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whats-wrong-with-youtube.html (8414B)

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 <title>What's Wrong with YouTube
 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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 <h2>What's Wrong with YouTube</h2>
 <div class="thin"></div>
 
 <p>
 YouTube is a peculiar case.  As of September 2020, it is possible to
 watch YouTube videos without running any nonfree software, even coming
 in via Tor, via some of the &ldquo;Invidious&rdquo; intermediary sites.</p>
 
 <p>
 We recommend using LibreJS with them.  The Invidious sites are not
 all alike: some won't let you in without nonfree Javascript code.
 Also, while most of the JavaScript code on those sites carries a free
 license, there is one file, handlers.js, which does not.  LibreJS will
 prevent its execution, and watching videos still works.</p>
 
 <p>
 There is also a free add-on for Firefox, called ViewTube, that permits
 direct access to watch videos on YouTube.  It is preinstalled in the
 GNU browser, IceCat, and you can load it into Firefox.  The free
 program youtube-dl is also available; it gets data out of the site's
 JavaScript code but doesn't run that code.  But youtube.com is likely
 to block these means of access if you come via Tor.</p>
 
 <p>
 As a result of these access methods, posting videos on YouTube does
 not currently put them off limits to the free world.  That is good,
 and we hope it lasts, but we cannot count on them to keep working.
 The add-on broke once in 2019 because of some change in YouTube.  That
 time, a corrected add-on was released after a few weeks.  Next time,
 who knows?  Thus, posting on YouTube is a fragile solution
 unless/until Google commits to supporting libre access.</p>
 
 <p>
 Please don't use the host name youtube.com (or its aliases) to refer
 to a video on YouTube.  Instead, refer to one of the Invidious
 intermediary sites that accepts visits via Tor (test it!).  That is
 fail-safe: if anything breaks, your link will fail, rather than lead
 people to run nonfree software.</p>
 
 <h2>What else <em>Was</em> Wrong with YouTube</h2>
 
 <p>This is what we formerly said, until 2019, about YouTube as a place to post
 videos or refer to videos.</p>
 
 <ul>
 <li>Normal use of YouTube involves use of nonfree software.
 
   <ul>
    <li>In the HTML5 mode, it involves running
    a <a href="/philosophy/javascript-trap.html">nonfree JavaScript
    program</a>.  For some videos, it also requires the nonfree Adobe
    DRM software that has been incorporated into proprietary browsers
    and Firefox, but not into the GNU browsers
    including <a href="/software/icecat">IceCat</a>.</li>
 
    <li>In the (deprecated) non-HTML5 mode, it involves use of Flash
    Player, which is nonfree.  It even tells users to install Flash
    Player.</li>
   </ul>
 </li>
 
 <li>Without the nonfree software, you can't even see the YouTube
 pages.  Nowadays, without running the nonfree JavaScript code,
 the browser window appears blank.</li>
 
 <li>YouTube tries to stop people from downloading copies.
    The nonfree JavaScript code for some videos does not allow
    the browser to save a copy.  This is a form of DRM.
 </li>
 
 <li>There is a free
 program, <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/ytdl">ytdl</a>,
 which can download the video for some YouTube pages, but there
 is no complete free software solution for access in a browser.
 </li>
 
 <li>
 &ldquo;ContentID is exactly the thing YouTube claims it doesn't do:
 <a href="https://boingboing.net/2018/12/26/youtube-let-a-contentid-scamme.html">
 privately mediating ownership of [publications] without involving the law</a>.&rdquo;
 </li>
 
 </ul>
 
 <p>One thing about YouTube that is <em>not</em> a moral strike against
 it is nonfree software on YouTube servers&mdash;if there is any.  We
 as possible users of YouTube can't tell whether the servers run any
 nonfree software, because that has no effect on us&mdash;therefore
 it doesn't do any wrong to us.</p>
 
 <p>If there are any nonfree programs running on YouTube servers, they
 mistreat Google by denying Google control of that aspect of its
 computing.  We hope that Google will reclaim its freedom by ceasing to
 use those nonfree programs, if any.  But those programs do not mistreat
 the <em>users</em> of YouTube, so they are not a reason to refuse
 to <em>use</em> that service.</p>
 
 <p>It is also possible that all the software running on YouTube
 servers is free&mdash;either published free software or private
 unreleased free software.</p>
 
 <hr class="column-limit" />
 
 <p>To post a video without requiring nonfree software to view it,
 you can place the video as an Ogg Theora or WebM file on an ordinary web site.
 If you are concerned there will be a lot of download traffic, you
 can seed a torrent and suggest people download through that.</p>
 
 <p>Another way to publish videos on the web using free software is
 <a href="https://mediagoblin.org">GNU MediaGoblin</a>.  Ideally
 you will set up
 <a href="https://docs.mediagoblin.org/en/master/">your own server</a>, or run
 one for your family and friends, but you can also post on
 <a href="https://wiki.mediagoblin.org/Live_instances">
 public servers</a>.</p>
 
 <p>Please
 <a href="https://wiki.mediagoblin.org/HackingHowto">
 contribute to GNU MediaGoblin</a> if you can.</p>
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