[GoLUG] YouTube-dl websites taken down

[Kyle Terrien]

On 8/3/23 12:52, Syeed Ali wrote:
> A "translation":
> https://openjur-de.translate.goog/u/2466945.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

I don't know German, but it looks like the complaint is that youtube-dl 
allowed users to "bypass technological restrictions" in the Hamburg 
jurisdiction.  I.e. it's a German record company/association, and a 
German analog of DMCA.

I think we are slowly approaching a revisit of the Sony v. Betamax case.

> Maybe it's strange, but should their git repository get taken down I'd
> miss the issues list; it's a significant reservoir of data.
> 

Yes, very sad.  Burn the crops, and leave no trace.  :-(

Fortunately, GitHub/Microsoft hosts in the USA, and Microsoft has a 
track record of defending youtube-dl from overreaching takedown 
requests.  (Such a takedown happened in 2020, and the public's reaction 
was so emotional that Microsoft intervened to save face.)  Who would 
have thought that Microsoft would defend open source?  ;-)

Releases of youtube-dl are also still on PYPI.

https://pypi.org/project/youtube_dl/

Either way, I switched to yt-dlp a few months ago after discovering that 
youtube-dl once again was behind the YouTube cat/mouse game, except this 
time there had not been any youtube-dl releases in 18 months.  yt-dlp, 
however, is an actively maintained fork, and it is available in Debian 12.

https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp/

I hope this helps.

-- 
[*] Kyle Terrien
     Linux Troubleshooter
       I help you get to the *root* of your problems.
   < kyleterrien at gmail.com
       https://klipkyle.gitlab.io/