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Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

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Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#81
post #74
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... also without comments. I appreciate the idea, but without the discussion its basically Twitter since they also hide replies with anonymous requests.

In principle, if you want the post and comments without JS you can just pull the underlying ActivityPub document (application/activity+json). I made a command-line browser based on this idea: https://github.com/bentonedmondson/servitor

That's unfortunate. Sites used to not need JS to show static content.

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#83

The problem is that whether or not downloading a YouTube video can be fair use, the RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool. 17 USC 1201(a)(2) does not care about your fair use, it only cares about keeping copying tools off the market. To bring this back into the home recording of radio, it'd be as if Congress decided to ban the sale of tape decks that could record radio transmissions…

[deleted]

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#84

The problem is that whether or not downloading a YouTube video can be fair use, the RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool. 17 USC 1201(a)(2) does not care about your fair use, it only cares about keeping copying tools off the market. To bring this back into the home recording of radio, it'd be as if Congress decided to ban the sale of tape decks that could record radio transmissions…

Am I the only one that finds it hard to engage with the RIAA as good faith actors?

It feels similar to patent trolls whose business strategy is simply to leverage the court by exploiting poorly executed legislation.

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool How is it circumventing copy protection? IIRC videos on Youtube aren't DRMed. What protection method do they claim is being circumvented exactly?

> videos on Youtube aren't DRMed They are: https://developers.google.com/widevine/drm/overview

Only for paid products (movies, TV shows, etc). Regular videos (even music videos) do not use WideVine DRM or else no tool would be able to download YouTube videos. (Or at least, public tool - private scene groups do of course have bypasses for it)

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#86

The problem is that whether or not downloading a YouTube video can be fair use, the RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool. 17 USC 1201(a)(2) does not care about your fair use, it only cares about keeping copying tools off the market. To bring this back into the home recording of radio, it'd be as if Congress decided to ban the sale of tape decks that could record radio transmissions…

> RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool "(3) As used in this subsection— (A) to “circumvent a technological measure” means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and (B) a technological measure “effectively controls access to a wo…

I am startled, and also glad, that record labels haven't put the screws to youtube enough to get them to implement widevine for music videos on youtube.

Probably unworkable for the time being.

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#87
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no copy protection being bypassed in that era, and ripping CDs was just a normal thing that people did to listen to music on their computer without having to worry about scratch discs etc.

Apple had copy protection.

Not in 2001 when the commercials were airing - the iTunes Store was two years away...

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moreover, youtube is in no way connecting the "authority of the copyright owner" with the particular videos on it's site Of course it is. That's the whole point of the three strike system.

Why is there yet another legal framework with basis for legal jurisprudence being a rule from a child's game ?

The question is whether youtube connects the authority of the copyright owner with particular videos. It obviously does. The copyright owner is the entity that receives ad revenue, and the entity that can strike videos that violates its copyright.

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#89
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no copy protection being bypassed in that era, and ripping CDs was just a normal thing that people did to listen to music on their computer without having to worry about scratch discs etc.

Apple had copy protection.

Apple only had copy protection (m4p files) if you bought music from the itunes store during the time period where their contract with the music companies demanded they do that. When that clause ended, they stopped doing it, and IIRC when you redownload music purchased during that era from apple, you'll now get unprotected m4a files instead.

The files iTunes produced from ripping CDs were never copy protected.

Re: Downloading a video should be “fair use” as recording a song from the radio

#90
post #71

The problem is that whether or not downloading a YouTube video can be fair use, the RIAA is alleging that youtube-dl is a copy protection circumvention tool. 17 USC 1201(a)(2) does not care about your fair use, it only cares about keeping copying tools off the market. To bring this back into the home recording of radio, it'd be as if Congress decided to ban the sale of tape decks that could record radio transmissions…

No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that— (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a…

It's not "circumventing copyright", it's circumventing copy protection. The RIAA alleges that YouTube rotating their URLs is a copy protection measure. If that's true[0] then youtube-dl would fit plainly in category (A), since downloading YouTube videos is all it does. Category (B) is there to prevent someone from selling, say, a "DVD decrypting can opener" and then arguing that the can opener part makes the DVD part legal. Category (C) is there to prevent people from selling you the analog hole.

My objection to the RIAA's copy protection argument is that they did not actually create the copy protection measure. They are alleging that some third party's product feature happens to look close enough to copy protection that it should count as such. Would they be able to sue YouTube if they were to stop rotating their URLs? Do social media platforms suddenly have an obligation to continue to maintain features that accidentally frustrate illegal copying of text? Do I have to reimplement spacebar heating?[1]

Another potential objection would be that rotating URLs are not copy protection. This may work, but keep in mind: 17 USC 1201 has no bounds on the scope of copy protection beyond "it has to somehow stop you from copying a thing protected by copyright". Encryption and scrambling systems are explicitly named, but the way the law is currently drafted, anything can be a copy protection measure. There's a lot of language defining existing copy protection systems they wanted to grandfather in (e.g. Macrovision) but nothing limiting the scope of future systems.

[0] If accepted, this would be the widest reading of DMCA 1201 that I've seen accepted by a court of law (as a non-lawyer). Yes I am counting the printer cartridge and garage door opener shenanigans of yesterdecade. Those were bog-standard "designing the product to commit three felonies a day" kinds of copyright abuse and the courts smacked them both down.

[1] https://xkcd.com/1172/

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