Google Bars Site That Converts YouTube Songs Into MP3s 177
An anonymous reader writes "Google is apparently cracking down on a popular site that converts the music from YouTube videos into MP3s. YouTube-MP3.org has received a letter from Google, YouTube's parent company, notifying the site operators that converting videos this way violates YouTube's terms of service, according to the blog TorrentFreak, which said it has seen the letter. In addition, YouTube apparently has blocked YouTube-MP3.org's servers from accessing the site."
Re:How stupid, and useless (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How stupid, and useless (Score:5, Insightful)
It is trivial to extract the audio from a youtube video and convert it to an mp3. There are tools on Windows, Linux, and OSX that can do that without a lot of effort. So, shutting down this site is, IMO, an exercise in futility.
I suspect that you are underestimating the degree of laziness, technical ignorance, and futzing-with-youtube-on-computers-they-can't-install-stuff-on-because-they-are-at-work/school, at play here.
Obviously, Google knows that you can do whatever you damn well want with the video once you've downloaded it(and, while they receive no further ad revenue, it also doesn't cost them anything further, and they have no way of going after you, so they aren't going to bother).
I suspect, though, that Google takes a dim view of tools, usable even by morons, that eat their bandwidth, throw away any ads they serve, and quite possibly upset the RIAA and friends without any benefit to Google.
Re:How stupid, and useless (Score:4, Insightful)
True. It's also pretty damn easy to recover the .avi, .mp4, or .flv video and process it client-side. Whether it infringes copyright or not, what you do with ffmpeg on files that reside client-side, etc., is your problem, not Google's.
Where this website crossed the line is in trying to monetize it by being a wrapper around YouTube.
Full disclosure: My position on the issue can be summarized as "fuck streaming [slashdot.org]." Streaming media is the memory hole [wikipedia.org] of 1984. For free/fan-based content that doesn't infringe (e.g. fair use), it's nice to know that you can keep your favorite content, even after your friends deactivate their accounts, or if a lawyer claiming ownership of a 2-second sample in a 3-minute video disagrees with you.
Sensationalist Title (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see why this article is of interest.
A site does something which goes against youtube's TOS - Google changes something in Youtube to block it - and sends a letter to the owner of the website. So?
If you Google it - you still get search results, and Google didn't do any tricks which we find immoral.
Why is this an article? What were we expecting? How could Google have dealth with it better?
Re:Funny block... (Score:5, Insightful)
They're blocking their servers from downloading the videos. They aren't removing it from their search results. That's exactly what I'd do in their case. They'll simply feed it URLs, see who connects to download the video, block the IP, and repeat.
This seems like a complete non-story to me. But then, I've never heard of that site before. If it is actually popular, I can see why that alone would make it news-worthy. As a technical person, I'd look for a browser plugin to download the video, then a desktop app to rip the audio. Searching for a website which automates the process wouldn't have even occurred to me. It's funny how being technical can cause you to miss the boat on some trends just because the problem addressed was just never a problem for you in the first place..
How I interpreted the headline. (Score:4, Insightful)
A Google service for bars called "Google Bars" that converts youtube songs into MP3.
Re:How stupid, and useless (Score:2, Insightful)
That last part of your comment might be the key. If Google were to neglect this kind of infringement, the music and film industries associations could find grounds to claim that Google is damaging their businesses.
Re:How stupid, and useless (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why I save EVERYTHING that I really like. You can't count on anything online still being there tomorrow, much less ten years down the road.
Especially if it's something not many people care about. This is why people like Jason Scott (from textfiles.org) are my heroes.
Re:Funny block... (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who can't figure out how to download the video for himself, then rip an MP3 from the video, doesn't deserve to listen to the music
That's like saying anyone who can't figure out how to install a tap doesn't deserve water.
This kind of attitude LOWERS the value of technical people. You are basically saying that this is the standard that separate the normal people from the retards.