Yout LLC vs. the RIAA, Inc. (2020) -

[Null]

This thread is for legal discussion regarding the lawsuit. For general discussion about youtube-dl, the RIAA, this DMCA, the DMCA itself, Github, etc, go to this thread.

Yout LLC is the containing company responsible for youtube-dl, a phenomenal and popular free and open source software project that enables users to easily download multimedia from webpages, including (and especially) YouTube. This project is used in many other projects (both for profit and free, such as VLC) to enable playing third party multimedia in a way that the user so prefers.

Naturally, the Recording Industry Association of America is attempting to destroy it.

On October 23rd, 2020, the RIAA filed a DMCA complaint with Github, a company owned by Microsoft which is handles collaborative software projects like youtube-dl and which hosts the source code for it.

October 23, 2020

GitHub

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am contacting you on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) and
its member record companies. The RIAA is a trade association whose member companies
create, manufacture or distribute sound recordings representing approximately eighty-five (85)
percent of all legitimate recorded music consumption in the United States. Under penalty of
perjury, we submit that the RIAA is authorized to act on behalf of its member companies on
matters involving the infringement of their sound recordings, audiovisual works and images,
including enforcing their copyrights and common law rights on the Internet.

Copyright Violations. We have learned that your service is hosting the youtube-dl source code
on its network at the following locations, among others:

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl
https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/tree/gh-pages
http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/
https://github.com/benkeung/youtube-dl
https://github.com/cyberjacob/youtube-dl
https://github.com/elaopinska/youtube-dl

This private information is unavailable to guests due to policies enforced by third-parties.

This private information is unavailable to guests due to policies enforced by third-parties.

 

[Massa's Little Buckie]

I'm just gonna repeat what I posted on the other thread: the RIAA can go suck tranny dick.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

That complaint doesn't appear to mention the Github shit at all, just the DMCAs against Google trying to have Yout delisted as far back as October of last year.

 

[Arm Pit Cream]

Thanks to Cary Sherman, the undead heeb lich CEO of RIAA. I guess he didn't get his daily dose of child's blood and animal sacrifices.

 

[TFT-A9]

How many people have sued the RIAA?

More importantly, how many have sued and won?

 

[The Fool]

Yeah, where is this suit likely to go? Because I don't see him getting out of this alive. At the end of the day, the courts favor who has the most money.

 

[Leonard Helplessness]

Yeah, where is this suit likely to go? Because I don't see him getting out of this alive. At the end of the day, the courts favor who has the most money.

From the looks of things, Yout is trying to argue that their software is a time-shifting tool. Time-shifting was ruled by SCOTUS to be a fair use all the way back in 1984, and Yout is saying that the RIAA is maliciously misrepresenting their software in order to get it taken off the internet and violating the DMCA in the process.

This guy is representing Yout. 22 years experience, Vice-Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association's Intellectual Property Section Council.

 

[HumanHive]

Cow lawyer. Way to snatch defeat from jaws of victory.

 

[Desu Mountain]

How many people have sued the RIAA?

More importantly, how many have sued and won?

I believe they're one of those groups with bottomless pockets, so that alone would discourage suits.

 

[TFT-A9]

I believe they're one of those groups with bottomless pockets, so that alone would discourage suits.

They're like 98 percent lawyers.

98 percent lawyers who would litigate fun things out of existence for the hell of it, never mind the money.

 

[Least Concern]

That complaint doesn't appear to mention the Github shit at all, just the DMCAs against Google trying to have Yout delisted as far back as October of last year.

Yeah, are we sure Yout and youtube-dl are really related? This lawsuit doesn't seem to have anything to do with youtube-dl at all. I think Null is conflating things.

 

[AnOminous]

Yeah, are we sure Yout and youtube-dl are really related? This lawsuit doesn't seem to have anything to do with youtube-dl at all. I think Null is conflating things.

Now that you mention it, I can't see any connection. I can't find anything on their site indicating they use youtube-dl as a backend, but they might, I suppose.

 

[Samoyed]

idk, even if youtube-dl gets "squashed", there will be always something out there. really just think this was a move by the riaa to "set an example" by swinging around money. even then, i don't think it'll deter people. it's just a dumb move.

 

[DragoonSierra]

How many people have sued the RIAA?

More importantly, how many have sued and won?

Theyve been suing more often than the other way around. Thier strategy was to get random people to settle cause they cant afford an expensive lawsuit. This created a shit ton of bad press. When they tried suing IP addresses alone the courts shot them down and thats when they eventually abandoned that strategy.

Im sure @AnOminous or other law spergs can give a history of the RIAAs lawsuits. Frankly the OP should have some of thier noteworthy lawsuits for some background. Some of these were in the 2000s and some users might not remember them.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

Theyve been suing more often than the other way around. Thier strategy was to get random people to settle cause they cant afford an expensive lawsuit. This created a shit ton of bad press. When they tried suing IP addresses alone the courts shot them down and thats when they eventually abandoned that strategy.

Im sure @AnOminous or other law spergs can give a history of the RIAAs lawsuits. Frankly the OP should have some of thier noteworthy lawsuits for some background. Some of these were in the 2000s and some users might not remember them.

I'm not a legal sperg, but here is a short list.

 

[Alrakkan]

Thanks to Cary Sherman, the undead heeb lich CEO of RIAA. I guess he didn't get his daily dose of child's blood and animal sacrifices.
View attachment 1690779

Nigga looks like he clicks at ultrasonic frequencies to summon his kin.

Post Nut Nutrillity fiasco I think this is going to go south. Everyone reading this thread, get to downloading everything before it's too late. I'm personally taking an archive of the KF Archive channel and some SsethTzeentach stuff, as well as relevant stuff to the Onion archive I neglect. Even if we don't lose this now it can't help but feel like it's a matter of time until we do eventually, and then we're pretty fucked so let's reduce how fucked we are.

 

[TFT-A9]

Theyve been suing more often than the other way around. Thier strategy was to get random people to settle cause they cant afford an expensive lawsuit. This created a shit ton of bad press. When they tried suing IP addresses alone the courts shot them down and thats when they eventually abandoned that strategy.

Im sure @AnOminous or other law spergs can give a history of the RIAAs lawsuits. Frankly the OP should have some of thier noteworthy lawsuits for some background. Some of these were in the 2000s and some users might not remember them.

Hm. Maybe Yout is banking on the RIAA's reputation here to hamstring them in court, or encourage the RIAA to relent/settle to minimize press.

Probably not a good gamble. Could the RIAA file countersuit here? Would they?

 

[AnOminous]

Hm. Maybe Yout is banking on the RIAA's reputation here to hamstring them in court, or encourage the RIAA to relent/settle to minimize press.

Probably not a good gamble. Could the RIAA file countersuit here? Would they?

Probably because they apparently intend to continue doing what the RIAA has tried to bully them out of doing.

 

[TFT-A9]

Probably because they apparently intend to continue doing what the RIAA has tried to bully them out of doing.

I'd like to think that any success on Yout's behalf here would put blood into the water and encourage more people to try and give the RIAA a taste of their own medicine. Even if anyone who comes after doesn't win, it might open the floodgates on the "Fuck the RIAA" lawsuits and drive the RIAA into a nice, quiet corner for a bit where they won't bother anyone for a while.

Look at me being optimistic about this shit.

 

[GHTD]

Youtube-dl is likely going to become the new DeCSS. No way they'll win this lawsuit, RIAA is a fucking parasite that doesn't understand the term "fair use" at all.

RIP youtube-dl.