[vlc-devel] ATTN: removal of website playlist parsers

[Derk-Jan Hartman]

On 15 apr 2009, at 20:56, Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
> Le mercredi 15 avril 2009, Derk-Jan Hartman a écrit :
>> "no way in hell that LUA scripts could be used without violating the
>> terms of use, and hence infringing copyrights"
>> You cannot infringe on copyrights _because_ you violate the ToS.
>
> What else grants you permission to access YouTube's content?
> Nothing. Call that access right rather than copyright if you want.

It's not youtube's content. Access permission is the better word I  
think.

>> As much as not all content played with VLC is illegal, not all  
>> content
>> on Youtube will be illegal to republish copyright wise, even though
>> the retrieval method will violate the ToS.
>
> Accessing the content _specifically_ from YouTube would still be
> illegal. If it's not piracy as in copyright infringement, it will be
> piracy as in unauthorized use of a computer system. Either way, the
> publisher of VLC is complicit of piracy, or worse, luring the user  
> into
> piracy.

It might be an illegal activity, if the ToS stands up in court, but  
that illegal activity is not used to circumvent any copyright  
protection system. It's a download of a uri that we parsed from a  
website, i fail to see how that can violate the EUCD. I also don't see  
how this qualifies as deeplinking unless a user republishes.

French law might be different, but I haven't read it, can anyone  
comment ?

> So, it is really very simple:
> Either VLC is an explicitly authorized mean, or it is not.
> * If it is, then great. That's why I was asking for explanations in  
> the
> original email.
> * If it is not, then the the YouTube LUA scripts do not belong in the
> git official repository.
> There is no point in bad faith arguments, all the more on a publicly
> archived mailing list.

In that case we might as well euthanise VLC, because there is likely  
plenty that is violating licenses, patents and I don't know what else.  
You have your suspicions of that as much as I do, and as such you are  
wilfully taking that risk with all of us, regardless of any protests  
you may have logged in public mailinglists.

/me votes for a yes/no dialog: "You are about to watch video from: url  
Please confirm that you visited this website, before opening the video  
in VLC media player."

DJ