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The youtube-dl open source project is one of the best tools for downloading videos from YouTube and many other video hosting websites.
But the existence of this project is threatened at the moment. Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) sent a notice to GitHub against youtube-dl and its forked repositories on October 23, 2020.
Microsoft-owned GitHub was immediately compliant and within 24 hours the official youtube-dl and its forked repository were disabled as a DMCA removal.
What is a DMCA takedown?
DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a US copyright law regarding copyright and the Internet.
If the rightful owner of the content (video, audio, text) believes that a certain web page is using (or allowing others to use) the content without authorization (infringing the rights of the content owner), the owner can send a removal notice from DMCA to the hosting service.
Upon receiving the DMCA takedown notice, the hosting service may disable / remove the website (or the entire website).
There is also a counter-notification provision in which the other party can challenge the removal.
RIAA letter against youtube-dl
According to the letter sent by RIAA, it accuses youtube-dl of infringing the rights of its members. Accuses youtube-dl:
“The clear purpose of this source code is to (i) circumvent technology 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. We note that the source code is described on GitHub as “a command line program for downloading videos from YouTube.com and a few other sites.”
The letter mentions how the youtube-dl GitHub repository mentions that it is a program to download YouTube videos.
The youtube-dl README file mentioned downloading videos from Justin Timberlake, Taylor Siwft, etc. in the command usage examples. That has also been used in the notice to file a case against youtube-dl.
Microsoft’s GitHub considered / converted the letter into a DMCA notice and disabled youtube-dl and seventeen other repositories mentioned in the letter.
John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge Legal Director, says that it is not a claim that youtube-dl is infringing work, but the RIAA’s claim is that it is illegal.
What awaits youtube-dl?
The youtube-dl team should surely file a counter appeal because they are not delivering copyrighted content to users directly.
But a couple of things should make sure:
- Consider changing your name and removing YouTube so that you are safe from Google (YouTube owner) copyright notice in the future.
- They should not mention any example in their repository that demonstrates downloading a copyrighted video from YouTube.
- Post a notice that the responsibility for downloading videos rests with the user and discourage downloading copyrighted videos. This is something that Linux torrent clients like Transmission already do.
Projects like youtube-dl need to live
youtube-dl is used by many other tools and websites to provide the ability to download videos from YouTube and other video hosting websites.
This may seem like hacking, but it may not be the case all the time. Some video creators make their videos available under a Creative Common license for others to use this work.
Downloading royalty free videos via youtube-dl shouldn’t be a problem.
Many people around the world have limited internet connectivity. Downloading educational videos so they can refer to them later without wasting bandwidth is a genuine use of this tool.
Was it fair to take down youtbe-dl?
I am amazed at the quick action taken by Microsoft GitHub in this case. They cowered so easily.
Imagine a group of DMCA trolls start sending takedown notices to other projects under the guise of copyright. This is one possibility. Remember how a patent troll tried to extort money from GNOME’s Shotwell image viewer program.
I hope the youtube-dl team counters the takedown and doesn’t give in to the pressure.
I know it is an open source project and its code can be hosted on an alternative GitHub website like GitLab. However, the RIAA is a powerful organization and they can pressure other code hosting websites to remove the youtube-dl repositories again. Repeated takedowns can also demoralize developers to abandon the project.
I’ve always wondered why YouTube doesn’t allow video creators to have the ability to make their videos available for download, either for free or for a fee.
What do you think of the whole episode? Do you think the takedown is correct? Express your views.
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