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The VCR was a tool that allowed people to time-shift (record now, watch later) copyrighted material, which was determined by courts to be fair use. It also allo
by kmoser 3y ago
The VCR was a tool that allowed people to time-shift (record now, watch later) copyrighted material, which was determined by courts to be fair use. It also allowed people to duplicate their own material, which was unquestionably always legal.
YouTube downloaders are just modern day VCRs. That they can be used to violate copyright doesn't mean they are only used to violate copyright. There are plenty of public domain videos on YouTube, and downloading them doesn't violate copyright.
- zarzavat 3y agoIf I understand it’s not overtly about copyright but about anti-DRM. The YT download tools necessarily have to break YT’s DRM which is per se illegal in the US. VCRs save unencrypted inputs, they don’t break any DRM. Now, breaking DRM is not illegal all over the world. So the YT download tools could decide to base themselves in jurisdictions where breaking DRM is legal, this is why you can download VLC which is French. That wouldn’t help with their Google listings however, as Google is American.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kmoser 3y agoHow do YT download tools "break" YT's DRM any more than your browser "breaks" YT's DRM? Both devices are user-agents, and allow a user to decode and view content. Once that content gets sent to your monitor it is no longer encrypted, thus no different from any other video signal.
- Ballas 3y agoLater VCRs actually did comply to DRM. You could not record, for instance the output from a DVD player as well as some STBs.
- contravariant 3y agoAny kind of agency can be considered a circumvention of copyright protection, it is an insane law that needs to be destroyed as soon as possible. The U.S. has basically given big companies a big red button they can push to stop people from doing something they don't like, and we're debating whether something does or doesn't warrant them pushing the button rather than whether such a button should even exist.