Another YouTube Conversion Site Clipped

Hodejo1 writes "[Tuesday] morning we learned that Google fired the first volley against YouTube conversion sites by blocking YouTube-MP3.org's servers from accessing its service and sending a letter threatening legal action. It looks like the fast growing Clip.dj also got the letter based on the note posted on the site: 'We're sorry to announce this, but Clip.dj has shut its service down for good.'"

Comments

That's okay

[Anonymous Coward]

It's okay. I've got a firefox plugin that'll do it for me.

Re:That's okay

[kelemvor4]

It's ok, I've got windows sound recorder.. or any other sound recording program to do it for me.

Re:That's okay

[pla]

Why did this get modded down? I came in here to say pretty much exactly the same thing.

Personally, I use Video DownloadHelper because it applies more generally than just to YouTube; But search the FF addons for "YouTube" and you'll see at least a dozen plugins that will let you download whatever the hell you want. Some even transcode it for you on the fly, for those who can't bother with trying to figure out what to do with a FLV or MKV file.

Give it up, Google - If I can see (or hear) it, I already have a copy. I thought you understood that better than the Big Media morons.

Re:That's okay

[FunkyELF]

Much worse... you'd either be storing raw PCM or you'd be re-encoding.
Better to get the mp3 or aac stream from the .flv or .mp4 file.
ffmpeg -i zomg_justin_bieber_baby_baby.flv -codec copy zomg_justin_bieber_baby_baby.mp3

Re:That's okay

[kiwimate]

Give it up, Google - If I can see (or hear) it, I already have a copy. I thought you understood that better than the Big Media morons.

Google understands that. They also understand that just because you can make a copy doesn't mean you are legally allowed to make a copy.

Re:That's okay

[Frnknstn]

It's okay, I have tcpdump.

Or, It's okay, I have coaxial network cable, a multimeter and a quick eye.

When are they going to learn?

[medcalf]

If they allow us to see their content, they have to send us the bits in some form. If they send us the bits in any form, we can capture them and convert them to another form. Shut down all conversion sites today and more will be up in a week. Or we will start using browser plugins, or local apps. It is not technically possible to share something digitally without it being able to be captured digitally. It's like using a flashlight and then complaining that the person you're shining it on is using the light to read by, when you only meant to use the light to see them.

Re:When are they going to learn?

[Anonymous Coward]

What you say is true TODAY, and may continue be true for a while. But don't make the mistake of thinking that it will always be true. When it's only possible to boot cryptographically signed "secure" OSs, and only for a few "trusted" OSs that will not allow you to run such software, it will no longer be possible without hardware mods to your computer that most people are not able to do. They ARE working on a whole "trusted path" through the entire OS to your display device, with the final decryption being done in the display device itself.

Make no mistake that is the direction of the industry for a long time, it just takes a long time to get there because there was so much inertia around open platforms. Sure, you could point a video camera at your screen but the quality will suck. Sure, a tiny number of hackers will figure out a way around the "trusted content path", but not enough to matter. As long as they close out 99.99% of everyone, that's all that matters. Even without such a trusted content path, on the most open OS out there (Linux), how many people are succesfully playing BluRay discs on Linux machines? A handful sure, but it's just not accessible for the majority - and again that's on an OPEN OS. Think how it can be on one that's cryptographically secured down to the hardware.

Every little step is only a little step. Every little step can be circumvented. But the walls ARE closing in and have been for decades. Don't think it won't continue, and get harder and harder.

Captcha: Shaken

Re:When are they going to learn?

[amorsen]

how many people are succesfully playing BluRay discs on Linux machines?

Practically no one. However, if you ask how many play downloaded or sneaker-net-shared BluRay rips, that is a much higher number. Content protection is pretty much worthless as long as mass file sharing is easy.

Every little step is only a little step. Every little step can be circumvented. But the walls ARE closing in and have been for decades. Don't think it won't continue, and get harder and harder.

You are completely right.

Re:When are they going to learn?

[blackest_k]

personally i don't bother with blueray in any form. Most people these days have a dvd drive on a computer but how may have a blueray drive? I think its more a financial than technical barrier.

Honestly who needs blueray when dvd is more than good enough and when it is on a computer even dvd quality is just icing. youtube is successful not for its high fidelity but its range of stuff available on most subjects.

I'm old enough to have recorded the chart show in mono on a radio cassette. Sure there was a bit of hiss and the tapes wore and got chewed up but it was good enough for my purposes back then.

These days it is hard to record anything below good enough quality. We would prefer the first edition hardback but the yellowing paperback is what most of us can afford these days with paycuts increased taxation and rocketing fuel bills.

maybe if we were not getting austerity measures forced upon us and had a bit more cash to spend on our little luxurys we would go back to the premium product but that seems to still be some time away.

You don't even need to be poorly paid when living expenses are outpacing your salary , If your buying your own house you still have to make the payments which are now a bigger proportion of your income than you expected them to be 5 or 10 years into paying for your now devalued home.

Re:When are they going to learn?

[The Archon V2.0]

Cory Doctorow had it right. They want computers to be appliances like toasters or TVs, that you can do ONE approved thing with. The War on General Computation

Chrome, Chromium, etc.

[AliasMarlowe]

Why did this get modded down? I came in here to say pretty much exactly the same thing.
Personally, I use Video DownloadHelper because it applies more generally than just to YouTube; But search the FF addons for "YouTube" and you'll see at least a dozen plugins that will let you download whatever the hell you want.

And one extension to download/convert stuff from Youtube for Google's Chrome browser (and the FOSS Chromium browser it's derived from) is even supplied by Google/Youtube itself.

All part of the problem a lack of balance.

[davonshire]

Everyone complains that DRM is keeping them from having what they want. And Those producing what people want, would like to be paid for what they produce.
And companies find they can use some GPL code to keep from having to develop their own bit of code, while people decry that that company isn't giving the source of their product back like the GPL requires etc. etc.

In the end it really comes down to some very basic things that are weakening in the 'moral' spirit of humans. People don't really question any more if they can do something, should they do it?

I can convert any video I choose into a file I can play anywhere any time on a number of machines, but if a friend wants to see it, why shouldn't I offer it to them as well? Or am I a dick for saying. Sorry man, I'll send you the dvd if you like?

Companies try to heap more intrenched DRM into things because they don't see anything working. Media assholes spout nonsense numbers about how much money they are losing, when if you did the math there is no possible way they could have made that much. etc etc.

Politicians pile crap into bills for their own good and when it fall apart they blame someone else for it not going through.

In every case, it's people who think because they are in a position to do something that they want to do, that they can simply do it without there being any consequences.

And we have this idea that's given to us through Hollywood and oodles of books that just one person can make a difference. Almost always that's applied to improving things. Freeing the slaves, ending a war or slaying a Sith. In movies where one person does something really wrong that messes things up for everyone. like destroying the world or creating a new world order, they are considered evil and the bad guy. But it's really just an amplification of the result of when many people decide to do a small bad thing instead of the right thing.

The thing is if you look at say the analysis of the Stock market crash of a few years ago, you will see time and again, the magic plan that made so many so much money worked just fine, till everyone started doing the same thing. Every win requires a loss, it's the order of balance in the world.

I could run on this for days but that's not what posting to something like this is about. I do hope someday people will start to realize that everyone can't have everything, and just because you don't have something, doesn't mean you're not going to have a worth while life.

Cheers.

DS.

Re:But YOU are not their target (yet)

[Runaway1956]

You sum it up pretty nicely - but the point that you don't make is, this: Those conversion sites are monetizing the process, in one fashion or another. While it might be alright for you and I to take advantage of Youtube, or any other site, for our own personal use, it is NOT ALRIGHT for another corporation to horn in on the money to be made.

Those sites might do better if they were using Google ads on their sites, in a manner that didn't violate Google's policies. Might. If Google were making a penny or two at the same time the conversion site made a penny or three, they might get along.