The DMCA takedown notice sent by RIAA to the GitHub last month over YouTube-dl has backfired. GitHub has now offered support to YouTube-dl, and other open-source developers by setting up a new Defense Fund of $1 million. This will help them to fight any legal and unwarranted DMCA notices. The YouTube-dl was restored in GitHub after all.
$1 Million to Fight Against DMCA Notices
The Microsoft owned code repository, GitHub has restored YouTube-dl back into its platform today. The controversial software was earlier accused by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for being a tool to bypass its technical restrictions and letting users extract the audio from a YouTube video.
Since this seems infringing enough, RIAA has sent a DMCA notice to GitHub, asking it to remove the YouTube-dl , and 17 other tools that have been made using this. While GitHub complied to the notice, it now argues that the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions were flawed, and needs to be fixed.
We are taking a stand for developers and have reinstated the youtube-dl repo. Section 1201 of the DMCA is broken and needs to be fixed. Developers should have the freedom to tinker. That’s how you get great tools like youtube-dl. https://t.co/k0sbsNN30u — Nat Friedman (@natfriedman) November 16, 2020
