Did they say why?
YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
111–120 of 686 posts
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
This line of questioning on Startup News is quite amusing to me, I must say. How many of us can really pretend to make society a better place?
Well anyone who voluntarily enters into a work for hire arrangement is making society a better place. The employer wouldn't have done it unless they were benefitting and likewise for the employee. What is important is doing something people want.
An assassin is a work for a hire arrangement.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if RIAA lawyers believe themselves productive members of society, or if they recognize themselves as the parasites they are.
This line of questioning on Startup News is quite amusing to me, I must say. How many of us can really pretend to make society a better place?
I am not, but I am not fucking it up for others.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least some of us don't try to actively make it harder/worse. So that's a plus.
I'm convinced the companies considered as 'evil' now didn't think they would at first either. Something something unintended consequences. I mean Reddit; bastion of free speech or platform for hate speech? (they cracked down on that over the years) Dropbox; File synchronization and sharing platform or child porn exchange? Airbnb; Great way to find an affordable place to stay and / or rent out unused room, or platform…
> Everything can be used for bad things and make the world a worse place
Right, but the RIAA aren’t just making new abusable things, they’re actively abusing existent ones.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm much more cynical. They know they're bastards but they make far far too much money to care.
Everyone is the hero in their own story. Few people actually gleefully play the scoundrel. The ability humans have to self-rationalize is amazing. And even when folks are doing something they know is wrong, often it gets justified in the balance: the victim deserved it, the perpetrator is Robin Hood and proceeds will benefit those who need it more, the action makes up for a historic injustice, etc ...
People may not play the scoundrel much, but I see plenty of people playing the ronin, the soldier of fortune. E.g., the contract programmer on a 6-month gig where they know the project is fucked, but as long as the check clears, it's not their problem. The sysadmin who doesn't much care what's on the servers. Plenty of others, for sure.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone thinks they're saving the world. I'm sure the RIAA sleeps soundly knowing they're defending the rights of creative individuals to make a living and holding the line against the scourge of amoral nihilistic pirates.
There's plenty of people out there who simply do X for financial payout Y. As a matter of fact, the financial services sector thrives with such people
Yup. After the mortgage bubble burst, I saw a lots of posts from people in the industry who knew something was wrong, but as long as they kept making commissions, they weren't going to question anything.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
And not even purged from the repo, it's still in the history if needed. Seems like the copyright holders making a big fuss over nothing really.
It's a shot across the bow, to achieve a chilling effect. They've achieved a few weeks of downtime, for now, and sent a message to the project that they're being watched. It might well not be the end of hostilities.
I think you may be right about the fight not being over, I don't think they actually achieved any downtime. Youtube-dl didn't stop working for me while the takedown was in effect, and was even updated during that period.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#118Excellent. Looks like they've removed the tests for RIAA member videos as the only change, which I assume helped get this restored: https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/1fb034d029c8b7...
It would have been fantastic if every test using RIAA copyrighted music had been replaced with public domain sources. Or, better yet, videos the maintainers created and uploaded themselves.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually that's all they complained about.
Random cynical thought -- they noticed because the automated testing was bumping up the # of views on those streams, so their members were being forced to pay royalties on views that were not real ...
Does use of youtube-dl to download videos from youtube really bump the view count? I have assumed that it doesn't, since it probably isn't passing whatever systems youtube has for addressing 'view count fraud'.
Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored
#120GitHub is still hosting the full youtube-dl version history, including versions which include those supposedly infringing tests. Does copyright law end with HEAD on master? Those tests are still there. This makes it especially obvious that the RIAA's problem with youtube-dl was never really the tests.
> This makes it especially obvious that the RIAA's problem with youtube-dl was never really the tests.
Or that the RIAA lawyers are technically oblivious