RIAA DMCAs GitHub into nuking popular YouTube video download tool, says it can be used to slurp music
- Reference: 1603495396
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/23/riaa_youtube_dl_github/
- Source link:
The DMCA [1]take-down demand , submitted on Friday evening, argues the software can be used to illegally download copyrighted music by artists the RIAA represents. As such, the association pushed for the removal of the app and all forks of it from GitHub.
YouTube-DL is pretty simple to use: you give the command-line program the URL of any YouTube video, and it will fetch the material and save it to your computer for future playback.
The record industry body reckons this application bypasses YouTube's anti-copying protections, and ultimately allows folks to pirate commercial tracks hosted on YouTube. Record labels and artists these days upload their tracks to the Google-owned giant to effectively stream their work to world-plus-dog amid ad breaks, though they're not too keen on netizens ripping their own copies of the music.
It reminds us of the whole war decades ago over taping music off the radio, saving to magnetic storage content streamed over the air. Sounds familiar.
"The clear purpose of this source code is to circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube, and reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use," the RIAA's take-down order claimed.
"We ask that you immediately take down and disable access to the youtube-dl source code at all of its locations where it is hosted on GitHub."
The Microsoft-owned source code warehouse [2]duly complied by disappearing the code from view, noting on the YouTube-DL project page: "This repository is currently disabled due to a DMCA takedown notice. We have disabled public access to the repository." We note that this affects the YouTube-DL.org [3]website , as its source code and download links point to its GitHub page, which has now vanished from sight.
Crypto guru Matt Green asks courts for DMCA force field so he can safely write a textbook [4]READ MORE
If you're wondering whether or not the RIAA is going to just start going after any software – like web browsers or simply wget and curl – that can be used to potentially download copyrighted material illegally, the association did note that YouTube-DL's documentation specifically said the software was useful for fetching tracks by Icona Pop, Justin Timberlake, and Taylor Swift.
"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," the RIAA stated. "The source code notes that the Icona Pop work identified above is under the YouTube Standard license, which expressly restricts access to copyrighted works only for streaming on YouTube and prohibits their further reproduction or distribution without consent of the copyright owner.
"We have a good faith belief that this activity is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
Parker Higgins, a digital-rights activist and advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, [5]argued that the references to the three pop-stars was "sleight of hand," and "the 'activity' that RIAA is claiming is unauthorized is hypothetical." The RIAA didn't provide proof of copyright infringement, only a complaint that the software could be used to bypass copy protections.
"Anything that downloads YouTube videos is, per the RIAA, de facto infringing, independent of the intended use or the underlying content," Higgins said.
"As anyone who has used youtube-dl knows, it is an extremely powerful and useful tool for format-shifting," he added. "It's super popular among archivists and has incredibly broad fair use applications. The RIAA stance here is pretty aggressive and out there."
YouTube-DL maintainer and core developer Sergey M told The Reg tonight, "No comment at this time, sorry," when we asked if the app's team planned to contest the take-down or move it to another code-hosting website. ®
Get our [6]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2020/10/2020-10-23-RIAA.md
[2] https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl
[3] https://youtube-dl.org/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/30/green_asks_protection_from_dmca_lawsuits/
[5] https://twitter.com/xor/status/1319738279772770308
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Yep. There must be hundreds of different open source apps that can be used to slurp music. Hell, my laptop can be used to slurp music. Are they going to take my laptop off me?
The RIAA needs taking down a peg or two.
Maybe they should DMCA all Turing-complete languages, what's your point?
DRM is fundamentally flawed. When will these idiots get that into their heads?
Even if it worked (which it CANNOT) it puts your own customers off of your content. You make LESS money.
I would like to watch a DRM-infested file about as much as I would like to visit a "covid-secure" chain pub with app-only ordering of pints. (looking at you, Greene King)
Meanwhile, determined pirates can still pirate your shit.
You are missing the point here
The purpose of the RIAA is to take money that would otherwise go to musicians and give it to lawyers instead. DRM+DMCA are working as intended.
Streisand Effect
Just a question - how do the RIAA think people will react, once this tool has been brought into prominence by their actions? (I'm sure the source code is out there, and will now be copied more than ever, by people who can't read a line of it, but who will want to pass it around to stick it to The Man. Doofuses/doofi.)
Where have all the noses gone, long time passing?
Where have all the noses gone, long time ago?
Where have all the noses gone?
RIAA and MPAA have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Nothing like a graceless dork pulling rank where there is none, to get up the noses of customers. Do you think the Numpty Breeders Association will finally show the RIAA CxOs when they finally do their (much awaited, many times delayed) Numpty Breeders Show?
Re: Streisand Effect
The problem with the source code out there is, once every few months, YouTube makes a behind-the-scenes change to the API which would break youtube-dl for a little while, until it got patched, you get the new version, and it works again. I don't think they do it just for the sake of making it harder for those of us who want to watch it on other devices, it's probably just a side effect, but either way, the effect is the same. Now, next time they break it, how are people going to work on the problem and share the solution once it's fixed? I suppose at the [1]site linked in the article , eventually, but there's nothing to stop RIAA from going after whatever hosting provider they have there, and then you end up with a Pirate Bay-type situation if they can't work something reasonable out. Even if they do get to self-host the code, it's not going to be as usable as it was on GitHub, where I had my own minor fork of it with a little tweak I wanted that never got merged into master, and would regularly pull from upstream, push the merge, and pull to a couple of machines that use it.
And not , I might add, for music videos. I hate YouTube trying to become a music site (system?) instead of a video site, and taking Google Play Music away. Just making it harder and harder to simply play a piece of music off an SD card, instead of 'the Cloud'.
Oh dear, I'm finally turning into a curmudgeon, aren't I?
[1] https://youtube-dl.org/
Taylor Swift downloads?
Now sir, be serious!
Forks, forks everywhere!
Just did a brief superficial search on "youtube-dl" on Github.
There's forks, ports, extensions, galore.
Good luck playing whack-a-mole!
So perhaps they should DMCA the Apple store because their devices can potentially be used to do the same thing? Where exactly do you draw the line?