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How journalists use youtube-dl

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Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#101

Post by labawi »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #64

I left a comment about my own non-infringing use cases of the tool earlier — and I think it’s important that the non-infringing use cases get mentioned. Having said that, can we please stop pretending like any of us weren’t using this to infringe copyright? Most of us weren’t distributing anything, but I think most of us were aware this was at the very least a grey area, if not outright infringement. I’m a huge fan a…

AFAICT I have not used youtube-dl to view videos that I couldn't watch on the site (except perhaps incidentally) - but I don't like executing random code on my computer and youtube web is in my view actively user-hostile and last I tried it had serious performance problems.

I had a feeling I was using youtube-dl to avoid ads (not blocks), but after some retrospective, I don't think I would have seen ads on most videos I watched from youtube and I think most were freely available videos, often embedded on author's pages - except people have an understandable habit of hosting them on youtube.

To conclude, I would disagree that we are all using youtube-dl as complained.

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#103

Post by Fnoord »

nitrogen wrote: post #97
djsumdog wrote: post #3

My two big uses cases for youtube-dl: 1) Downloading videos to use later in editing for analysis pieces / editorial videos. 2) Download videos that may disappear in a "No longer available" blackhole. The 2nd is incredibly useful and telling when you go back, look up videos by their ID, and see what has been deleted. I'd also recommend changing the OUTPUT format to include the channel name or Twitter account, so you c…

1) Downloading videos to use later in editing for analysis pieces / editorial videos. I wonder if certain famous YouTubers used youtube-dl for this purpose. How else would you download, edit, and analyze a video's editing or special effects?

On Twitch streamers have a browser window open and pause it to comment.

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#104

Post by cdrt »

jglauche wrote: post #56
arendtio wrote: post #6

Another valid use-case is to use the hardware acceleration with your native video player. AFAIK, mpv uses youtube-dl under the hood to play youtube videos. For a long time the video acceleration in browsers wasn't very good for Linux users, so we used players like mpv instead to watch high resolution content.

it still isn't. I can't watch 720p videos on my thin client with browser overhead, but I can with mpv.

What browser are you using? Google has been known to make YouTube perform worse on browsers that aren’t Chrome.

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#105

Post by jcranmer »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #44
pwinnski wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The different, Google would argue, is that YouTube-dl doesn't download the ads, while a VCR captures ads and content alike. But really, if the VCR were invented today, it would be made illegal.

I mean, they tried desperately to make it illegal in the 80s. The Betamax case went to the Supreme Court! [1] Given the current makeup of justices, I would imagine Betamax would be decided differently today, in favor of Universal rather than Sony. Aereo lost 6-3, even though the dissenting justices cited Betamax from 30 years previous. ReplayTV was sued and went out of business before it could be fully adjudicated. D…

I wouldn't take Aereo as a guide to how justices would reconsider the Betamax case were it heard de novo. Aereo's business model was to redistribute over-the-air broadcast TV, and it was arguing that its technical implementation was technically not violating any laws. This cast it into the creative reinterpretation of law scenario that tends to lose out in court.

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#106

Post by retromagik »

nitrogen wrote: post #97
djsumdog wrote: post #3

My two big uses cases for youtube-dl: 1) Downloading videos to use later in editing for analysis pieces / editorial videos. 2) Download videos that may disappear in a "No longer available" blackhole. The 2nd is incredibly useful and telling when you go back, look up videos by their ID, and see what has been deleted. I'd also recommend changing the OUTPUT format to include the channel name or Twitter account, so you c…

1) Downloading videos to use later in editing for analysis pieces / editorial videos. I wonder if certain famous YouTubers used youtube-dl for this purpose. How else would you download, edit, and analyze a video's editing or special effects?

There’s plenty of online tools and browser extensions to accomplish the same task (I wonder how many of those use YouTube-dl on the backend)

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#107

Post by filmgirlcw »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #59
filmgirlcw wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because this is about distribution, not a home copy. You could copy and paste the test code into a terminal window and download the video. That’s not the same as a home recording.

> Because this is about distribution, not a home copy. You could copy and paste the test code into a terminal window and download the video. That’s not the same as a home recording. ...yes, it is? What difference are you imagining?

The difference is that my home copy is my own work and action. The distribution, in this case, via source code, allows anyone to download that copy.

If the code snippet that downloaded infringing materials didn't exist and the user had to find the parameters themselves, that's fine. But it does exist and was included alongside a tool that makes that recording possible.

A better analogy would be like, if you had a video store that had a machine in the store that allowed people to make copies of a video tape using a duplicating machine. If someone wants to buy a duplicator for home use and use it in their home, that's one thing (though there was litigation around that too), but if you go to a store and can plug in a video tape -- and the example in the store is a copy of a Disney movie -- that's sort of what this is.

(Photocopy shops and libraries often have fairly strict rules about what kind of content can be photocopied, for what it's worth. The guy at Kinkos at 3am might not care that you're copying an entire textbook on the machine, but if you go to Office Depot in the daytime, they definitely will. Kinkos was sued and lost over a photocopy case in regards to excerpts/packets/anthologies for textbooks.)

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#108

Post by cheeze »

neuronflux wrote: post #87
paulryanrogers wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't law enforcement have a means to subpoena Google for such evidence?

Assuming the content is public, why would they need a subpoena?

Because the RIAA has shown that this specific tool can't be 'public'.

If we have to play by those rules, LEO should too. Boo hoo if it's harder.

Re: How journalists use youtube-dl

#109

Post by renewiltord »

megous wrote: post #92
filmgirlcw wrote: post #64

I left a comment about my own non-infringing use cases of the tool earlier — and I think it’s important that the non-infringing use cases get mentioned. Having said that, can we please stop pretending like any of us weren’t using this to infringe copyright? Most of us weren’t distributing anything, but I think most of us were aware this was at the very least a grey area, if not outright infringement. I’m a huge fan a…

In my country it's not illegal to download copyrighted movies/music. It's just illegal to share them. So how was I infringing copyright by downloading something from a public website where copyright holder left the content publicly accessible to anyone? I'll give you that it may or may not be against ToS of the distribution service, but that's all. But it's not a distribution service causing the ruckus around youtube…

What even is the relevance of this? So host a youtube-dl repo and reject DMCA requests then. Github, as it so happens, is American so it has to listen to America.
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