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YouTube Threatens Legal Action Against Video Downloader (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the YouTube,-and-Piracy dept.

Embracing over a billion users, YouTube has become the go-to source of many for music and movies. But the scale of YouTube has also given rise to piracy and copyright infringement. To fix this, the Google-owned video portal has started to contact third-party services that allow users to make a copy of a YouTube video and is urging them to shut down their functionality. TorrentFreak is reporting about a similar instance, in which YouTube's legal team contacted a popular service called TubeNinja. From the report: "It appears from your website and other marketing materials that TubeNinja is designed to allow users to download content from YouTube," the email from YouTube's legal team reads. According to YouTube the video downloader violates the terms of service (ToS) of both the site and the API. Among other things, YouTube's ToS prohibits the downloading of any video that doesn't have a download link listed on the site. Later, Google's video service adds that if the site owner continues to operate the service this "may result in legal consequences." Despite the threatening language, TubeNinja owner Nathan doesn't plan to take the functionality offline. He informed YouTube that his service doesn't use YouTube's API and says that it's the responsibility of his users to ensure that they don't violate the ToS of YouTube and TubeNinja. "Our own ToS clearly states that the user is responsible for the legitimacy of the content they use our service for," Nathan tells us.

10 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Waste of time by Number42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    People will simply switch to youtube-dl or another local utility.

    1. Re:Waste of time by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      illegal downloads

      WTF is an "illegal download?" There is no such thing!

      If Google makes a video available on Youtube, they've made it available. Period. Splitting semantic hairs over "streaming" or "downloading" is trying to create a difference that doesn't actually exist! All streams are downloads, and all downloads are streams. The Internet cannot work any other way. If you don't want your shit downloaded, don't post it on the Internet to begin with.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    2. Re:Waste of time by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My company is one of those content producers, we have over 50 videos on YouTube that we make money with.

      I'm sure someone has downloaded them.

      Do I care? Not really, it is beyond my control. I try and worry about stuff that is in my control and if someone wants to use a tool like this to download videos, or use an ad-blocker, oh well.

      Our business model has to survive that, because we can't stop it, and bitching about it is a waste of our time.

      We post a video each week, our business will survive if we offer a good product that people want to come back for again and again and want to support us, not because we get lots of lawyers.

  2. Re:TOS vs TOS by maroberts · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a ToS up who wins
    Everyone prefers their own ToS
    They're all a bunch of ToS-ers

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  3. Re:On a tangent by Khashishi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, it would be a derivative work. It doesn't matter if you change the format.

  4. There nothing YouTube can do about this... by Eloking · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, the video is already on your computer. If they shut down internet service, it'll move client-side. Hell, if I wanted I could output the video/audio of my screen and record them.

    It's futile. They know it and we know it. But I guess the shareholders or the lawyer are just not happy if Google doesn't do anything about it. So they do this.

    --
    Elok
    1. Re:There nothing YouTube can do about this... by bmo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      if I wanted I could output the video/audio of my screen and record them.

      As a kid, I used to record music off FM radio, through the headphone jack to either cassette or reel-to-reel (gawd I'm old). Then the 80s came along and "tapes are killing music."

      Which it didn't.

      Videotape was supposed to kill movies.

      It didn't.

      The Internet was going to kill brick-and-mortar stores.

      It didn't.

      Corporations are composed of lying liars with lawyers who lie for them.

      --
      BMO

  5. Re:JDownloader by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    I am using Youtube Downloader HD. Hilarious that the first thing they're going after isn't the program literally named Youtube Downloader. Not only do I like to save YT videos, but it's also the only way to watch long ones without interruption, especially recently. YT has been hanging and even crashing my browser a lot lately. The only way to get through a long video is to download it first. I don't see ads anyway, because I am blocking them.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Re:Color me Confused by neghvar1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a difference. Downloading refers to saving a full copy on your local device for later use. Streaming copies the data to you system memory where it is accessible as long as you keep the streaming app open. Once closed, it is removed from memory.

  7. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sony v. Universal (the Betamax case) established that time-shifting can be fair use and that producing a tool with a substantial non-infringing use does not incur secondary liability. The difference here is that unlike viewers of a TV broadcast, viewers of YouTube are subject to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that gives teeth to website TOS. So a tool can incur secondary liability for TOS violation even if it does not incur secondary liability for copyright infringement.