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YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

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Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#421

Are 1201 takedown notices even supposed to be a thing, or were they just invented by the RIAA and/or other overly enthusiastic copyright holders? I was under the impression that DMCA notices were for the removal of infringing content, not alleged anti-circumvention tools. That's what the law seems to specify. The notification and takedown process is specified for infringement of copyrighted works, not distribution of…

> I was under the impression that DMCA notices were for the removal of infringing content, not alleged anti-circumvention tools. That's what the law seems to specify.

My reading is that the DMCA expanded the definition of 'copyright infringement' to include 'circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner' (§1201), and so a DMCA notice specifying 'material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity' (§512) would work for the removal of anti-circumvention tools as well.

§1201: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

§512: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#423
I find it kinda sad that this article says "the DMCA was written in the late 90s and hasn't aged well", because the anti-circumvention clauses have been tremendously awful since their inception. Anyone who remembers the DeCSS crap in the early 00's knows that this nonsense is our legacy from not getting the problem solved 20 years ago.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone with more knowledge on the matter help explain why downloading copyrighted material using youtube-dl as opposed to a browser is treated differently under the DMCA? It's not. It may be treated differently under other parts of copyright law based on implied license or other theory, but the DMCA impact is on distributing, offering, etc. youtube-dl, not using it, insofar as it constitutes a circumvention to…

My understanding is that it's takedown was due to fact that youtube-dl "bypasses technical measures that control access or copying of copyrighted works". I don't see how youtube-dl could be considered a "circumvention tool" if the end user of said tool would have access to the content if they used a web browser instead.

I think the perspective is that they are specifically trying to control your access in restricting it to being through the browser.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#425
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have become convinced that the RIAA lawyers emerge from their crypts every few years, generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee.

Maybe their purpose was Widevine. The youtube-dl takedown was a way to distract the attention. I don't think we should rejoice until Widevine is back.

The widevine-l3-decryptor takedown wasn't filed by the RIAA

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#426
post #21
post #18

The amount of publicity this generated for youtube-dl is astounding... I would love for this to be a ”the plan to get rid of youtube-dl backfired badly for RIAA” ending. But I guess RIAA is reviled enough already so nothing they do really matters. So I suppose the hope is that some political will to change the laws around this arises from it.

True. It seems we need to wait for a generation of media-consuming legislators to age into the Senate to get past The Eagles complaining that their music is being "pirated" on Tik Tok.

As someone who is old enough to have heard The Eagles when they first came out, this is hilarious. No offense to Eagles fans, but they were mostly forgettable Top 40 from the get go.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#427
post #302

ACLU and EFF are two of the last few remaining "Great" American institutions - living up to America's own image of itself.

The ACLU openly opposes the right to keep and bear arms. https://www.aclu.org/other/second-amendment

> striking down Washington D.C.'s handgun ban by a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, whether or not associated with a state militia.

This ruling is the crux of the matter. And ACLU's interpretation (against it) seems very logical. Sadly there's no putting the genie back in the bottle though.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If MS is a member of RIAA they should consider putting forward a motion to close it down or at very least leave it.

Absolutely. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24902631

This is a great first step. We need to ramp up the pressure.

The newish Microsoft seems to be more understanding of this sort of thing with supporting Linux with Office and giving Windows 10 away for free.

This would instantly improve their reputation among the entire developer community. DMCA is an abusive mess that is constantly used to attack legitimate open-source work, research, or simply just by bad actors to take down literally anything they want from the internet.

The big websites like Reddit don't care about legitimacy, it's all automated agreement, I've seen entire subreddits taken down due to fake DMCA requests by someone who didn't like what the subreddit was about (And it was too small of a place for it to make enough noise to matter to anyone, nor did anyone try or know how to try). We hear small samples of it here on HN but who knows the amount of abusive and unwarranted DMCA notices that you never hear about.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Year ago, long before I developed software, I would search for some software (to use, not to extend) and often find that the way to obtain it was by visiting SourceForge. In many ways, SourceForge and GitHub can be directly compared. Was I a developer for using SourceForge in this manner?

> Was I a developer for using SourceForge in this manner? More or less. Regular users don't visit GitHub...

Regular users will pay no mind to source code on GitHub, but they can certainly download releases/binaries without being a developer. youtube-dl happens to have a separate website catering to this use case, but many projects use GitHub for this use case.

That said, I suppose only the hosting of source code is within the scope of this post, so nevermind!

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#430

Say what you will about Github and Microsoft, this was a classy move. A million dollars is a million dollars. "Putting your money where your mouth is". "Nonetheless, developers who want to push back against unwarranted takedowns may face the risk of taking on personal liability and legal defense costs. To help them, GitHub will establish and donate $1M to a developer defense fund to help protect open source developer…

> GitHub will establish and donate $1M

What is really needed is a "counter-DCMA troll." So far as I understand DCMA, legal fees can be collected for a successful counter-claim.

With the rife DCMA fraud these days, someone could make a pretty penny. DCMA has provisions for claim fraud, it simply requires attorneys to creatively weaponize it (which unfortunately doesn't apply to YouTube, because their process is not DCMA/legal).

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