not about making video downloads impossible, they are probably gunning to disrupt the development of the project so it would not be able to keep up with the changes of the video websites, make it painful to use, thus eventually insignificant.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#58

Post by chmod775 »

mrtksn wrote: post #54
pharke wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there were a decentralized file sharing protocol that anyone can use to distribute source code and binaries...

decentralization doesn’t work without a centralized tool. Torrents are nothing more than a clever idea without The Pirate Bay & similar, Bitcoin is worth nothing without the exchanges.

You can create your own TPB by just crawling the DHT network for torrents and downloading the torrent metadata from active peers. In fact I did this once as a fun weekend project.

Also you pretty much gave a counterexample to your own argument by bringing up TPB.

The "people with guns" would love nothing more than for it to go away, yet here we are - 17 years and counting.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#59

Post by ttt0 »

dharmab wrote: post #50
arghwhat wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

youtube-dl does not circumvent any protection measures, so hosting it should not be illegal in any country, including Switzerland. The only problem here is the absurdity of how the DMCA and similar works in the US, which allows companies to easily spam invalid claims and require content removed unless the victim puts in the work to prove the claim invalid. And, of course, that legal cases tend to be settled not moral…

youtube-dl has circumvention code needed to download copyrighted music from major publishers, which have a slightly different cipher than the rest of the site. They even had integration tests for this code path.

The alleged "circumvention code" is just a JavaScript interpreter.

Re: GitHub Warns Users Reposting YouTube-DL They Could Be Banned

#60

Post by amelius »

jbotz wrote: post #25
maeln wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it is ironic, but the vcs is decentralized. The main issue is project & code management (bug tracking, issue, planning, merge request, review UI, ...). But here we also have a lot of solution : Gitlab, Redmine, Savana, ... But Github give your project exposure to a lot of potential contributor, and tend to be used as an extension of your CV (many recruiter contacted me because of my activities on GH .…

> the social network side of GH is one of its very important side. Exactly, and it's always the social network side of things that causes trouble when it's centralized. It's exactly our social interactions that we need to be free from central control in order to have any real freedom.

Then how about using the social media functions of GH, and keeping the source elsewhere (to the extent possible)?
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