5 Minute Posts About Something Cool Episode 6
Well, it is that time again to take another five minutes to write about cool things that have happened recently. Today’s issue was brought to my attention by an email from Change.org regarding a petition I almost forgot I had signed…
Many of you may remember back in June when this article on TorrentFreak grabbed the attention of the connected world. It should come as no surprise to all of us that as long as we have corrupt lobbyists, we will have oppressive laws and pressure on companies like YouTube; and as long as we have oppressive laws and pressure on companies like YouTube, the functionality of these sites, their capabilities, and sites around them will continue to be reduced (the sluggish nightmare that is HTML5 is just one of many other examples of this).
YouTube-mp3.org has always been one of the world’s best services for quickly converting any YouTube video into a high quality downloadable .mp3 file. They did the job quickly, without downloading flaky software, and for free. When “GoogleTube” saw that this was not only helpful, but also being used by a lot of people, they knew they had to shut it down according to their new common policy of making the internet a slower and more annoying place. As can be expected by netizens who dislike Google’s new policy, a petition was started on Change.org to allow third party recording tools to be used with YouTube.
Now even though Change.org has some rather sketchy content on their homepage, it can still be a useful tool to both stop pointless petitions and bring to light this very important issue of Google breaking YouTube-mp3.org. On the 19th of this month, I received this encouraging email from Phil, the guy who started it all:
Even beyond that, great progress has been made and on this. According to the official petition page, they reached their initial goal of 1 Million signatures on July 21st. There’s been no word from Phil on if he’s gone to visit Google yet to deliver the signatures, but we do look forward to any more updates that he may have to add. If you’re interested in keeping YouTube MP3 alive (and even if you’re not), be sure to head on over to Change.org and sign in to be part of one of the largest Change.org petitions ever against YouTube.
.:Albert Bunn
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WOW!
So let me get this right. You want Google to sanction the theft of content from You Tube?
While I admit it is an easy source of low quality music for free, I can’t see any content providers going along with this.
We would see no more official videos, or any third party uses of any content that didn’t want to be stolen.
I have made an effort to find legal sources for most of my libraries, (not easy) and a lot of the stuff we got back in the beginning (through file share) we later went out and bought the CDs.
We have to expect some sort of backlash from content theft.
Peace
What “Theft”? What “Low quality”? What “content providers”?
How would this petition going through stop “official videos”? You might stop making them, but I’ll keep ’em coming.
As for your “legal sources”, the government will tell you that you’re walking down the street illegally if you ask them, so the origins of your library are really irrelevant; what matters is that they are there and their quality. Are you sure you replied to the right article?
.:AB
Maybe I missunderstood what you were writing about?
I thought it was about ripping (?) audio from video, and signing a petition demanding I be allowed.
Video hosted by the likes of YouTube, possibly provided by a Lable? For the sole purpose of driving sales.
When I rip that audio, I don’t have to pay for the MP3. Realistically, how long do you expect that to continue.
And as a mogul trying to make every buck, why would I allow any content I produced to be hosted in a manner open to theft? And as a site that wants to host interesting content, why would I threaten my business by not atleast trying to stem the tide of rampant theft. Since Google also sells content, so they also lose sales.
Signing a petition demanding that I be allowed to Steal content, seems juvenile.
I cannot afford to defend myself or household from the music industry lawyers, and I have made an effort to purchase much of my content. Admittedly not all. But I am thinking about supporting the artists more than the moguls, and I expect buying their CDs etc. Is the way to do that.
I find it hard to believe such a discussion even needs to take place.
Peace
You probably did. All YouTube MP3 did/does was to download the video to itself, convert it into just an MP3 audio file, and then let you download it – that simple. No “open theft”, no “stealing juvenile content”, no need to pay for an MP3 file, no need to get an HTC Mogul (a nice device it is, just a little old). You’re overplaying and stretching this issue into something completely different there JR.
.:AB
Albert I can appreciate the positive aspects of this such as being able to record tutorials and such, but what JR is talking about is that it opens the door for blatant theft. I don’t think it is very nice of you to ridicule him in such a juvenile way. He is talking about people never buying music when they can rip it for free from the videos. Then where would we be without artists to make the music because they were no longer getting paid to do so. You should take his comments more seriously if you are acting in a professional capacity. I have been following these series and am a little disappointed in your responses here.
TT
No blatant theft. It’s just a converter that takes the video and converts it to MP3 format. It’s not like you’re “stealing a CD”, so it really doesn’t matter anyway. The labels are operating under an outdated business model, so in their minds “piracy” really is some kind of huge issue. My goal wasn’t to ridicule him, I just tried to reply with either a “straight face” statement or question to get the gears turning, that’s all.
.:
@Albert Bunn:
JR was simply stating that it provides people with one more tool for stealing copyrighted music. All hit songs end up with some type of youtube video so a person will use this tool to convert the video to mp3 and then has no reason to buy the cd and can burn their own. The artist no longer gets paid for making music. So it is exactly like pirating the cd. And their was mo reason to say JR was talking about some htc phone. You know he meant the music producers when he was talking about moguls. Eventually artists will have no reason to make music if it is all pirated immediately. If there was someway to have this program detect copyrighted material and not allow conversion then that would solve the problem.
No “theft” or “stealing” involved. The truth is that the labels’ way of doing business is obsolete. You have to innovate to stay in business. It’s also worth noting that the “download=sale lost” philosophy is seriously skewed as well. If someone’s gonna download something, they’re gonna download it; you can’t stop progress. A YouTube downloader’s not going to “crash a market”.
.:
Piracy is theft Albert and anyone who tries to justify it is the worst kind of thief…one with no morals or conscience.
@Theresa:
Well that’s an interesting claim, but without making this too political, the whole “piracy” thing is an overrated product of lobbyists – they’re the only ones who really give a crap anyway. I just can’t support their immorality and MAFIA nonsense. I’d suggest you take a read over on TorrentFreak.com. They address all those “issues” and more in a very nonbiased and thorough way.
Thanks.
.:Alb