Since the arrival of YouTube and the company’s transition to streaming music, online tools for uploading content to the platform abound. Some have even become iconic among Internet users, such as youtube-to-mp3 or youtube-dl. Inevitably, such popularity aroused the curiosity of rights holders, who are often reluctant to allow users to download music for free.
Not surprisingly, that’s exactly what happened to youtube-dl. In 2020, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), an American rightsholders association, explicitly asked Github, where the tool was shared, to remove it from its catalog. After accepting, the platform finally changed its mind and brought youtube-dl back online, forcing the RIAA to approach justice.
youtube-dl is no more but the war is not over
Sony, Warner and Universal then decided to directly attack Ubserspace, a German company that manages the hosting of youtube-dl, arguing that it was responsible for pirating thousands of copyrighted content. The company tried to defend itself by saying that its tool was also used to legally download other content, but this did not convince the courts, which requested the withdrawal of youtube-dl.
“The user should understand that unlike media content on other websites, YouTube content cannot be downloaded by right-clicking, and that this is possible through YouTube technology and that youtube-dl “overrides” this protection. Therefore, it should be assumed that the average user is acting maliciously”said the Hamburg court.
Jonas Pasche, CEO of Uberspace, for his part, condemned “A shameful day for freedom of expression”WHO “It paves the way for customized censorship”.
