The Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) has taken down YouTube-dl's GitHub repositories using a DMCA takedown notice.
YouTube-dl is an extremely popular command-line program used to download multimedia content from YouTube.com and other sites. The project used GitHub repositories to host the program's source code and compiled executables that could be downloaded by users.
Today, the RIAA took down the YouTube-dl GitHub repositories by filing a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) infringement notice with GitHub.
Now, when users attempt to download the program or visit the repository, they are greeted with the following message:
Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown.
This repository is currently disabled due to a DMCA takedown notice. We have disabled public access to the repository. The notice has been publicly posted.
DMCA infringement notices are meant to be used to take down copyrighted material hosted on web sites without a copyright holder's permission.
While GitHub states that this is a DMCA infringement notice, it is not a takedown request for a copyright violation. Instead, the notice states that the repository should be taken down because it allows for downloading copyrighted music and is therefore illegal under both the USA and German law.
"Indeed, the comments in the youtube-dl source code make clear that the source code was designed and is marketed for the purpose of circumventing YouTube’s technological measures to enable unauthorized access to our member’s copyrighted works, and to make unauthorized copies and distributions thereof: they identify our member’s works, they note that the works are VEVO videos (virtually all of which are owned by our member companies), they acknowledge the those works are licensed to YouTube under the YouTube standard license, and they use those examples in the source code to describe how to obtain unauthorized access to copies of our members’ works."
"In light of the above noted copyright infringements and anticircumvention violations, 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, including without limitation those locations in the representative list set forth above," the RIAA's infringement notice against YouTube-dl reads.
As others have noted, YouTube-dl is used for far more than just downloading YouTube videos, but also to download free documentaries, public domain videos, and other works.
The successful use of a DMCA infringement notice to shutdown software that is in itself not a copyright violation is a scary precedent and one that lays the groundwork for misuse in the future.
Comments
MadmanRB - 2 years ago
yeah this is bad news, whats VLc because it can play DVD's?
Some-Other-Guy - 2 years ago
This is your last warning
Uploading COPYRIGHT PROTECTED VIDEOS and MUSIC to Youtube promotes Copyright Infingement!
Please Remove ALL Copyright Protected Content Immediately
Failure to remove your copyright protected content will result in failure to protect your Copyrights
If your content remains ONLINE, it is no longer YOUR content
I repeat......THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!
Zinc64 - 2 years ago
So, how does RIAA feel about the new "Download" button on Youtube mobile?
Mike_Walsh - 2 years ago
I would hazard a guess that many in the BC community have probably used this at times over the years, despite knowing deep down that they shouldn't.
As staff, we're supposed to come across as 'whiter-than-white', though I admit to having used this occasionally myself. Not for some time, but I have used it in the past. Frankly, I've always been somewhat amazed that something this blatantly designed to get around purpose-built restrictions has been allowed to exist for as long as it has!
With M$ having bought GitHub, I've been waiting for something like this to signal the start of an avalanche of 'takedowns'. After all, this is a company whose legal department have a budget equivalent to the GDP of some small nation-states, and Redmond have a history of going out of their way to comply with demands from 'The Man'.....often bending over backwards to prove that they're as patriotic as anybody else.
So.....anybody like to hazard a guess as to what'll be next?
GT500 - 2 years ago
This sort of abuse of DMCA takedown notices is nothing new. They're used all of the time to take down videos on YouTube that people don't like. It's supposed to be illegal to file false DMCA takedown requests, however no one ever seems to get into any trouble over it since I would believe the injured party would actually need to file a suit against the reporter.
linuxmaster - 2 years ago
it would be a shame if the riaa website somehow couldn't come up anymore...
John_McLaren - 2 years ago
<p>You could ban the command line using the same "logic". These freaking hypocrites both the RIAA and Google have stolen so much public domain, open source and GPL material it's obscene. They should be sitting in prison for this.</p>
NoneRain - 2 years ago
DMCA at it best......
Anyway, source code:
https://pypi.org/project/youtube_dl/#files
Some-Other-Guy - 2 years ago
RIAA has now been sued over this
https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sued-by-youtube-ripping-site-over-dmca-anti-circumvention-notices-201027/
Souravgoswami - 2 years ago
Now what? I love downloading MP3s. Now probably I need to use an on-screen-recorder and record videos while playing, then extract the high quality MP3s. Or else, I am quite capable of writing my own YT DL (but in Ruby though)...