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Invidious: "YouTube legal team contacted us" (github.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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They don't understand that we never agreed to any of their TOS/policies, they don't understand that we don't use their API.

What now?

Things will continue normally until they can't anymore.

Assume it's just the start.

Assume they'll ask GitHub to takedown the repos (if so go to our Gitea https://gitea.invidious.io/iv-org ).

Assume the team wont be able to work on Invidious.

You know what you have to do.

May Invidious live and prosper, with, or without us.

PS: We won't do anything unless we have to.

PS-2: If we are forced to quit, any funds remaining will go to Framasoft (and maybe some other organization working on FOSS/privacy)

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Technical issues aside, they can do legal takedowns on the big instances and while they can also technically do small ones, I doubt they will. The thing is that a TOS violation can lead to a suspended google account, so it's a 'high risk, low probability' event for self hosters with a google footprint (such as an android device).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. The host running Invidious on a server would have a different fingerprint to the same person accessing it through a web browser or phone app. Do Invidious hosters even use a Google account? I assumed it just accessed Google servers like an anonymous user.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm mainly saying that from the hosting side, especially if you're hosting on a personal IP at home or something, the "nightmare" scenario is that google tracks you down based on information leaks and slaps you with a TOS violation and account suspension. They don't need any actual evidence to screw with you, they hold all the cards regarding their services once they've decided to cause you trouble.

The more likely scenario is that people serving invidious at a scale noticable to google will have their hosting providers slapped with some kind of cease and desist. (Yes, not all hosting providers will have to comply, but many will - why deal with big tech lawyers over something like this?). That won't stamp the service out, but it will make using it trickier and less reliable.