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YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

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Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#192

The internet promised so much, but is being ruined by corporations and governments. I can't help but feel the ruining is accelerating. I hope the infosec community can come up with some kind of decentralized way to actually share free speech. If anyone is capable, they are. The discovery problem is an illusion. If you build it, they will come.

> The internet promised so much, but is being ruined by corporations and governments.

No, it is ruined by normal citizens who largely don't understand democracy and its value. As long as the dictator doesn't bear the label "dictator", people generally prefer dictators, and then at times they are surprised that dictators abuse their power.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#193

The internet promised so much, but is being ruined by corporations and governments. I can't help but feel the ruining is accelerating. I hope the infosec community can come up with some kind of decentralized way to actually share free speech. If anyone is capable, they are. The discovery problem is an illusion. If you build it, they will come.

There is nothing to come up with. Serving video is a well understood process, both as a service and self-hosted. YouTube's popularity is based mostly on network effect and Google footing the bill for a top notch experience for your viewers. Few people will pay the Vimeo prices, or build something at multiple the cost, if they can get the whole package for free.

Disclaimer: I'm a Googler, so can't help you with estimating the cost. But a few years back the research community had some reasonable-sounding models. Plug in current hardware and you can get an idea.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#194
post #145
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wish people had developed an expectation that commercial software should come with the source code, rather than as (only) a binary blob. Licensing terms could be the same, but people would look at you funny and feel cheated if you tried to sell them a binary blob.

This was a shift in viewpoint -- earlier in the life of computers, the hardware was seen as the really valuable part of a computer. So companies would provide the source code because that was simpler (the software was "just a toy"). But then software became the valuable component, and so businesses (as is a recurring theme in capitalism) didn't want to give away something that might be potentially profitable. And so…

I think you may have missed my point. I want businesses to profit off of their software... I just also want them to provide customers with the sources used to produce the software they just paid for.

Copyright law can still apply. Just because I have your sources doesn't mean I can go and use them in my own software, or re-implement your patented algorithm.

"But how can I be sure that my customer isn't stealing my work?"

Well, ask someone to look at the source code they provide to their customers. Remember, we're in an imaginary world where source-included is the normal way to sell software, and anyone peddling binary blobs is seen as shady.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#195
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

youtube is not the internet, it's a privately run silo. I think it's actually better if people stop using it for everything. We've somehow got to the point where we are demanding private companies somehow preserve our freedoms simply because we've entrenched ourselves in their commercial products and given them control over content. Let youtube curate their content, I wish they'd do it more. Then maybe we will start…

Agreed. Youtube doesn't host pornography and, guess what, there are plenty of other sites that do. I almost think the reaction to this is too pessimistic! "Oh YouTube is banning content the Internet is DOOMED". As long as we can freely connect to any service then there will always be an alternative.

Have you used Google Video Search recently? for vast majority of people internet is Google and Facebook. It is not ideal, but it is not to be ignored.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#196
A channel dedicated to creating point-and-click cracking tutorials for complete [expletives] gets banned (go figure.) People cry: waahhh, free speech, think of the [security researchers.] Sorry, but I fail to see how any of this relates to infosec.

If it were really about security research then most of the content would be about theoretical topics like classes of vulnerabilities, how PoCs work, how to write basic shell code, links to assembly programming, and so on. But instead these geniuses give us gems like: how to run [this script] to break this [system version], a guide for tween dummies.

They distill their knowledge and weaponise it for use by anyone, and that's not security through obscurity. That's knowingly building a loaded gun, showing people that its cool to fire it, handing it to children, and then saying: lol, don't use this okay, totally for research only! Yeah, sure. Anything for dat ad revenue, right? Face it, none of the people watching these videos are there for education.

The only people this benefits are the script kiddies. InfoSec researchers sure as hell aren't using YouTube for their vuln disclosures and don't need to be spoon fed cooking recipes for doing pen tests or R & D.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#197
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only domain where I have seen this is with commercial scientific software that is designed to be run on supercomputers. This is mostly due to the difficulty of producing high performance binaries that work with the MPI implementation. One interesting implication is that since people can view and modify the source code, patches and modifications to the software are shared. This has always lead me to wonder if a di…

I'm not a lawyer but this reminds me of how game mods are shared for old games. They are shared at patch files to avoid sharing the copyrighted original binary/rom file. My understanding is that use a patch file as long as your patch doesn't include any copyrighted material it is fair to share. A patch file does not necessarily have any of the original code, just the location info and the new value.

YLLMV (Your Local Legislation May Vary), but reverse engineering and subsequent modifications are completely legal here, if they're more for compatibility than competition.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#199
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of decentralized alternatives. People just don't use them much yet.

To paraphrase an old joke : "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too empty". What you describe there is the classic problem of Network effects. The limitation is not on the tech side of things. People don't use the decentralized services because either favourite content isn't there. Producers don't post to the decentralized service because the consumers aren't there. Unfortunate reality :-( I really don't want so much po…

It's gonna bite us in the ass pretty soon, because the direct consequence of this effect is that the ability to launch a successful network depends on marketing - you need to achieve a critical mass of users pretty much instantly, since each new user won't stay for more than a day or two if their friends and content aren't there. That requirement forces potential new tech to have massive backing by a strong entity like a tech giant.

I wonder if we'll end up seeing state actors (or supranational entities like the EU) promoting state funded networks as a public alternative, as is sometimes the case in industries that tend to be monopolistic due to the cost of starting - transportation, telecommunications, etc.

Re: YouTube's ban on “hacking techniques” threatens to shut down infosec YouTube

#200
post #186
post #162

Well, well, well. Does a high tech community need Youtube as a video platform though? The famous German hacker community "chaos computer club" simply uses their own platform to begin with: https://media.ccc.de/

The benefit of YouTube isn't primarily video hosting. The benefit is discoverability and (to a certain extent) community.

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