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Music Company Asks Google to Delist 'YouTube Downloader' Wikipedia Article

218 points by picture 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
- sacrosancty 3y ago
  [dead]
kylecazar 3y ago
I've found that most every song I've searched for on YouTube is on there in one form another (music video, lyrics video, etc). I have YouTube premium, so I don't see ads, and can download the videos.
- KomoD 3y ago
  Yeah but YouTube premium doesn't work the same way, sure you can download but it doesn't give you an mp4 or anything?
  - aPoCoMiLogin 3y ago
    its more like download in netflix/spotify where the downloaded content is on your device but not directly accessible, only via the application (or website). on the other hand, if you have yt premium, you have yt music
  - rvnx 3y ago
    The YouTube frontend downloads the video file (the .mp4) from googlevideo.com/videoplayback and adds it to a locally playable playlist. However, the implementation is really wacky. If you are online and you go to watch a video that you have previously downloaded, then instead of serving you the locally cached version through the service worker, instead the frontend redownloads the whole video. Again, and again, every time you watch it. So if your goal is to save mobile data, or if your goal is to save a video that might possibly be deleted in the future, it is not working.
    - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
      Does the YouTube app really download the video again each time you play it? I have noticed that downloaded videos always play in full quality. (In fact, that's the main reason I use downloads: play a short, stop it, go to history, download the short, then play it again. Because shorts have no quality control option, and also no download option except from the watch history. Shorts have a very weird and annoying UI. It's also impossible to add them to a playlist.)
- zeta0134 3y ago
  I mostly consume videogame soundtracks as my background music. My downloader script solves several problems: - I can play the entire OST on company / otherwise awful internet, where bandwidth is not free - The player doesn't pause midway through every 3rd track to obnoxiously ask me if I'm "still listening" - When the OST inevitably vanishes from youtube, I still have it to listen to (Mind that many of these OSTs are not available for purchase where I live, so this isn't a "vote with my wallet" sort of situation. Nintendo in particular is real bad about this.) There are other more elegant solutions, but unfortunately the means through which I've purchased the game's soundtrack the normal way (the game itself) is generally a poor means to actually listen to it. I would pay for this service if it existed; where's spotify for soundtracks? But no, it doesn't exist, so tech solutions get to deal with the problems. I do at least pay for YouTube Premium, that's the closest thing, but I'm not going to suffer its various inconveniences if there's a better option for the actual playback.
  - williamcotton 3y ago
    What video games? Are they video games you played with friends and family? Do you associate meaningful life events with the games or the songs? I want to write a song about video game music and I’d like to, erhm, “borrow” parts of your life story. :D
    - HideousKojima 3y ago
      Sometimes they're just good songs? For example the soundtrack to Nier: Replicant could go head to head with anything big name Hollywood composers have written.
      - williamcotton 3y ago
        There's got to be some social reason why you're listening to Nier: Replicant as opposed to something else. I didn't expect any downvotes, but it seems I hit a nerve. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that wasn't my intention, I just don't know anything about the kinds of people who would listen to video game soundtracks. I figured there might be some stories to share.
shams93 3y ago
Sounds like the don't understand that official music and video content like rental films are DRMed - youtube-dl and other downloads error out when trying to download DRMed content.
- codetrotter 3y ago
  > youtube-dl and other downloads error out when trying to download DRMed content Can you give an example of a YouTube video where this happens? Take for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ozmU9cJDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ozmU9cJDg That's a video of a song from the channel of the band that killed the Napster P2P network and software back in the day. I hear that there is no problem downloading that song with yt-dlp. Likewise, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FTATjvCJ-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FTATjvCJ-Q That's a video with music from a YouTube channel owned by one of the most copyright lawyered cartoon companies in the world. They successfully made videos of a cartoon mouse stay protected after it was supposed to enter public domain. Yet, I hear that this video is also able to be downloaded without problem with yt-dlp. So when these videos are able to download without problem, idk what public videos on YouTube would not be able to be downloaded with yt-dlp.
  - EGreg 3y ago
    All those other ones you hadn’t mentioned. The true scotsman videos
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - netrus 3y ago
    Presumably those only accessibly with YouTube Music or for a fee (movie rentals).
    - codetrotter 3y ago
      Idk, I don't use YouTube Music. Parent commenter said: > Sounds like the don't understand that official music and video content like rental films are DRMed And that's what I was responding to. Not YouTube Music. There are plenty videos with music from the original distributors, like those I linked above, on regular YouTube, and which as mentioned will be able to download with yt-dlp.
BLKNSLVR 3y ago
I think there should be a blanket "compare to the ease of semi-automatic weapon acquirement" rule. If <thing requesting to be censored or removed or otherwise hidden from the plain view of the public> has less potential effect on an individual than a semi-automatic weapon can have, then the request should be laughed at and/or publicly shamed for its anti-freedom, and therefore anti-US, ideology. Prefaced on the relative ease that it seems semi-automatic weapons can be procured, and their potential for individual liberty restriction. (Happy for flaws in my logic to be pointed out, I haven't gone particularly in depth in thinking about edge cases here) Edited to replace "automatic" with "semi-automatic", thanks for the clarification tempfortwitt90.
- tempfortwitt90 3y ago
  Automatic weapons aren't allowed and I haven't even ever seen one even while being around guns for 20 years casually but not THAT casually. I suppose you mean semi automatic weapons.. which is basically 95% of guns in the homes of Americans.
  - Prickle 3y ago
    To my understanding, Machine gun licenses are still sold in the US on extremely stringent terms. Some, like the famous American 180 (Otherwise known as the Angry Bees) are grand-fathered in and allowed to be used.
    - tempfortwitt90 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - vkou 3y ago
        If guns deterred crime, red states, and cities in red states wouldn't be topping the violent crime charts in this country. It's a fantasy. The reality is that gun vendors and political pundits do a great business in preying on your fears and anxiety.
ggm 3y ago
People turn to programs like youtube downloader because the underlying desire is to have the bitstream to watch (or not) at, and in a form/manner of your own chosing, not the higher level function of "watching it inside this specific end-to-end managed session" I appreciate this really comes down to "well buy the goddamn content" but the thing is, even when we do buy digital content we're frequently told we only bought a licence to use, not the bitstream itself. The side fight about google allowing us to upload our own music ("our" -the solecism of that word in the context I am speaking about) and then listen to it and higher fidelity bit products in the cloud, but then change the terms and conditions and worsen the experience to drive us off Google Play Music (which they shut down) into youtube music (which is awful) I moved to tidal. I find it works tolerably close to my expectations, it integrates with plex, I can handle its playlist format, and it at least formally belongs to (albeit a super rich sub-set) of musicians.
jaimex2 3y ago
Whats everyones favourite uncensored search engine?
- betaby 3y ago
  yandex.com?
- bunbun69 3y ago
  Do you believe that removing child porn from google is censorship? Now replace child porn with another things that’s illegal Now suddenly it’s censorship?
user-3472 3y ago
[flagged]
- tirpen 3y ago
  Can you start by explaining what the similarities are?
tpoacher 3y ago
The problem is a behavioural one, not a technological one. Youtubedl is a great technological solution, but does nothing to nullify Google's desire to fight it and enshitten the internet. If every download was accompanied by a request to the uploader to also upload their video to peer tube or sth (and also consider different funding streams), Google would not only NOT present such obstacles to their users, but they'd bend over backwards trying to improve the experience to prevent losing their viewership to open solutions. (Well, that and they'd try some shitty legalese on top and lobby for laws against double uploads, no doubt)
someonewhocar3s 3y ago
[dead]

218 points by picture 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

sacrosancty 3y ago
[dead]

kylecazar 3y ago

I've found that most every song I've searched for on YouTube is on there in one form another (music video, lyrics video, etc). I have YouTube premium, so I don't see ads, and can download the videos.

KomoD 3y ago
Yeah but YouTube premium doesn't work the same way, sure you can download but it doesn't give you an mp4 or anything?
- aPoCoMiLogin 3y ago
  its more like download in netflix/spotify where the downloaded content is on your device but not directly accessible, only via the application (or website). on the other hand, if you have yt premium, you have yt music
- rvnx 3y ago
  The YouTube frontend downloads the video file (the .mp4) from googlevideo.com/videoplayback and adds it to a locally playable playlist. However, the implementation is really wacky. If you are online and you go to watch a video that you have previously downloaded, then instead of serving you the locally cached version through the service worker, instead the frontend redownloads the whole video. Again, and again, every time you watch it. So if your goal is to save mobile data, or if your goal is to save a video that might possibly be deleted in the future, it is not working.
  - TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
    Does the YouTube app really download the video again each time you play it? I have noticed that downloaded videos always play in full quality. (In fact, that's the main reason I use downloads: play a short, stop it, go to history, download the short, then play it again. Because shorts have no quality control option, and also no download option except from the watch history. Shorts have a very weird and annoying UI. It's also impossible to add them to a playlist.)
zeta0134 3y ago
I mostly consume videogame soundtracks as my background music. My downloader script solves several problems: - I can play the entire OST on company / otherwise awful internet, where bandwidth is not free - The player doesn't pause midway through every 3rd track to obnoxiously ask me if I'm "still listening" - When the OST inevitably vanishes from youtube, I still have it to listen to (Mind that many of these OSTs are not available for purchase where I live, so this isn't a "vote with my wallet" sort of situation. Nintendo in particular is real bad about this.) There are other more elegant solutions, but unfortunately the means through which I've purchased the game's soundtrack the normal way (the game itself) is generally a poor means to actually listen to it. I would pay for this service if it existed; where's spotify for soundtracks? But no, it doesn't exist, so tech solutions get to deal with the problems. I do at least pay for YouTube Premium, that's the closest thing, but I'm not going to suffer its various inconveniences if there's a better option for the actual playback.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  What video games? Are they video games you played with friends and family? Do you associate meaningful life events with the games or the songs? I want to write a song about video game music and I’d like to, erhm, “borrow” parts of your life story. :D
  - HideousKojima 3y ago
    Sometimes they're just good songs? For example the soundtrack to Nier: Replicant could go head to head with anything big name Hollywood composers have written.
    - williamcotton 3y ago
      There's got to be some social reason why you're listening to Nier: Replicant as opposed to something else. I didn't expect any downvotes, but it seems I hit a nerve. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that wasn't my intention, I just don't know anything about the kinds of people who would listen to video game soundtracks. I figured there might be some stories to share.

shams93 3y ago

Sounds like the don't understand that official music and video content like rental films are DRMed - youtube-dl and other downloads error out when trying to download DRMed content.

codetrotter 3y ago
> youtube-dl and other downloads error out when trying to download DRMed content Can you give an example of a YouTube video where this happens? Take for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ozmU9cJDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ozmU9cJDg That's a video of a song from the channel of the band that killed the Napster P2P network and software back in the day. I hear that there is no problem downloading that song with yt-dlp. Likewise, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FTATjvCJ-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FTATjvCJ-Q That's a video with music from a YouTube channel owned by one of the most copyright lawyered cartoon companies in the world. They successfully made videos of a cartoon mouse stay protected after it was supposed to enter public domain. Yet, I hear that this video is also able to be downloaded without problem with yt-dlp. So when these videos are able to download without problem, idk what public videos on YouTube would not be able to be downloaded with yt-dlp.
- EGreg 3y ago
  All those other ones you hadn’t mentioned. The true scotsman videos
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- netrus 3y ago
  Presumably those only accessibly with YouTube Music or for a fee (movie rentals).
  - codetrotter 3y ago
    Idk, I don't use YouTube Music. Parent commenter said: > Sounds like the don't understand that official music and video content like rental films are DRMed And that's what I was responding to. Not YouTube Music. There are plenty videos with music from the original distributors, like those I linked above, on regular YouTube, and which as mentioned will be able to download with yt-dlp.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

I think there should be a blanket "compare to the ease of semi-automatic weapon acquirement" rule. If <thing requesting to be censored or removed or otherwise hidden from the plain view of the public> has less potential effect on an individual than a semi-automatic weapon can have, then the request should be laughed at and/or publicly shamed for its anti-freedom, and therefore anti-US, ideology. Prefaced on the relative ease that it seems semi-automatic weapons can be procured, and their potential for individual liberty restriction. (Happy for flaws in my logic to be pointed out, I haven't gone particularly in depth in thinking about edge cases here) Edited to replace "automatic" with "semi-automatic", thanks for the clarification tempfortwitt90.

tempfortwitt90 3y ago
Automatic weapons aren't allowed and I haven't even ever seen one even while being around guns for 20 years casually but not THAT casually. I suppose you mean semi automatic weapons.. which is basically 95% of guns in the homes of Americans.
- Prickle 3y ago
  To my understanding, Machine gun licenses are still sold in the US on extremely stringent terms. Some, like the famous American 180 (Otherwise known as the Angry Bees) are grand-fathered in and allowed to be used.
  - tempfortwitt90 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - vkou 3y ago
      If guns deterred crime, red states, and cities in red states wouldn't be topping the violent crime charts in this country. It's a fantasy. The reality is that gun vendors and political pundits do a great business in preying on your fears and anxiety.

ggm 3y ago

People turn to programs like youtube downloader because the underlying desire is to have the bitstream to watch (or not) at, and in a form/manner of your own chosing, not the higher level function of "watching it inside this specific end-to-end managed session" I appreciate this really comes down to "well buy the goddamn content" but the thing is, even when we do buy digital content we're frequently told we only bought a licence to use, not the bitstream itself. The side fight about google allowing us to upload our own music ("our" -the solecism of that word in the context I am speaking about) and then listen to it and higher fidelity bit products in the cloud, but then change the terms and conditions and worsen the experience to drive us off Google Play Music (which they shut down) into youtube music (which is awful) I moved to tidal. I find it works tolerably close to my expectations, it integrates with plex, I can handle its playlist format, and it at least formally belongs to (albeit a super rich sub-set) of musicians.

jaimex2 3y ago

Whats everyones favourite uncensored search engine?

betaby 3y ago
yandex.com?
bunbun69 3y ago
Do you believe that removing child porn from google is censorship? Now replace child porn with another things that’s illegal Now suddenly it’s censorship?

user-3472 3y ago

[flagged]

tirpen 3y ago
Can you start by explaining what the similarities are?

tpoacher 3y ago

The problem is a behavioural one, not a technological one. Youtubedl is a great technological solution, but does nothing to nullify Google's desire to fight it and enshitten the internet. If every download was accompanied by a request to the uploader to also upload their video to peer tube or sth (and also consider different funding streams), Google would not only NOT present such obstacles to their users, but they'd bend over backwards trying to improve the experience to prevent losing their viewership to open solutions. (Well, that and they'd try some shitty legalese on top and lobby for laws against double uploads, no doubt)

someonewhocar3s 3y ago

[dead]