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Interesting timing. The last ~month or so we've seen a drastic shift in YouTube availability. Stricter enforcement of authentication tokens (including breaking

by 3np 2y ago

Interesting timing. The last ~month or so we've seen a drastic shift in YouTube availability. Stricter enforcement of authentication tokens (including breaking some legacy clients) and IP blocking. Loads of Invidious instances either shut down or not able to serve videos anymore. yt-dlp not working at all over an increasing number of VPNs and proxies. Maybe this is some ByteDance engineers getting really desperate and resorting to abusing every youtube proxy service they can because apparently they do have a residential proxy network which doesn't cut it anymore? Unless it's just a cost-optimization measure (residential proxy traffic is relatively pricey).

A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
Yeah, I noticed this as well. I think the window of what some might remember as old youtube is closing forever sooner than anticipated. As I may have suggested on this forum before, if you have anything in particular you want to archive, you would be wise to have a plan to do it sooner rather than later. Space is cheap enough and I assume most people won't want to archive the entire net ( I know data hoarders exist and god bless them, but I assume they will be ok ).
- Wowfunhappy 2y ago
  Short of full-on using Widevine/eme for all videos (which I assume would lock out too many devices), how much more could Youtube do? As long as the data is being streamed to your computer, there will be a way to capture it, right?
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
    Qualified yes is probably in order ( and more knowledgeable person can likely chime-in if I misstate something ). It is and always has been a cat and mouse game not completely unlike with game or movie piracy. As you stated, if you can see it on your PC, there is likely means to capture it. Still, notice how most of the low effort avenues are slowly being cut off one by one. I will use non youtube example. Not that long ago, I was able to rip blurays using off the shelf external bluray writer, but new firmware on currently sold drives remove that ability. Now, Google typically won't be ( and isn't ) everyone's hardware provider, but there are ways they could degrade 'non-sanctioned' experience in browser they can ( and do ) control. Granted, in Firefox ( and other non-google browsers ) it may not be as simple, but future there is not as straightfoward either given Mozilla's trajectory and financial dependence ( and moves ). In short, I agree with you but note that initially it was genuinely trivial to download youtube videos. This has changed over the years.
  - 3np 2y ago
    I can very much imagine site-wide requiring Weidevine/eme for anything better quality than 480 and crusty audio not that long into the future. That's already the case for some (anecdotally increasing ) number of videos.
    - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
      Which YouTube videos require that?
  - treyd 2y ago
    This would encourage a lot more people to want to break Widevine. :)

by 3np 2y ago

A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago

Yeah, I noticed this as well. I think the window of what some might remember as old youtube is closing forever sooner than anticipated. As I may have suggested on this forum before, if you have anything in particular you want to archive, you would be wise to have a plan to do it sooner rather than later. Space is cheap enough and I assume most people won't want to archive the entire net ( I know data hoarders exist and god bless them, but I assume they will be ok ).

Wowfunhappy 2y ago
Short of full-on using Widevine/eme for all videos (which I assume would lock out too many devices), how much more could Youtube do? As long as the data is being streamed to your computer, there will be a way to capture it, right?
- A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
  Qualified yes is probably in order ( and more knowledgeable person can likely chime-in if I misstate something ). It is and always has been a cat and mouse game not completely unlike with game or movie piracy. As you stated, if you can see it on your PC, there is likely means to capture it. Still, notice how most of the low effort avenues are slowly being cut off one by one. I will use non youtube example. Not that long ago, I was able to rip blurays using off the shelf external bluray writer, but new firmware on currently sold drives remove that ability. Now, Google typically won't be ( and isn't ) everyone's hardware provider, but there are ways they could degrade 'non-sanctioned' experience in browser they can ( and do ) control. Granted, in Firefox ( and other non-google browsers ) it may not be as simple, but future there is not as straightfoward either given Mozilla's trajectory and financial dependence ( and moves ). In short, I agree with you but note that initially it was genuinely trivial to download youtube videos. This has changed over the years.
- 3np 2y ago
  I can very much imagine site-wide requiring Weidevine/eme for anything better quality than 480 and crusty audio not that long into the future. That's already the case for some (anecdotally increasing ) number of videos.
  - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
    Which YouTube videos require that?
- treyd 2y ago
  This would encourage a lot more people to want to break Widevine. :)