Users of the extremely popular YouTube-dl YouTube media downloader have flooded GitHub with new repositories containing the tool's source code after GitHub took down the project's repositories on Friday.
Using youtube-dl for a playlist usually boils down to the following options: $ youtube-dl -ignore-errors -continue -no-overwrites -download-archive progress.txt usual options URL. This set of options allow for the download to effectively continue even after interruption. If you are archiving, add the usual -write-xxx and -embed-xxx. Youtube-dl’s GitHub repo was taken down because the RIAA are a bunch of whiny spoiled brats.For some reason, some people are under the impression that just because GitHub complied right away to a absurd request, youtube-dl as a project is dead. Download a playlist: youtube-dl urltoplaylist. By default, the videos will be downloaded in the order in which they appear in the playlist. To change this, use -playlist-reverse or -playlist-random. Use -playlist-start number and -playlist-end number to download only that excerpt of the playlist.
YouTube-dl is a command-line program that can be used to download multimedia content from YouTube and several other sites; before being removed, it used GitHub to host source code and compiled executables.
The utility is also used by journalists for various reporting tasks including downloading press releases, videos, and audio transcriptions.
On October 23, 2020, GitHub took down YouTube-dl's repositories due to a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) infringement notice filed by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), an organization that represents the recording industry in the U.S.
Before being removed, YouTube-dl's repo was in the top 40 most starred GitHub repositories with more than 72,000 stars, between Node.js and Kubernetes.
RIAA meet the Streisand effect
When trying to visit the original YouTube-dl GitHub repo or any of the other more than a dozen forks that were removed, you will see a message stating that the 'Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown.'
'We have disabled public access to the repository. The notice has been publicly posted,' the DMCA takedown notice also reads.
While almost everyone was expecting blowback from YouTube-dl's angered users due to the Streisand effect, the number of new repos that showed up on the version control platform has surpassed most people's expectations.
By targeting the project, the RIAA inadvertently exposed the project to a huge amount of new people given that YouTube-dl users and fans took to social media platforms and shared the story with tens of millions of other people.
As shown when doing a quick search for YouTube-dl, GitHub now hosts hundreds of new repositories containing the source code of the YouTube downloader or related to it (when using no search filters, thousands of such repos show up).
GitHub repo now also hosting YouTube-dl's source code
Besides the huge number of new YouTube-dl repos that popped up since October 23, a copy of YouTube-dl's source code was also added to an official GitHub repository used for hosting received DMCA takedown notices.
Reference
The user who committed the source code used a bug allowing anyone to attach commits to repos they don't control.
According to security engineer Lance R. Vick, this is a known issue previously reported to GitHub that the company's security team chose to ignore.
The problem with YouTube-dl's takedown is that it sets a dangerous precedent when it comes to removing other repositories of software that isn't violating copyright.
Ricardo Garcia, the original creator of YouTube-dl and a former project maintainer (between 2006 and 2011), now part of the ytdl-org group that managed the GitHub repo, told BleepingComputer that he didn't receive any legal threats prior to the takedown.
'I don't have a general statement on the current situation other than a personal opinion that it is indeed unfortunate that the repository is currently blocked,' Garcia said.
'Other people have also expressed this idea much more eloquently than I ever could. See for example the following article by the Freedom of the Press Foundation: https://freedom.press/news/riaa-github-youtube-dl-journalist-tool/.'
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YouTube is one of the product names that will probably never require an introduction. The online video-sharing platform headquarter in California, United States. Created and ran by 3 friends in February 2005 until when it was purchased by Google in 2006, YouTube is among the world’s most visited websites; second only to Google Search.
YouTube is the one-stop-shop for all types of media content including podcasts, music videos, documentaries, movies, series, interviews, news, and cat videos. Seeing how popular it is, one can understand how it inspired the creation of an efficient youtube downloader, youtube-dl. Thanks to this fact, we can happily introduce today’s app to you.
youtube-dl-gui is a free, cross-platform Electron-based GUI for youtube-dl. Don’t know what youtube-dl is? It is an open-source command-line download manager program with which you can download audio and video from YouTube and at least 1000 other video hosting websites.
Although it is a command-line app, youtube-dl has, since January 2020, joined the list of the most starred GitHub projects – evidence of its approval rating among Internet video downloaders.
youtube-dl-gui is an open-source application that brings the efficiency of youtube-dl to users who prefer working with graphical interfaces. Before it, we covered two similar apps namely YouTube-DLG and MPS-YouTube. If their features didn’t get you sold on the idea then check out the features packed in youtube-dl-gui.
Features in youtube-dl-gui
- Available on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- Free and open-source software. Source code available on GitHub.
- Download audio and video in all available qualities.
- Download private videos.
- Download and extract (mp3) audio.
- Download channels.
- Download playlists.
- Displays estimated download size.
- Lightning-fast download speeds (cache & multiple processes).
- Colour theme customization.
Install youtube-dl-gui on Linux
Youtube-dl Windows
youtube-dl-gui is available for Linux users as an AppImage. This is good news because all you have to do is open the AppImage on whatever distro you’re running and you’re set! The releases are listed on the software’s GitHub releases page.
Windows users can install youtube-dl-gui using the .exe file, while macOS users can lay their hands on the .dmg file. Irrespective of the distro you’re running, the default download location is your downloads folder. Of course, you’re at liberty to change this setting to fit your needs.
What do you use to download videos online? Are there any suggestions that you will like to make? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.