Re: youtube-dl DMCA takedown on GitHub is risk for all GNU/Linux distributions

[Ali Reza Hayati]

I agree with you, Jean.

This is a major concern about software distribution. The reason behind
this is, pardon me, dumb. If we go by this reason, we should take down
the whole internet and even modern technology just because people may
misuse it. It's just in case that we consider downloading public media,
a misuse.

Good news is that because of this specific takedown, public attention is
now gained and we may be able to do something about it.

First step would be moving from corporate-backed services to services
that are run by companies that value human beings/people instead of
money. Money is important but the first priority should be people.

These service should be libre and also out of the U.S. for now as U.S.
laws are currently very stupid and discriminatory.

On 10/29/20 7:47 PM, Jean Louis wrote:
> Even yesterday I was thinking to write to this list as the youtube-dl
> DMCA takedown on GitHub is more serious than many would think.
> 
> youtube-dl is already in many GNU/Linux distributions:
> https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=youtube-dl&searchon=names&suite=stable&section=all
> 
> Now I notice you have the comment on that on your website:
> https://alirezahayati.com/2020/10/24/riaa-took-down-youtube-dl-repository-on-github/
> 
>> This is what we get when we centralize everything. Git is more than
>> GitHub and also it was designed to be decentralized.  GitHub is
>> owned by Microsoft, a corporation that values benefit much more than
>> people.
> 
>> I’m even not sure if the takedown was legal as it’s not the software
>> that does anything but it’s people’s use that may be considered
>> illegal. Last night I was talking about this on IRC with some people
>> and everybody were unhappy about the situation.
> 
> I agree on that.
> 
> The real danger much greater than currently perceivd.
> 
> It is the potential risk to all GNU/Linux distributions that
> distribute this package including to those who are outside of the US
> jurisdiction where DMCA does not apply. And what about other similar
> packages?
> 
> If the DMCA does not apply to the host serving software in other
> country, it may well apply to Google that is US company, or Bing, that
> is US company, or other search engine and they may need to comply to
> take down any search engine results pointing to software not compliant
> to DMCA.
> 
> That would mean that whole servers of GNU/Linux and other OS
> distributions could be blocked of appearing in the search engines and
> if they would be located in the US, could be ordered to stop
> distributing specific software. This can negatively impact users.
> 
> This implies that whole DVD distributions containin one affected
> software such as let us say Trisquel GNU/Linux-libre could be forced
> to stop distributing the DVD and remove the software (if they have it
> inside). This could impact users so much.
> 
> Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre has similar software hypervideo, I do not
> know how much of youtube-dl is inside, but it could be risky there
> too.
> 
> And the DMCA takedown on that software may be igniter for other
> companies to start taking down various other software.
> 
> There are websites that prevent me reading the article by using any
> common browser. If I use lynx or wget I can get the article to be
> read. If I change my User-Agent string to pretend to be specific
> search engine I can read articles that are not meant to be read if I
> would have Javascript turned on. Maybe wget and other simple tools
> could become future target as we as users are circumventing the
> technology to get the information without being authorized.
> 

-- 
Ali Reza Hayati / alirezahayati.com
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