YouTube may get DRM in the future, threatening the future of video preservation

[videogamesm12]

Google is reportedly conducting A-B testing in regards to adding DRM to YouTube. According to an issue on the GitHub repository for yt-dlp (a popular video downloader), attempts to grab videos with specific user accounts will only return DRM-riddled formats. This causes the program to error out and declare it to be DRM-protected, which is entirely intended behavior.

We are getting reports of YouTube rolling out an experiment to some accounts where normal videos only have DRM formats available on the tv (TVHTML5) Innertube client. This is not limited to yt-dlp. Tests have been run with the same account on various official YouTube TV clients (PS3, web browser, apple tv) and they are also only getting DRM formats for videos.

This is yet another one of many attempts by Google to control how people watch videos on the site in a desperate move to make an otherwise unprofitable site profitable. They have employed several different measures in the past to force people to use their ad-riddled, spyware-infested, garbage official means of using the site, including (but not limited to):

• Intentionally sabotaging the future of Manifest V2 in a long-winded attempt to cripple ad-blockers, thereby undermining the online safety of everyone online
• Threatening the maintainers of Grayjay (a third party application that offers an ad-free way to watch and download YouTube videos without paying a subscription) with legal action
• Sending the developers of YouTube Vanced (a popular modification which included a built-in ad blocker amongst other things) a cease and desist
• Enforcing harsh blocks on various IP addresses that mandate that people use Google accounts in order to even watch videos, allowing them to track your viewing activity
• Introducing integrity checks into various endpoints that third party player apps used to intentionally break them

Although Google themselves have not officially commented on the matter, this was an inevitability from the beginning. Third party applications like Grayjay, NewPipe, and YouTube-DL have for years offered a free way to watch YouTube videos without any of the extra bullshit involved. Want to preserve a video that Google or some other malicious party desperately wants scrubbed off the surface of the web? YouTube video downloaders have always been there for you, but now that may change. You may soon lose the ability to download videos legally because of anti-circumvention laws put in place thanks to the lobbying of massive media companies in order to control how you consume your media.

I personally tested to see if this is actually happening for my own Google account and while I didn't get any DRM-riddled nonsense, I encourage you to test this yourself. If you have yt-dlp installed, run one of these commands and see if it works:

If using Firefox:

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox -F -v --load-pages 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ' --extractor-arg youtube:player-client=tv

If using Chrome:

yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome -F -v --load-pages 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ' --extractor-arg youtube:player-client=tv

 

[zrfv]

you WILL NOT be able to save your favorite videos and you WILL be happy...

 

[Telesphoreo]

This was only inevitable, unfortunately. YouTube has been trying hard to get more people to pay and they've DMCA'd a lot of iOS YouTube tweaked apps. It's remarkable that YouTube has been able to remain free given how much content is uploaded and the volume of the site.

 

[Deauthorized]

It's remarkable that YouTube has been able to remain free given how much content is uploaded and the volume of the site.

It's because Google owns YouTube. Any other company would've either shut it down, sold it, or turned it into something entirely unrecognizable by now. They have the funds to keep it running, at least for the time being. It's not a surprise they're trying to make it more profitable.

 

[Telesphoreo]

It's because Google owns YouTube. Any other company would've either shut it down, sold it, or turned it into something entirely unrecognizable by now. They have the funds to keep it running, at least for the time being. It's not a surprise they're trying to make it more profitable.

I'm aware, but I still find it remarkable that Google has been able to continue to host YouTube with all of its revenue for this long. Surely, it must cut a lot out of their profits. I imagine they're running out of ideas on how to truly grow, so the next logical step is to just start reducing any losses they can, even at the expense of the consumer.