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Google Bars Site That Converts YouTube Songs Into MP3s

Posted by timothy on from the see-previous-article-about-streaming dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google is apparently cracking down on a popular site that converts the music from YouTube videos into MP3s. YouTube-MP3.org has received a letter from Google, YouTube's parent company, notifying the site operators that converting videos this way violates YouTube's terms of service, according to the blog TorrentFreak, which said it has seen the letter. In addition, YouTube apparently has blocked YouTube-MP3.org's servers from accessing the site."

28 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. How stupid, and useless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is trivial to extract the audio from a youtube video and convert it to an mp3. There are tools on Windows, Linux, and OSX that can do that without a lot of effort. So, shutting down this site is, IMO, an exercise in futility.

    1. Re:How stupid, and useless by houstonbofh · · Score: 5, Funny

      This seems to be an easier tool for the non-technical to use, and therefore would open it up to a wider audience. Costing record companies billions of dollars and funding terrorism, of course.

    2. Re:How stupid, and useless by Instine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      its an exercise in ass covering.

      --
      Because you can - or because you should?
    3. Re:How stupid, and useless by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is trivial to extract the audio from a youtube video and convert it to an mp3. There are tools on Windows, Linux, and OSX that can do that without a lot of effort. So, shutting down this site is, IMO, an exercise in futility.

      I suspect that you are underestimating the degree of laziness, technical ignorance, and futzing-with-youtube-on-computers-they-can't-install-stuff-on-because-they-are-at-work/school, at play here.

      Obviously, Google knows that you can do whatever you damn well want with the video once you've downloaded it(and, while they receive no further ad revenue, it also doesn't cost them anything further, and they have no way of going after you, so they aren't going to bother).

      I suspect, though, that Google takes a dim view of tools, usable even by morons, that eat their bandwidth, throw away any ads they serve, and quite possibly upset the RIAA and friends without any benefit to Google.

    4. Re:How stupid, and useless by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 3, Informative

      Linux:
      $ cd /tmp
      $ ffmpeg -i FlashFoO bar.mp3
      Done...

      --
      rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    5. Re:How stupid, and useless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is trivial to extract the audio from a youtube video and convert it to an mp3. There are tools on Windows, Linux, and OSX that can do that without a lot of effort. So, shutting down this site is, IMO, an exercise in futility.

      True. It's also pretty damn easy to recover the .avi, .mp4, or .flv video and process it client-side. Whether it infringes copyright or not, what you do with ffmpeg on files that reside client-side, etc., is your problem, not Google's.

      Where this website crossed the line is in trying to monetize it by being a wrapper around YouTube.

      Full disclosure: My position on the issue can be summarized as "fuck streaming." Streaming media is the memory hole of 1984. For free/fan-based content that doesn't infringe (e.g. fair use), it's nice to know that you can keep your favorite content, even after your friends deactivate their accounts, or if a lawyer claiming ownership of a 2-second sample in a 3-minute video disagrees with you.

    6. Re:How stupid, and useless by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 2

      [...] it's putting a lot of users in harms way with regards to malware.


      AND funding terrorism...
      You forgot to add that. FTFY :-D
      --
      rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    7. Re:How stupid, and useless by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

      If you're already on Linux and using ffmpeg, why not encode it as .ogg?

      Because it is already an mp3 stream, and re-encoding into another lossy format would make the quality even worse.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    8. Re:How stupid, and useless by azalin · · Score: 2

      I would presume that Google wants to prevent the RIAA throwing another fit. They do this by going for an obvious leecher that probably started to cost them money bandwidth wise, infringes their trademark and would become bothersome if it became too popular.
      I'm pretty sure they know that is impossible to stop the not completely tech challenged user from doing this himself, but those are a) a minority b) are mostly indistinguishable from normal users so theyy probably don't care.

    9. Re:How stupid, and useless by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is why I save EVERYTHING that I really like. You can't count on anything online still being there tomorrow, much less ten years down the road.

      Especially if it's something not many people care about. This is why people like Jason Scott (from textfiles.org) are my heroes.

    10. Re:How stupid, and useless by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Informative

      >>>Because it is already an mp3 stream

      Usually it's an MPEG4 codec, like AAC or AACplusSBR. Converting to mp3 is a downgrade.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    11. Re:How stupid, and useless by a+whoabot · · Score: 2

      "you can do whatever you damn well want with the video once you've downloaded it"

      To supplement your point: When you say something like this to most people, they respond: "But I don't download YouTube videos -- I just watch them on the website!"

    12. Re:How stupid, and useless by markg11cdn · · Score: 4, Informative

      Especially if it's something not many people care about. This is why people like Jason Scott (from textfiles.org) are my heroes.

      Err, I think you mean textfiles.com. Unless you meant to point at the domain squatter instead...

  2. Browser Extensions by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Informative

    What about sites that host browser extensions/add-ons/plug-ins? Opera, Chrome and Firefox all have extensions that will do this right from the YouTube page with a single click.

    1. Re:Browser Extensions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Most of those actually use an interim server like the one in the article to make the conversion, so could be blocked. Even those that don't frequently have problems. Youtube keeps adjusting the way it streams the media files to try and optimize overall bandwidth use and performance, and every time they make a change it breaks the plugins for a few days. That said, I don't think they can outright block them without blocking the media itself; a browser that allowed websites to query every plugin installed would be a serious security threat.

    2. Re:Browser Extensions by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most of those actually use an interim server like the one in the article to make the conversion, so could be blocked. Even those that don't frequently have problems. Youtube keeps adjusting the way it streams the media files to try and optimize overall bandwidth use and performance, and every time they make a change it breaks the plugins for a few days. That said, I don't think they can outright block them without blocking the media itself; a browser that allowed websites to query every plugin installed would be a serious security threat.

      Actually, it's really easy to do it yourself, and it works extremely well in Firefox. It'll work with most sites and is unblockable basically. The sites it won't work with are sites that do exclusive streaming (no caching and play/pause/rewind/etc requires are handled by the server which changes its bitstream) and sites that break the video into tiny segments and the player dynamically changes the quality.

      What you need is a firefox extension called "Live HTTP Headers" that lets you see HTTP headers as they scroll by, and something like Flashblock or NoScript that prevents running of flash (HTML5 video isn't that prevalent yet and only big ones like YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion support it while everyone else still uses flash).

      The method is to load the page up, then open the Live HTTP Header window. Click the flash player and let it load and start the video. One of the things Live HTTP Headers will have captured is... the URL for the media (look for MIME type video/flv or video/mp4). Copy that URL and paste it in a browser tab (which also gives you cookies). If you don't have a handler, it'll ask to download. If you do, block the site temporarily and use NoScript to right-click and download it.

      This method works because it relies on the fact that most video sites retrieve video via HTTP or HTTPS (could be a Flash limitation) rather than streaming the video (which requires server work) and using HTTP/HTTPS makes it more CDN-friendly since it's a static file.

  3. And not a single f**k was given... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cloud:
    - Keepvid: http://keepvid.com/
    - Vixy: http://vixy.net/
    - Saveyoutube: http://saveyoutube.com/
    - Savevid: http://www.savevid.com/
    - More: www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=youtube+video+download

    Firefox addons:
    - Download Flash and Video: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-flash-and-video/?src=search
    - YouTube Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-download/?src=search
    - 1-Click YouTube Video Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1-click-youtube-video-download/?src=search
    - Download YouTube Videos as MP4 and FLV: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-youtube/?src=search
    - More: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=firefox+download&appver=&platform=

    Chrome extentions:
    - YouTube Downloader: MP3 / HD Video: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hokfcbmfpgeajcgkaeigohghnkhjmcbj
    - FVD Video Downloader: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lfmhcpmkbdkbgbmkjoiopeeegenkdikp

    Manually:
    - HOWTO: Download FLV videos from YouTube manually: http://inspirated.com/2007/08/24/howto-download-flv-videos-from-youtube-manually

    Dear Google,

    give up. LOL, noobs...

    Regards,
    NotASingleF**k.

  4. Sensationalist Title by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see why this article is of interest.

    A site does something which goes against youtube's TOS - Google changes something in Youtube to block it - and sends a letter to the owner of the website. So?

    If you Google it - you still get search results, and Google didn't do any tricks which we find immoral.

    Why is this an article? What were we expecting? How could Google have dealth with it better?

  5. Audacity by dubbayu_d_40 · · Score: 2

    I used to use Audacity for this, and it worked well. However, the audio quality on YouTube is noticeably awful.

    I don't think they need to block these sites. The poor quality is what finally pushed me to start purchasing songs.

  6. Re:Funny block... by Mia'cova · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're blocking their servers from downloading the videos. They aren't removing it from their search results. That's exactly what I'd do in their case. They'll simply feed it URLs, see who connects to download the video, block the IP, and repeat.

    This seems like a complete non-story to me. But then, I've never heard of that site before. If it is actually popular, I can see why that alone would make it news-worthy. As a technical person, I'd look for a browser plugin to download the video, then a desktop app to rip the audio. Searching for a website which automates the process wouldn't have even occurred to me. It's funny how being technical can cause you to miss the boat on some trends just because the problem addressed was just never a problem for you in the first place..

  7. How I interpreted the headline. by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A Google service for bars called "Google Bars" that converts youtube songs into MP3.

  8. Re:Funny block... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...a desktop app to rip the audio...

    No excuse for mousey-clicky, simply type into the command line:

    ffmpeg -i my_video_file.avi extracted_audio.mp3

    mplayer -dumpaudio my_video_file.avi -dumpfile extracted_audio.mp3

  9. should have rickrolled them by dlmarti · · Score: 2

    Redirecting YouTube-MP3.org to the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" would have been more appropriate.

  10. Re:Funny block... by ccguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone who can't figure out how to download the video for himself, then rip an MP3 from the video, doesn't deserve to listen to the music

    That's like saying anyone who can't figure out how to install a tap doesn't deserve water.

    This kind of attitude LOWERS the value of technical people. You are basically saying that this is the standard that separate the normal people from the retards.

  11. Re:Funny block... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    "You are basically saying that this is the standard that separate the normal people from the retards."

    Welllllll - let's just say that a lot of elementary school age children can figure it out for themselves. One of whom is closely related to me. I walked in his room, looked over his shoulder, and asked, "What you doing, Son?" "Oh, I like this song, so I'm piping it through VLC and saving the audio so that I can play it back on my iPod."

    My answer? "Son, you have poor taste in music. Who the hell is this Nickel Back dude? And, why does he sound like he's been smoking raw hemp? Why don't you look for some Foreigner, or Boston, or some other real music?" Of course, this was a few years ago - the boy is out of school now.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  12. I uploaded a video last night by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Youtube is accusing me of plagiarizing, because i put a PUBLIC DOMAIN audio track of "The Star Spangled Banner" in the video. Their automatic software however has decided this is false positive enough with someone else's recording of OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM (!?) to block my video. I disputed the claim, linked to the public domain audio source, and now I have until July 18 to twiddle my thumbs while Youtube placates the copyright trolls.

    Our intellectual property system is an absurdity that hinders creativity, I want to live in a just and sane society. Our intellectual property system is incompatible with being fixed, and any move to a more sane status quo requires that it be made abundantly clear to everyone that laws put on the books in the days of cassette tapes do not work in a world of TCP/IP.

    I support anything and everything that directly undermines the enforcement of intellectual property laws. Civil Disobedience is what is needed, civil disobedience here in this context is any and all actions that are sane and reasonable consumer actions of YOUR CULTURE but obviously not in line with intellectual property letter of the law. Supporting artists does not mean supporting the parasitical corporations and laws that merely operate on a rent seeking basis, and add no value to our culture or our creativity.

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  13. Re:Funny block... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

    Even easier just don't be a cheap bastard and buy Speed MP3 downloader which i got off of giveawayoftheday but you can buy it for like $25, and it lets you set tags, choose bitrates, its really nice and beyond simple. hell your grandma could run it. Sure you can go through the steps of using a browser extension, downloading to desktop, converting to MP3 then, but why bother? With Speed you don't even have to fire up your browser, just pick what you want from it and hit the download button. they have a free trial so check it out, if for some reason i ever screw up and lose the GAOTD version i'll just buy it, being that hassle free is worth $25 IMHO.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  14. Re:Funny block... by The+Archon+V2.0 · · Score: 2

    I personally didn't feel like "figuring it out" across three different platforms for something I only used about twice a month.

    Honestly, if I'm listening to an interview or a standup routine from Youtube, I don't NEED the video of someone talking. And if I'm anywhere where bandwidth is limited or just plain sucks, I appreciate having an MP3 converter two clicks away that doesn't require me to horse the video across a line that's struggling to stay above dialup levels.