4 ms·

It is resolved by updating yt-dlp [0]. More generally, for those who lament that the end is nigh, I don't think YouTube can actually do anything about such tool

It is resolved by updating yt-dlp [0]. More generally, for those who lament that the end is nigh, I don't think YouTube can actually do anything about such tools as long as they are serving video in one format or another. DRM is always broken, given enough time. [0] https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/10397 https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/10397

th0ma5 2y ago
I would caution to say that my understanding of DirecTV DRM is that GE & Hughes just outspent the hackers. Certainly there are efforts to lock down devices but so far the holes are still there. And more specifically to your point if the audience and the potential porate are the same group, it really can't ever work.
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  Oh there's still quite a lot of hacking TV signals, it's just been moved into IP TV hacking, for which you can even buy ready to use boxes from China that has everything configured.
  - _joel 2y ago
    Or the guy down the pub, wink wink, nudge nudge.
- beardedwizard 2y ago
  In the entire history of piracy nobody has meaningfully outspent the hackers.
dheera 2y ago
Someone should create an "analog loophole" version of yt-dlp for Premium subscribers who want to be able to download DRM-free video. Launch Youtube in an offscreen browser with the Premium account and record the HTML element as it plays. (I'm a Premium user and even though I'm already ad-free, I do have legitimate uses for downloading DRM-free videos for my own personal use.)
- pcwalton 2y ago
  The browsers are open-source, so you could just make a custom build of the browser with a patch that saves the stream, which wouldn't require the analog hole.
  - peterhadlaw 2y ago
    Wouldn't the sites just not allow the content to play on a non-DRM approved browser?
    - pcwalton 2y ago
      There's no good way to verify that the browser hasn't been tampered with at the moment. Web Environment Integrity was an attempt, but that was withdrawn after outcry.
    - dheera 2y ago
      If they start doing that I would just run the DRM-approved browser in a virtual machine and capture its screen.
      - miki123211 2y ago
        With true web DRM (like the one for Netflix but not the one for YT), that doesn't work, at least not at higher resolutions and in the most secure modes. The video is decrypted such that your OS is prevented from ever seeing its contents, it goes straight to the GPU. If that isn't possible, the video won't play at all (or it's going to play in a less secure mode and hence at a lower resolution). The best you can hope for is playing the video and capturing it with a physical HDMI capture card, though that loophole is eventually also going to go away as newer HDMI standards are released and better DRM gets enforced.
        xigoi 2y ago
        It’s sad that instead of developing new technologies to fight global problems like poverty and climate change, the best engineers in the world are working on preventing people from using their own devices however they want.
miki123211 2y ago
> DRM is always broken, given enough time This actually applies a lot less to Youtube than it does to any other service. On other video streaming platforms, think Netflix, Max, Disney Plus etc, you have a fairly limited number of shows, each with a fairly large number of views. This means that if you break DRM, you can share your tool with a few trusted co-conspirators and only release the videos you rip, but not the tools themselves. This protects you from the platforms discovering and breaking your method. Youtube doesn't really work like that, a lot of people who use yt-dlp and other such tools care about videos with relatively fewer views, which are unlikely to be available anywhere else. This would require any potential DRM-breakers to share their method publicly, which would make them extremely short-lived. Good DRM algorithms nowadays aren't just some obfuscated code in a binary that you have to reverse engineer, they rely heavily on some content being decrypted in hardware. Even if you understand every single instruction in the binary, re-create a perfect open source version of it and have full read/write privileges to any part of the memory that your OS kernel can access, it's still not enough.
- ChildOfChaos 2y ago
  Isin't it a problem for youtube though for the amount of devices it has to work on? If they suddenly changed all of there DRM, then a lot of things would break including various smarttv's etc.

th0ma5 2y ago

I would caution to say that my understanding of DirecTV DRM is that GE & Hughes just outspent the hackers. Certainly there are efforts to lock down devices but so far the holes are still there. And more specifically to your point if the audience and the potential porate are the same group, it really can't ever work.

satvikpendem 2y ago
Oh there's still quite a lot of hacking TV signals, it's just been moved into IP TV hacking, for which you can even buy ready to use boxes from China that has everything configured.
- _joel 2y ago
  Or the guy down the pub, wink wink, nudge nudge.
beardedwizard 2y ago
In the entire history of piracy nobody has meaningfully outspent the hackers.

dheera 2y ago

Someone should create an "analog loophole" version of yt-dlp for Premium subscribers who want to be able to download DRM-free video. Launch Youtube in an offscreen browser with the Premium account and record the HTML element as it plays. (I'm a Premium user and even though I'm already ad-free, I do have legitimate uses for downloading DRM-free videos for my own personal use.)

pcwalton 2y ago
The browsers are open-source, so you could just make a custom build of the browser with a patch that saves the stream, which wouldn't require the analog hole.
- peterhadlaw 2y ago
  Wouldn't the sites just not allow the content to play on a non-DRM approved browser?
  - pcwalton 2y ago
    There's no good way to verify that the browser hasn't been tampered with at the moment. Web Environment Integrity was an attempt, but that was withdrawn after outcry.
  - dheera 2y ago
    If they start doing that I would just run the DRM-approved browser in a virtual machine and capture its screen.
    - miki123211 2y ago
      With true web DRM (like the one for Netflix but not the one for YT), that doesn't work, at least not at higher resolutions and in the most secure modes. The video is decrypted such that your OS is prevented from ever seeing its contents, it goes straight to the GPU. If that isn't possible, the video won't play at all (or it's going to play in a less secure mode and hence at a lower resolution). The best you can hope for is playing the video and capturing it with a physical HDMI capture card, though that loophole is eventually also going to go away as newer HDMI standards are released and better DRM gets enforced.
      - xigoi 2y ago
        It’s sad that instead of developing new technologies to fight global problems like poverty and climate change, the best engineers in the world are working on preventing people from using their own devices however they want.

miki123211 2y ago

> DRM is always broken, given enough time This actually applies a lot less to Youtube than it does to any other service. On other video streaming platforms, think Netflix, Max, Disney Plus etc, you have a fairly limited number of shows, each with a fairly large number of views. This means that if you break DRM, you can share your tool with a few trusted co-conspirators and only release the videos you rip, but not the tools themselves. This protects you from the platforms discovering and breaking your method. Youtube doesn't really work like that, a lot of people who use yt-dlp and other such tools care about videos with relatively fewer views, which are unlikely to be available anywhere else. This would require any potential DRM-breakers to share their method publicly, which would make them extremely short-lived. Good DRM algorithms nowadays aren't just some obfuscated code in a binary that you have to reverse engineer, they rely heavily on some content being decrypted in hardware. Even if you understand every single instruction in the binary, re-create a perfect open source version of it and have full read/write privileges to any part of the memory that your OS kernel can access, it's still not enough.

ChildOfChaos 2y ago
Isin't it a problem for youtube though for the amount of devices it has to work on? If they suddenly changed all of there DRM, then a lot of things would break including various smarttv's etc.