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The RIAA and other music groups see people who download music from YouTube as a major piracy threat.<\/p>\nThe RIAA and other music groups see people who download music from YouTube as a major piracy threat.<\/p>\n
To deal with this problem, they have increased their enforcement actions against stream-ripping tools and services. <\/p>\n
This has led to lawsuits and takedown notices, where it\u2019s argued that stream-ripping sites and software violate the DMCA\u2019s anti-circumvention provisions. That was also the case with the open-source software youtube-dl, which was pulled from Github last month<\/a>. <\/p>\n The RIAA informed GitHub of the alleged copyright violations and the developer platform swiftly complied, taking the software offline. <\/p>\n We have seen similar requests in the past but this one struck a nerve, especially among developers. They believe that the RIAA went too far. As we highlighted earlier, hundreds of new copies<\/a> of the youtube-dl code appeared online in response, also on GitHub. <\/p>\n While GitHub\u2019s CEO Nat Friedman was annoyed<\/a> by RIAA takedown efforts, he stressed that the platform legally had to comply, which it did. More recently, the company even said that users who continue to republish the code risk being banned<\/a>. <\/p>\n Thus far this hasn\u2019t stopped the problem. The youtube-dl code continues to be uploaded to GitHub multiple times a day. This obviously frustrated the RIAA, but the music group has a bigger problem too. Full MP3s are being shared on the site as well now.<\/p>\n A few hours ago we spotted a new GitHub user named \u2018FuckTheRIAA<\/a>\u2018 who uploaded a copy of youtube-dl as well as a \u2018FuckTheRIAA\u2019 repository that includes three songs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n These songs from Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, and Icona Pop, were not chosen randomly. The same tracks were mentioned in the RIAA\u2019s original takedown request<\/a>, as the YouTube videos were highlighted in the youtube-dl code.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also note that the source code prominently includes as sample uses of the source code the downloading of copies of our members\u2019 copyrighted sound recordings and music videos,\u201d the RIAA wrote. <\/p>\n This is yet another example that shows how the RIAA\u2019s takedown request has actually made things worse for the music group, at least for now. After nearly a day the three MP3 files are still available on GitHub. <\/p>\n TorrentFreak requested a comment from the RIAA on these unusual uploads but the group didn\u2019t immediately reply. However, it seems likely that it will send another DMCA takedown request to remove the tracks from GitHub. <\/p>\n Whether the RIAA will also file takedown notices to remove all of the new youtube-dl forks has yet to be seen. For now, its takedown efforts have only made things worse, so they may let things cool down for a while first while exploring other options.<\/p>\n Over the past two weeks, a lot of people and organizations have criticized the RIAA\u2019s enforcement efforts, including the EFF<\/a>, which stressed that \u201cyoutube-dl is a legitimate tool with a world of lawful uses.\u201d<\/p>\n EFF believes that the circumvention restrictions in DMCA section 1201, which prevent people from bypassing technological restrictions, are too broad<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cDMCA 1201 is incredibly broad, apparently allowing rightsholders to legally harass any \u2018trafficker\u2019 in code that lets users re-take control of their devices from DRM locks,\u201d EFF wrote recently.<\/p>\n That brings us to another issue we highlighted recently. How much circumvention is involved when anyone can bypass YouTube\u2019s \u2018restrictions\u2019<\/a> in a regular web browser without extra tools?<\/p>\n The RIAA, however, is convinced that it has the law on its side and thus far its takedown efforts have been successful. <\/p>\n With all the controversy, it will be interesting to see how US courts interpret this issue. The legality of YouTube download services has never been properly litigated and the Flvto\/2conv<\/a> and Yout.com lawsuits<\/a> could bring more clarity.<\/p>\n That said, the GitHub user named FuckTheRIAA appears to have made up their mind already. Meanwhile, youtube-dl remains available via the official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nFull MP3s Now Appear on GitHub<\/h2>\n
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<\/center> <\/p>\nHow Will the RIAA Respond?<\/h2>\n
Lawful Uses?<\/h2>\n