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

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

Posted by msmash on Tuesday May 31, 2016 @02:00AM 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.

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Waste of time by Number42 · 2016-05-31 02:02 · Score: 5, Informative

People will simply switch to youtube-dl or another local utility.
1. Re:Waste of time by mrchaotica · 2016-05-31 02:58 · 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
Re:TOS vs TOS by maroberts · 2016-05-31 02:06 · 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
There nothing YouTube can do about this... by Eloking · 2016-05-31 02:17 · 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 · 2016-05-31 02:26 · 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