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YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

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Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#631

Post by [deleted] »

TheKarateKid wrote: post #493
TechBro8615 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, they’re doing a lot, including establishing a $1M legal defense fund for developers and a technical team to review the validity of anti-circumvention DMCA notices. It seems like they’re doing a lot more than just paying lip service to EFF / developer freedom, and they should be commended for it.

They’re correcting a wrong because their reputation took a big hit in the dev community. Now there’s big talk of the dangers of not self-hosting your repo and the monoculture of using GitHub. Although it probably has good intent, this is largely PR.

[deleted]

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#632

Post by austhrow743 »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #82
torstenvl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, this is what caused me to install it. Have downloaded one video so far - a U.S. government work, so no copyright.

If the RIAA notice is to be believed, you've still admitted to a crime as you've bypassed YouTube's DRM, which is their hosting of the video in other public links.

Youtube-dl works on way more sites than just YouTube.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#633

Post by austhrow743 »

thebean11 wrote: post #437
LeoNatan25 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So ... they didn't stand up for developers? Promise is not "standing up for".

Did you read the new policies? It sounds like in the future it will be way more difficult to get repos taken down with DMCAs, and even for legitimate ones they'll allow devs to respond or fix the repo before it gets removed. Maybe GitHub didn't nail it this time but in my opinion it takes some mental gymnastics to not see this post as a really positive turn from GH.

Sure, it's a good change. Doesn't stop the title "Standing up for developers: youtube-dl is back" from being suggestive of Github being the one that stood up for YouTube-dl, which they didn't.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#635

Post by raxxorrax »

saagarjha wrote: post #625
shbooms wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's how understood it as well: "youtube-dl stands in place of a Web browser and performs a similar function with respect to user-uploaded videos. Importantly, youtube-dl does not decrypt video streams that are encrypted with commercial DRM technologies, such as Widevine, that are used by subscription video sites, such as Netflix." "We presume that this “signature” code is what RIAA refers to as a “rolling cipher,”…

I would be curious if YouTube's code contained any phrases at all considering it gets minified.

Me too and it would be interesting if such phrases would be valid if not human readable.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#636

Post by Fumtumi »

remram wrote: post #410
Fumtumi wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets assume, for once, that what they wrote, is what they stand for. I think this is a very very good / exemplary reaction.

Why didn't they start with youtube-dl though? They will defend developers and err on their side "going forward" but no not that one ? Surely they already had the legal manpower when the youtube-dl removal started making waves. The fact that they did nothing for over three weeks and are publishing this blog post right after the issue was fixed by someone else (EFF) makes it hard to believe their "changes".

My daily work is often not adhoc or that fast;

I'm not sure why this is so unrelatable to you but for me, daily business is, that things just take 1-3 weeks.

Legal manpower still means, that people interrupt their current tasks, which they properly have plenty of, to reprioritize something, others might even not care about at all or never heard of.

I stay with my statement and i have enough live experience, that i don't expect a 3 minute solution and answer from github.com

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#637

Post by minusf »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #618
woofie11 wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. I go to the page (ad), copy the URL, and youtube-dl. More critically, Youtube relies on network effects and people using it. Part of the reason we share family videos, educational content, and other things is so it's, well, shared. For me, the reasons to use Youtube-dl are: 1) People in bandwidth-constrained settings. If I post my videos, and colleagues in some countries can't watch them, I'm going elsew…

Perhaps more importantly, the number of people using youtube-dl because it allows you to watch videos without ads almost certainly pales in comparison to the number of people just using adblockers. Youtube-dl makes you wait.

there is no waiting when youtube-dl is used from mpv or similar.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#638

Post by saagarjha »

Rochus wrote: post #541
LordDragonfang wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EFF is probably more qualified to respond to this, actually, since they have some of the most experienced lawyers there are when it comes to defending fair-use/free-as-in-freedom works from malicious DMCA notices. Microsoft's best play is just paying them, which other comments indicate they are doing. The EFF isn't just some non-profit, it's the premier legal entity defending internet freedom. This is squarely in…

> since they have some of the most experienced lawyers there are when it comes to defending fair-use/free-as-in-freedom And why would one assume that Github or MS do not have such experts? They undoubtedly have the technical know-how, and the primary findings in the letter are of a technical nature, or even obvious to technically savvy people. And the court decisions referred to are not about fair use or free-as-in-f…

Because Microsoft's goals are not directly aligned with fighting DMCA and similar legislation. It takes more than being technically savvy to fight legislation like this; actually, I would say being technically savvy but not experienced will leave you in an unfortunate spot because you'll see through all the copyright stuff but be unable to effectively fight it in court.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#639

Post by minusf »

wongarsu wrote: post #594
DannyB2 wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do they [YouTube/Google] even care about youtube-dl? A downloaded video doesn't generate ad revenue.

Downloaded videos often get remixed into other videos that generate ad revenue. Commentary, reaction videos and compilations are substantial parts of youtube.

i often watch youtube videos from mpv exactly to get away from those distractions.

Re: YouTube-dl's repository has been restored

#640

Post by jonplackett »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #212
ryanar wrote: post #184

It seems like EFF fought for youtube-dl and GitHub used their letter as legal firepower to bring the repo back online. If GitHub were fighting for the developer they would have funded the attorney, right? Though from their blog post it does look like they are taking steps to fund defense in the future as well as other steps to improve the situation. Reading EFFs claim is pretty interesting, they state that saving a c…

AFAIU the argument is more that youtube-dl is effectively a web browser and doesn’t do anything that a web browser doesn’t do. Further, it does not include any “secret” key for DRM circumvention like might be bundled with e.g. Chrome in the case of Widevine, where browser vendors agree to protect the secret key.

I wonder if the RIAA will now be putting pressure on YouTube to use the same DRM as Netflix, so that when a video is downloaded they can’t use this ‘it’s just a browser guv’ defence because there would then have to be some circumvention to make it work.
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