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YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

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Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#561

Post by [deleted] »

kzrdude wrote: post #143
larrik wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that copyrighted works were included in the readme shows it was intended for that use, and the RIAA complaint will likely stand up to any legal scrutiny. Just because it can be used for legit purposes too won't matter in the slightest. I mean, Napster could have been used for legal means as well, and it got destroyed in court. The only chance tools like this have legally is when infringement is an "unintende…

Should it stand up to legal scrutiny though? What does it matter if I play the beatles on youtube by watching in a web browser or watching an .mp4 file that I just downloaded? It's functionally the same.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#563

Post by pmoriarty »

jchw wrote: post #4

Note that RIAA is making this takedown because the software CAN be used to download copyrighted music and videos, and it uses examples in the ~~README~~(unit tests, see correction[1]) as an example of that: > We also note that the source code prominently includes as sample uses of the source code the downloading of copies of our members’ copyrighted sound recordings and music videos, as noted in Exhibit A hereto. For…

Does it really matter what they said?

This is like the reverse of those common disclaimers on hacking tools and tutorials which claim:

  This is for educational use only.
I've always wondered, are courts fooled by such disclaimers? Are their authors untouchable just because they put in some boilerplate disclaimer like that?

As for what was written in some code somewhere in the repo, it could have been written by anyone, even an RIAA plant who contributed that trojan horse to the project.

What makes anyone think what was said there is endorsed by or even representative of the views of the rest of the authors of youtube-dl or is what youtube-dl is for?

God, it pisses me off to no end to think that I'm going to be forced to use youtube's piece of shit, slow, ad-infested, tacker-infested, feature-poor, non-automatable browser interface.

But, after taking a few deep breaths, I think within a year there'll be multiple alternatives to youtube-dl which will all bear disclaimers that they are "for educational purposes only" and that they in no way endorse copyright infringement.

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#565

Post by tracerbulletx »

iameli wrote: post #545
Drdrdrq wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have it backwards. Google is very much on the same side as RIAA in this case. Youtube-dl is simply too convenient for avoiding the ads.

I dunno. Every Youtuber I know makes use of Youtube-dl (or related projects) extensively because many of them don't maintain archives of their own content and Youtube's built-in tools for downloading stuff back from them are terrible.

All the better for Youtube to control their content creators more.

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#566

Post by eli »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #556
eli wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are misunderstanding the legal argument. The DMCA Section 1201 specifically prohibits (among other things) technology that "is marketed ... for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." The example in the README is evidence of this. The argument is that youtube-dl is primarily used for breaking DRM not just that it could be used fo…

But what is being circumvented? As far as I'm aware there are no controls put in place that are being circumvented. Edit: I'm also curious why the riaa would have standing at all? Even assuming there is some protection being circumvented, it's not the riaa's control that is being circumvented.

Saving videos

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#567

Post by slaymaker1907 »

adrianmonk wrote: post #197
crazygringo wrote: post #21

Curious if anyone with legal expertise knows if this has legs? They say: > The clear purpose of this source code is to (i) circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube, and (ii) reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use. But the "circumventing" is still accessing a stream the use…

Also, does the fact that YouTube doesn't supply a download feature constitute a "technical protection measure"? From the RIAA's point of view, it works to their benefit that a download link doesn't exist, and it may be something they like, but that doesn't mean that's why. It could just as easily be that a download feature doesn't exist because YouTube wants you to keep returning to their site if you want to rewatch…

The button doesn't exist, but apparently they do have a link that lets you download the video, it is just obfuscated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24874277>

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#569

Post by thrownaway954 »

larrik wrote: post #105
jchw wrote: post #4

Note that RIAA is making this takedown because the software CAN be used to download copyrighted music and videos, and it uses examples in the ~~README~~(unit tests, see correction[1]) as an example of that: > We also note that the source code prominently includes as sample uses of the source code the downloading of copies of our members’ copyrighted sound recordings and music videos, as noted in Exhibit A hereto. For…

The fact that copyrighted works were included in the readme shows it was intended for that use, and the RIAA complaint will likely stand up to any legal scrutiny. Just because it can be used for legit purposes too won't matter in the slightest. I mean, Napster could have been used for legal means as well, and it got destroyed in court. The only chance tools like this have legally is when infringement is an "unintende…

This is exactly the point. All they had to was use their own videos for the tests and readme and the dcma takedown would probably never would have happen. Plausible deniability.

Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

#570

Post by gforz »

nullc wrote: post #537
Kim_Bruning wrote: post #286

Lesson learned: always use Creative Commons licensed data to demo your multimedia tools. Else people get the wrong idea. Some examples for youtube-dl might be: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ Big buck bunny * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ Sintel * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWc3b3KhnY Spring In fact, youtube actually allows you to filter by CC, so there's never a reason not to!

Hi Kim! They couldn't have done this. The 'infringing' links were in the test suite and were specifically tests for content from particular sources which had special links which required different techniques to download them. The test would not have been accomplished if they were pointed at links which didn't have the behaviour that was being tested.

Curious to know if it was not possible for YouTube-dl to create content which was ‘similar’ to the infringing ones & upload it on YouTube for their test cases?
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