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On November 16, 2020, GitHub announced that they had reinstated the youtube-dl repository after a troll takedown notice by the RIAA. The reason? Because the youtube-dl included in their README examples of copyrighted songs that you could download from YouTube using the tool.
In the same blog post that announced that youtube-dl would be allowed back in GitHub, they also announced that they are changing the way they handle a specific case of DMCA takedown requests.
GitHub announced that from now on, every claim based on Section 1201 of the DMCA law will be manually reviewed by experts. This specific section talks about circumvention, which, in other words, mean software specifically designed to circumvent DRM.
Aside from being manually reviewed by technical experts, GitHub also said that they are siding with the developer, and if the claim is ambiguous, the repository won't be taken down. If the claim provides complete information on how the repository infringes on copyrighted work, they will contact the developers and offer them two chances of changing their repository or respond to the claim. Only after the developers have been contacted twice that GitHub will take down the repository.
I will say, I am actually surprised (in a good way) that GitHub decided to side with the developers in this case. But it could be better. Why apply it only for Section 1201, talking about circumventing DRM? Why not apply it to the whole set of DMCA sections?
The way companies handle DMCA requests are bad, and they protect the interests of corporations, and not the users. It's a "guilty until proven innocent" mentality, and we have seen a fair share of false DMCA claims causing takedowns for absolutely no real reason. The person filing the DMCA claim should be the one to prove the repository is "guilty"; the developers shouldn't prove that they are not "guilty".
Lastly, it should've been like this from the start. GitHub should've done this since it started to become popular, because, as far as I remember, it was a platform built for developers. And until this announcement, it was shown to be a platform defending the industry's interests.
Hopefully this will change the DMCA law in a way that it isn't actually stupid and so easy to manipulate and get repositories taken down with false, troll claims.
Remember, DRM (digital rights restriction) and anything that tries to protect it while removing your rights is bad.
GitHub: Standing up for developers: youtube-dl is back
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