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KeepVid Site No Longer Allows Users To 'Keep' Videos (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: For many years, KeepVid has been a prime destination for people who wanted to download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Vimeo, and dozens of other sites. The web application was free and worked without any hassle. This was still the case earlier this month when the site advertised itself as follows: "KeepVid Video Downloader is a free web application that allows you to download videos from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch.Tv, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more." However, a few days ago the site radically changed its course. While the motivation is unknown at the time, KeepVid took its popular video download service offline without prior notice. Today, people can no longer use the KeepVid site to download videos. On the contrary, the site warns that using video download and conversion tools might get people in trouble. "Video downloading from the Internet will become more and more difficult, and KeepVid encourages people to download videos via the correct and legal ways," the new KeepVid reads. The site now lists several alternative options to enjoy videos and music, including Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Pandora.

2 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Meh by Sigma+7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This would be a specialized proxy server, an extremely "niche" use where I haven't seen obvious instructions on how to setup. The steps involved are also the scary "OMG, you're becoming vulnerable to MitM attacks" despite the process actually being safe. Plenty of obstacles as well. 1. No easy toggle for switching to and from a proxy server. There's extensions/utilities for this, but you have to find them. 2. HTTPS requires you to create and install both a root and intermediate certificate. (Which basically shows that HTTPS simply just prevents casual interception - any skilled malware author could trivially intercept anything.) 3. Current video sites download the stuff in piecemeal (either DRM style, or as a means to save bandwidth). You need special software to patch them together again. 4. (If running a caching proxy) The HTTP standard document (some random RFC) is no longer the comprehensive standard. Any trivial mistake (including something not obvious in the origianl document) confuses the browser. None of this stops pirates or experienced programmers, only casual users.

  2. ClipGrab or Youtube-dl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Been using both of them for a while now. Highly recommended.
    Download audio of talks and audiobooks on Youtube, and put it on the phone to listen in my car during my commute.