A GitHub project with a “price” of 75,000 stars has gone from being popular, to being sued for removal, to sparking heated discussion in the community.

The story already has twists and turns.

But recently, the latest “plot” of the project has received a major update.

GitHub officially rejected the complaint and restored the project repository.

On top of that, an important addition was the launch of a $1 million defense Fund.

Youtube-dl has become one of the most popular projects on GitHub, and I just checked it out, as of 2021/1/24youtube-dlIt already has 888.8K stars and is popular betweenNode.js 及 KubernetesIn between.

Released in 2006, it can only download videos and audio from YouTube at the beginning. Later, after the continuous improvement of the creators, the download support site reached more than 1000, becoming the most popular download artifact.

List of sites that support downloading

From foreign YouTube, BBC, CBS, Twitter, Facebook audio and video download, and then to the domestic iQiyi, Tencent Video, Mango TV, Youku Video, B station, Kuwo Music, netease Music…… It covers almost every major audio and video website in the world.

However, this powerful artifact may infringe the interests of the companies involved.

Sure enough, youtube-DL received complaints and was taken down.

On October 23, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) issued a takedown notice to GitHub under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), requesting, among other things, that the project’s youtube-DL be removed.

The RIAA’s request states that:

  • Youtube-dl violates article 1201 of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause as well as the provisions of German copyright law.

It circumvents the “rolling password” that YouTube uses to generate the URL of the video file itself (the RIAA is considered an effective technical safeguard because it “aims to prohibit direct access to the underlying YouTube video file, thereby preventing or prohibiting the download, copying, or distribution of the video file”.

In other words, youtube-DL will be able to get paid video content from all video platforms for free.

The lawsuit concluded that YouTube’s rolling password is an effective technical protection measure under EU law.

So youtube-DL is illegal.

GitHub responded to the lawsuit by taking down youtube-DL.

Pissed off developers, copy of youtube-DL code spread all over the web

Shortly after youtube-DL was taken down, many developers took action, copying more code and Posting it on GitHub.

A youtube-dl search on GitHub yielded 10,582 results.

The RIAA’s lawsuit backfired, not only by not blocking youtube-DL, but by increasing the popularity and use of the program.

  • On the one hand, developers are resisting like crazy, and copies are popping up all the time.
  • One is the RIAA’s legal takedown order.

The pressure on both sides puts GitHub in a quandary.

Under legal pressure, GitHub’s legal team issued a statement warning users not to post code copies to GitHub or they could be banned.

GitHub’s warning note

Just when everyone felt that they had been removed from the shelves, the situation was reversed.

Youtube-dl is back with a $1 million conservation fund

On Nov. 15, GitHub received an Electronic document from the Electronic Frontier Foundation stating that youtube-DL does not violate the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Just one day later, on November 16, GitHub announced the return of youtube-DL.

The complaint against youtub-DL was filed because it violated section 1201 of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention clause, which allows the site to extract files without password protection. Shut down YouTube for that reason. – DL.

GitHub issued a statement saying that youtube-DL does not circumvent TPM, which means it does not violate the anti-circumvention clause, and should stand up to protect developers.

On her blog, GitHub’s director of legal affairs Abby Vollmer also questioned section 1201, saying that takedowns should be made on a legitimate basis and that she hoped the law could be improved to make section 201 better.

To avoid the risk of personal liability and legal defense costs of being sued by larger companies.

GitHub will establish a developer Defense Fund and donate $1 million to protect developers.

Youtube-dl’s powerful features have made it popular, making it a star on GitHub. The prosecution was underestimated, and under the strong resistance of netizens, it returned to public view again.

GitHub has also set up a $1 million conservation fund to protect developers. Is this a blessing in disguise?

So should developers of open source software be attacked by copyright companies?

Someone once said, “The technology is not guilty, but the person who uses it is.”

If youtube-DL infringes on some corporate rights, should open source developers be punished?

Share your opinion in the comments section.

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