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YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

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Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#171
post #67
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>music-only video service I'm not sure how that isn't soundcloud/spotify.

Soundcloud and Spotify don't have any video.

Spotify has video for some titles, particularly pop.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#172
I bought a bunch of videos for my son to watch on his YouTube account. We can no longer access them as they are age restricted.

I don't have a problem with Google providing parental controls, if I as the parent am in control. But Google have unilaterally decided that for us. Never buying any media from Google (or any other large tech company again). Reverting to second hand DVDs and putting them on Plex.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#173
post #81
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is parents’ job, not Google’s. If you legally require Google to act like a parent, they have to do it to everyone.

Sounds good. Say I'm a non-technical parent that wants to give my child access to YouTube but not allow them to watch content that they're not old enough to consume on their own. How should I do this? I want to give them the freedom to explore topics they're interested in so downloading some pre-approved videos isn't going to work. And my kid is smart and will realize that any account-specific setting can trivially b…

Say I'm a regular member of society and want to watch the trailer for a new Battlefield game. How should I do this? YouTube asks me to give them pictures of my ID for that. This is the mechanism that will be used for this right now.

And it's all in the name of "protecting" children. This isn't some future hypothetical - it has already happened. I've been barred from a whole slew of content on YouTube because of this.

Right now it's only used by Google. It's likely that in the future most websites will use this, because it's government regulation.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK the age restriction credit card thing (inside the EU) is the result of some stupid law change (the Audiovisual Media Services Directive). Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now.

> Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now. I mean, I hate this age validation as much as everyone else, curbing advertising to impressionable kids doesn't sound too stupid to me...

It makes total moral sense, but Google has proven that morality is not their top priority when money is at stake. That's why governments fine companies that do undesirable things; it forces shareholders to care about ethics.

And perhaps it shouldn't; America's prudeness around sex but glorification of violence has had an effect around the world through Hollywood for years. Adding that morality to the flow of information might not be what we want.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#175
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

_solr perhaps you have the link to the video your interested in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIrmxOBnKcs

i get, from USA :

from YT: An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: 5sTGvTkd9YkomV3x) Learn More

from YT-DL:

$ youtube-dl https://youtu.be/ZIrmxOBnKcs [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Downloading webpage [youtube] ZIrmxOBnKcs: Refetching age-gated info webpage WARNING: unable to download video info webpage: HTTP Error 404: Not Found Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 174, in _run_module_as_main "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code exec code in run_globals File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/__main__.py", line 19, in File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 475, in main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 465, in _real_main File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 2069, in download File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 808, in extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 815, in wrapper File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 836, in __extract_info File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 534, in extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py", line 1502, in _real_extract File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2644, in compat_parse_qs File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/compat.py", line 2614, in _parse_qsl AttributeError: 'bool' object has no attribute 'split'

the 404 looks like a take down? or a hug of death?

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#176
post #14

A few days ago, I clicked an age restricted video on Youtube and usually I just state that I am above 18 but now they ask for a credit card number or an identity card to prove it. I am not going to send this just to watch some random video clip that users have declared not appropriate to a young audience because it features a zombie. Seriously!

A credit card seems like a reasonable way to verify age. Can you think of a better way? Or do you think no content should be age restricted?

I doubt it has anything to do with verifying age though. More likely they know people are hesitant to sign up and pay for youtube, but if they can get your credit card in other ways, then later it easier to get you to pay for something because then you just have to press "ok" since your details are already entered.

Plus this gives them your identity, which is relevant because their business model nowadays is based around tracking people.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#177
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Login alone does not help for age restricted videos. First step towards automatically stop using youtube. It their choice really.

You believe an appreciable number of people will stop using Youtube over this?

I would be willing to bet far less than 1%

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#178
This is lame. I download stuff with youtube-dl not because of "piracy" (the quality is shit and things like that are available elsewhere), but because I want to make sure I have a copy of important information. This very morning I changed a part on my car using a YouTube video as a guide. I downloaded this when I found it in case it was removed or my Internet connection was down when I needed it. If you go to the library it's perfectly legal to make photocopies of books for personal use. It's just common sense. But these monopolies naturally don't want us to have this right and want to make is think we're evil if we make our own copy of the information.

I feel like these platforms like YouTube are an addiction. We know they have problems but we just can't shake them. I felt this way about Windows and Microsoft on general 15 years ago. I went cold turkey and stopped using those products back then and I've been very happy ever since. But things have become too easy and I've become complacent. I think it may be time for me to shake another addiction.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#179

Hmm, it's such a shame that we have a single point of failure for so much of internet culture, not to mention people's actual creative lives. This is one of the reasons I started using youtube-dl. I wanted to create an independent backup of all my favorite creators and contributors in the event that they have to leave or delete their channels. This content should belong to everyone. I wish I could trust that all my f…

You can't produce value around content without artificial scarcity. In this case, Google/YT centralizes distribution and access, so that in order to consume content you must pay a fee (watch ads, provide personality data, etc.)

This has both good and bad sides to it. On the good side, it means people can make money as YouTube creators. This subsidizes the enormous volume of content that makes the creators no money.

On the bad side, you have a SPOF, and those failure modes can be many and varied. In this case its unwarranted age restrictions, but more usually its fraudulent DMCA take downs, various algorithmic shenanigans, and of course censorship (which can be good or bad, actually).

But you can't have one property (value producing artificial scarcity) without the other (a central point of failure).

The real question is: can content creators host their own content such that they can derive value from it? Will users consume that content, and pay for it, somehow? Theoretically it's possible, but the technical barriers are quite high. YT has capitalized on massive economies of scale to reduce the technical barriers to hosting and monetizing content to zero. This same pattern is repeated again and again: connect computer to the internet, then specialize that computer's software to do one thing really well, attract users/makers, use your control of the platform to extract value from users (inject ads, membership fees, data brokers, etc), profit. The hope is that the value to society outweighs the cost, and honestly I think that's actually the case! I just hope more people get clear-eyed about the trade-offs for-profit internet services make to be viable.

Re: YouTube-dl can no longer download age-restricted videos

#180

If there's anyone running a YouTube channel getting hit by the age restrictions, consider running a PeerTube: https://joinpeertube.org/

But the age restriction is due to EU regulation. It's only a matter of time until it filters elsewhere. Switching from YouTube isn't going to make a difference.
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