Microsoft YouTube App Strips Ads; Adds Download

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft appears to be sticking a finger in Google's eye with the launch of its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. The app, ReadWrite has confirmed, strips out YouTube ads when it plays back videos and allows users to easily download video by way of a prominent 'download' button."

Comments

Google will block it

[laing]

Give them a day. I'll bet it stops working tomorrow.

Re:Google will block it

[dclozier]

They just need to move to VP8 delivery only. Microsoft said it wouldn't support it - then we'll really know for sure!

Re:Google will block it

[DogDude]

Right. The two largest software companies are going to act like a couple of petulant small time administrators have a dick measuring contest. Sure.

You don't think that there was a bit of collaboration in creating it, maybe?

Re:Google will block it

[ozmanjusri]

it seems like MS is shooting themselves in the foot yet again.

They did that long ago when they refused to participate in other software ecosystems, and concentrated on locking competitors out by locking customers in.

Now their locked-in market is failing, and the world is bypassing their restrictions. They don't have time to develop good, competitive software, all they can do is assault competitors with any tools they have at hand.

It's an ugly, desperate thing we're seeing here.

Re:Google will block it

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been watching YouTube videos forever as an unregistered visitor and never seen a TOS.

So you're suggesting, based on your experiences, that the Microsoft Phone development team and their legal advisers can ignore any TOS that they choose not to read?

Fascinating...

A contract does not apply unless you agree to it. There is a lot of debate in the legal community whether TOS are valid at all, and the answer seems to be "it depends". I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know whether in this particular case the TOS applies but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.

Microsoft's developers are not agreeing to any TOS. Even if they did agree to it they are not on the board of directors and they are not in the legal department, so they're not authorised to agree on behalf of the corporation anyway.

With no TOS in place, that leaves the DMCA... but google doesn't use any DRM to force ads ads to appear or prevent downloads so I don't think there is any DMCA violation either.

If google adds some DRM though, even if it's weak DRM, microsoft would be in deep shit if they bypass it.

Re:Google will block it

[Dorianny]

The drop in market share is largely due to the explosive growth in the entry level market. In the high end market apple is still king. The only thing all these financial analysts that are crying for apple to release a low-end device really care about is the next quarterly report. Apple has built a name as a premium brand and jeopardizing that image for a quick profit would only benefit the wall street players at the expense of apple's long term future.

Re:Going to hurt videos available at some point

[I'm New Around Here]

Not to be mean to you personally, but we don't fucking care. Just like we don't fucking care that ABC doesn't like us recording shows on our DVRs and watching them later without having to suffer through the horrible, loud, insulting-to-the-intelligence ads. We don't care that Sony and BMG want us to buy entire CDs of music, rather than download songs, or worse yet, find other music to listen to.

So, if your profession is making videos, and your income is based on ads played during those videos on a communal website, you may want to think of a better revenue stream. This one isn't going to last, whether Microsoft can pull this off or not.

Re:Can they?

[Le Marteau]

Youtube can say whatever they want. Whether it is enforceable is another matter.

Saving a YouTube video for later playback on your own machine (i.e. not distributing) is simply "time shifting"... time shifting has been tried time and time again in the courts and it is settled law. What legally comes to your device can be saved and played back at a later date (aka "taping" and now "downloading") and Google can TOS till the cows come home but no TOS ever written and tested in court has ever abridged the right of anyone at any time to time shift.

In other words, download all you want. Rip it to DVDs/CDs. Play it back a million times. Put it on all your devices. There's not a goddamned thing Google, or anyone, can do to stop you... they can add stuff to their TOS from now until doomsday but it does not matter in the least.

Re-distribution is another matter of course.