TLDW; some troll is suing YT-DLP using DMCA 1201 to make ripping tools illegal. If that shit holds in court, it can set a dangerous precedent. OBS Studio can get taken down because it lets you record your screen as it shows copyrighted material, so it could count as “ripping software”.
I’ll stop recording data you send me, when you stop recording data you take from me
Wtf. People have been recording tv and media to watch later since the days of the VCR …
Which is why this will fail even if it passes.
It is never impossible to record a screen.
“You wouldn’t download a screen recording”
Clone and fork now folks
I have to update my yt-dl constantly. A clone won’t do shit because YouTube will update.
Someone around the world would pick up the mantle, there are thousands of ctontributors. The point is that the code isn’t lost in the blink of an eye.
Anyone have a TL;DW or related article?
Content creators can download videos and criticize them, which is well and good, but you can’t just steal the content. You need to be actively pointing flaws or pros, or it isn’t fair use. If this particular lawsuit is won, it’ll set a precedent that enables taking someones channel down simply because the video was downloaded or captured. It would circumvent fair use.
Seems like a bit of a jump? Why would this impact screen recorders and stuff like OBS? Those tools can be used for plenty of use cases outside of the one mentioned.
If we treat “ripping” content the same as breaking a digital lock under DMCA-1201 we could see restrictions with screen recording software or worse. Certainly yt-dlp would be the first to go.
It’s speculation though, and the title is quite clickbaity. The lawsuit mentioned merely would set a bad precedent for creators now but could be expanded to be more broad later in efforts to protect intellectual property.
How would this kill screen recorder though?
