YouTube Tells Open-Source Privacy Software 'Invidious' to Shut Down (vice.com) 42
YouTube has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Invidious, an open-source "alternative front-end" to the website which allows users to watch videos without having their data tracked, claiming it violates YouTube's API policy and demanding that it be shut down within seven days. From a report: "We recently became aware of your product or service, Invidious," reads the letter, which was posted on the Invidious GitHub last week. "Your Client appears to be in violation of the YouTube API Services Terms of Service and Developer Policies." The letter then delineates the policies which Invidious is accused of having violated, such as not displaying a link to YouTube's Terms of Service or "clearly" explaining what it does with user information. Invidious is open-source software licensed under AGPL-3.0, and it markets itself as a way for users to interact with YouTube without allowing the site to collect their data, or having to make an account. "Invidious protects you from the prying eyes of Google," its homepage reads. "It won't track you either!" Invidious also allows users to watch videos without being interrupted by "annoying ads," which is how YouTube makes most of its money.
Does it need explaining? (Score:5, Insightful)
explaining what it does with user information
Those who know Invidious know its sole purpose is to give Google the finger. Because other than that, it's quite atrocious to use. But giving Google the finger alone makes it worth using.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Pathetic lesser troll! I will crush you and spread your entrails around the orient!
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Of course they do.
That's where oriental people live.
Re:Does it need explaining? (Score:5, Interesting)
I never even heard of Invidious until today.
It's the Streisand effect in full force!
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It also makes downloading videos for offline viewing simple and easy. This is not unique, there are other good ways to accomplish that, but it's nice in combination with the above.
I'm actually kinda annoyed that this is the first time I'm hearing about this, this is great.
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Nope. I recently started using Invidious because Google decided to make YouTube non-functional. Pages sit there with a a swirling indicator but the content never loads.
Re: Does it need explaining? (Score:2)
Yeah itâ(TM)s great! Find it at
https://piped.video/ [piped.video]
Hmm... (Score:1)
claiming it violates YouTube's API policy
I wonder if YouTube (Google) would feel the same way if Invidious showed users twice the number ads instead of none.
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There was a Louis Rossman video about this. (Score:3)
He says whoever in YT legal sent it just sent a form letter because invidious doesn't use the API at all. I've never used it - but this does appear to be having quite the Streisand effect.
Re: Hmm... (Score:2)
Pretty sure itâ(TM)s not illegal to violate an API policy
Be EVIL! (Score:4, Funny)
Embrace it!
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Back when Google was founded, their original motto was Don't Be Evil. They've since fully embrace Be Evil instead.
nope (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry google, but unless you reduce the number of ads, i will never remove my invidious local instance. You can change your API, we can rebuild the query by copying from the youtube pages and invidious development will continue, even if it have to move to underground
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Invidious is hosted on github, which has proven to be at least partly responsive to this sort of queries. If the hosting changes, google still can sue the project leaders that reside within USA or countries with similar policies.
Re:nope (Score:5, Interesting)
Google can disturb the development workflow. Their objective is to have the source code rot and become less usable over time.
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More than that. yt-dlp can easily live on your computer, while many users of invidious use public instances and google can go after the hosting services.
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Like youtube-dl and yt-dlp?
More like Vanced. After that got taken down it continued to work for about 3 months after which things started progressively breaking as no one maintained fixed for the minor changes youtube constantly makes.
Re: nope (Score:2)
I didnâ(TM)t realize could run my own instance, thx for the tip
Real reason not in summary (Score:2)
The letter continues to say that API clients “must not place any limitations on the YouTube functionality required by the RMF [Requirements for Minimum Functionality for YouTube API Services],” or “mimic or replicate core user experiencesunless they add significant independent value or functionality that improves users’ interactions with YouTube.”
And while I would argue they definitely meet the "add significant independent value or functionality that improves users’ interactions with YouTube.” exception there, I'm sure Google disagrees for obvious reasons.
Re:Real reason not in summary (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Real reason not in summary (Score:2)
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They are not using the API and (the best!) they don't even offer a service based on Invidious, at least not on invidious.io, as the letter claims.
The Google lawyers really need to do their homework before spewing out shit like that.
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Why? Spewing shit is easy, there's no penalty for it, and it sometimes works. Why bother putting in the effort if a cheap unfounded cease-and-desist does the trick? They can always do the hard work if the easy way doesn't get what they want.
What a joy to learn of this service! (Score:1)
Fuck Google (Score:2, Informative)
They've recently broken YouTube (for no good reason, worked fine a few days ago, and other systems I see no new glorious features) such that it does not even function on my older Chromebook. With Invidious I can at least still find the new videos from channels I've subscribed to.
Isn't YouTube api throttled? (Score:3)
VideoJS library details & NewPipe suggestion (Score:2)
Snap! I'm seeing recent coding action happening [github.com]on the VideoJS YouTube plugin -- yippee! I just looked a few months ago for a project I'm developing. For Android users I highly recommend NewPipe available via the F-Droid repo [f-droid.org].