What you need to know about the RIAA’s DMCA takedown of YouTube-DL

The Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA), the trade organization representing the recording industry in the U.S., filed a DMCA takedown notice last Friday for multiple GitHub repositories containing YouTube-DL code. YouTube-DL is an open-source Python library to download video and/or audio from YouTube and other video hosting sites. The library is incorporated into many different projects and applications, such as GetTube and arkTube on XDA and the popular open-source NewPipe app.

The RIAA filed a DMCA takedown alleging YouTube-DL violates the DMCA’s provisions against circumventing copyright protection systems (section 1201). As evidence, the RIAA cited comments in the YouTube-DL source code that informed users on how to test the program against videos that their members own the copyrights to. The tests where copyrighted material was linked were intended to make sure that the library can download a normal video, a video with an age limit, and a video that included dollar signs in the name. These 3 videos used for testing were music videos from Icona Pop, Justin Timberlake, and Taylor Swift.

“Indeed, the comments in the YouTube-DL source code make clear that the source code was designed and is marketed for the purpose of circumventing YouTube’s technological measures to enable unauthorized access to our member’s copyrighted works,” reads the RIAA’s complaint.

Regardless of the fact that these videos were used merely as tests for developers and not provided as sample uses, the RIAA alleges that the entire YouTube-DL project is explicitly designed to circumvent the copyright protection of its members, thus making the entire library illegal to distribute. Of course, the developers of YT-DL argue that the library is not intended for the sole purpose of circumventing the copyright protections of videos owned by RIAA members. YT-DL is obviously used by pirates, but it’s also a useful tool for archivists, researchers, journalists, etc., and it can be used to download videos with a CC license or which are public domain, such as government videos. Some creators also rely on the tool to download their own videos.

Although the DMCA is a U.S. law, it seems that the RIAA is also taking action against project developers in Europe. The takedown notice cites a decision from Germany’s Hamburg Regional Court, arguing that the same provisions apply in that country. Even if the RIAA’s claims are meritless—TechDirt points out that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Sony v Universal that tools with substantial non-infringing uses are not by themselves infringing—this matter needs to be settled by either the RIAA backing down or the YT-DL authors filing a counter-notice which would then be met by a lawsuit from the RIAA. A lawsuit would be difficult for a community-run, open-source project to manage, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group, hints that it could get involved.

Youtube-dl is a legitimate tool with a world of a lawful uses. Demanding its removal from Github is a disappointing and counterproductive move by the RIAA. https://t.co/VUbTokd4cP

— EFF (@EFF) October 23, 2020

GitHub, for what it’s worth, has no choice but to comply with the DMCA takedown notice while this dispute is going on since they could be held liable if they did not. Thus, 18 GitHub repositories with YouTube-DL code were taken down, including the main repository. While the main repository has already been forked on other GitHub repositories, re-hosted on other code-sharing sites, and/or archived by developers privately and publicly, the RIAA can send additional takedown notices to this re-hosted code. It’s unclear if removing the problematic test cases and links to copyrighted videos would be enough for YouTube-DL to escape the RIAA’s complaints. Nonetheless, we will likely continue to see forks of the original project arise, with links to infringing content replaced with content uploaded by the developers themselves or content licensed under more open terms, like the Creative Commons license.

For projects that use YouTube-DL, the challenge—while the main YT-DL repo is down—will be updating their apps’ downloader code to keep working. YouTube is known to frequently change things up, which directly or indirectly breaks compatibility with YouTube-DL. However, the developers of YouTube-DL would eventually roll out fixes to get it working again. Since there’s no longer one central repository where it’s being developed, though, it will be harder for developers to collaborate and share fixes. YT-DL developers could work around this issue with alternatives like making a private GitLab server, but the future of the project remains unclear if the RIAA continues to pursue action.

Featured image: YouTube-DLG, a front-end GUI for youtube-dl

The post What you need to know about the RIAA’s DMCA takedown of YouTube-DL appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/31LNkDx
via IFTTT

The OnePlus 8T is now available to buy, plus save $20 on the OnePlus Buds

Looking for a new Android device? The OnePlus 8T is now available at the OnePlus store! Available in Lunar Silver and Aquamarine Green, the 256GB model will cost $750. At the OnePlus store, you can also sign up for a 24-month, 0% APR plan, and also bundle in accessories with your purchase at a discount. If you have an eligible device, you can trade it in for even more discounts!

Not sure if the OnePlus 8T is for you? Well, the new phone comes recommended by us at XDA! In our OnePlus 8T review, Mario Tomás Serrafero has this to say about the phone:

“The resulting package is still an outstanding phone, with great battery life, a competent (yet often frustrating) camera, a nice screen and excellent performance.”

With the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, Warp Charge technology, and an AMOLED display, this latest flagship is sure to impress, without costing nearly as much as other big-name flagships.

OnePlus 8T (256GB)

OnePlus's latest flagship is available for purchase! Enjoy the AMOLED display coupled with the the Snapdragon 865 processor for just $750. You can also sign up for a 24-month, 0% APR payment plan!

$750 at OnePlus

That isn’t all though–if you want to complete your OnePlus ecosystem experience, you can grab yourself a pair of OnePlus Buds on sale! They’ll pair perfectly with the OnePlus 8T. At both Amazon and the OnePlus Store, the OnePlus Buds are on sale for $59, $20 off the MSRP. Available in White and Grey, the OnePlus Buds also got a lot of praise in our review, saying that they’re worth the price. Now that they’re on sale, there’s even less of a reason to not pick these up. It’s a shame that the blue earbuds aren’t available in the US, though.

The OnePlus Buds can give you ten hours of power in just ten minutes and offers 30 hours of listening time when topped off. These earbuds also have Dolby Atmos and Dirac Audio Tuner support, so you know you’re getting a quality product, without needing to drop a couple hundred dollars.

OnePlus Buds

Save $20 on the OnePlus Buds right now! With 30 hours of listening time and a 13.4mm dynamic driver, you'll be getting a great pair of buds for a great price.

$59 at OnePlus

The post The OnePlus 8T is now available to buy, plus save $20 on the OnePlus Buds appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/2HFoYVb
via IFTTT

YouTube for Android revamps the video player page and adds new gestures

YouTube has updated its mobile apps with a revamp to the video player page and new navigation gestures.

As part of the revamp, the video player page now includes settings that are easier to access. A Closed Captions button now appears on the video player for easier access, while the autoplay toggle is also easier to turn on and off while watching a video. YouTube also said buttons have been re-arranged slightly “that make any action you take even faster.” YouTube said that some of the changes coming to the revamped player might also come to the desktop.

 

Users on mobile can more easily navigate with a list view of Video Chapters, which allows users to jump to a specific section of a video. Similarly, users can switch between the time counting down and the time that’s elapsed.

YouTube is also adding a gesture to enter and exit the full-screen mode. Simply swipe up to enter full screen and down to exit. This gesture joins the double-tap to rewind and fast forward.

Additionally, YouTube is introducing suggested actions, which will prompt users to rotate their phone or play a video in VR when it thinks you’ll have a better experience. More suggested actions are expected in the future though it didn’t elaborate on what those might be.

Finally, YouTube highlighted its bedtime reminders feature, which will remind you to wind down your screen time between a set time.

These updates should be rolling out to YouTube’s mobile apps starting today.

YouTube (Free, Google Play) →

The post YouTube for Android revamps the video player page and adds new gestures appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/31FP41h
via IFTTT

From XDA to Cyanogenmod to LineageOS: A brief history

The stories behind LineageOS and XDA are inexorably linked. The custom Android flavor has given hundreds of thousands of users a chance to unlock their smartphones’ full potential, and in many cases, give it a lease of life way beyond what the manufacturer intended. But, ahead of our big LineageOS-related news tomorrow, if you’ve never stopped to think about how it all started, or you want a reminder, allow us to enlighten you.

The CyanogenMod Years

The forerunner of what we now know as LineageOS began eleven years ago. As with so many custom ROMs, it began on these hallowed pages. Cyanogen herself, aka Stefanie Kondik, worked with contributors to produce a ROM that would work on a wide variety of phone models, even if the OEM had discontinued support.

The first device to be supported was the HTC Dream (aka the T-Mobile G1) – the first commercially available Android device – with a firmware build that grew from a forum dweller’s work by the name of jesusfreke. As the Android market grew, so did CyanogenMod, tailored for each device, either officially or as an unofficial fork, from the newest Samsung Galaxy blockbuster to the smallest challenger model.

Those with fond memories of the HTC HD2 (the little handset that could) will know that CyanogenMod was the catalyst for many other operating systems that were successfully ported to this most versatile of devices. Indeed, many Custom ROM designers used CyanogenMod as a starting point for their own projects because it built on the AOSP offering with a range of extra features, all on a stable base. Amongst the features we accept as regular in Android today premiered in CyanogenMod were FLAC support, toggles in the notification pull-down, and GUI-powered overclocking.

Those early days were something of a cat-and-mouse battle with Google who did not (at that stage) take kindly to their phone software being rooted. But for every patch Google issued, someone was there to crack it, and soon Custom ROMs abounded for almost every handset, with Cyanogen leading the charge with her team of volunteer maintainers and developers, affectionately known on these pages as “Team Douche.”

CyanogenMod was heavily based around privacy, so actual usage figures were very difficult to obtain. At its height in 2012-3, it’s thought that at least 50m devices were running CyanogenMod, making it comfortably the biggest non-OEM firmware for Android.

The final version of CyanogenMod was version 14, based on Android 7.0 Nougat. Then, things began to change….

Cyanogen Inc.

In 2013,  Kondik began to look at the possibilities for monetizing and commercializing her work. Even as an open-source product, there were options for producing versions of CyanogenMod for OEMs to put straight onto their devices. The reaction was mixed. Some XDA users felt that Kondik was betraying the spirit of XDA, which had hitherto been strictly about community and open sharing.

Others questioned whether it was appropriate for any new company to profit from work donated to the community project, free of charge. Indeed some modules of the stack had to be rewritten when individual developers withdrew their support.

Kondik made it clear that CyanogenMod would continue as a free product for most users and that only commercially commissioned versions would be for cash. She obtained $7m venture-capital funding to formalize the business, and Cyanogen Inc. was born. To maintain goodwill with the XDA community, Cyanogen Inc. largely kept the same open-source licensing with respect to CyanogenMod code and promised to release device trees and kernel source code for devices running Cyanogen OS.

Some incidents threatened this goodwill, though. Cyanogen OS had several closed-source applications like CameraNext and GalleryNext, and they also tried to convert the licensing for some apps like Focal from GPL to Apache. However, the latter caused Focal to be withdrawn after developer xplodwild refused to adopt closed-source modifications to the code and move the entire application under a commercial license.

Despite the friction, Cyanogen Inc began to make an impression, courting customers joining the Android gold rush, including a little start-up known as OnePlus. More of them, shortly. Meanwhile, investment continued with Microsoft throwing its hat in the ring in 2015, when Windows Mobile was floundering, and the company was already eyeing how it could capitalize on the success of Android. This led to a wildly unpopular update in 2016, which bundled pointers to many of Microsoft’s Android apps into the firmware, at a time when Microsoft’s approval rating was at its lowest ebb.

By this time, aided by initiatives like this, internal frictions had started to boil over. Cyanogen Inc’s relationship with OnePlus had collapsed in acrimony within a year when it emerged shortly after the OnePlus One release that Cyanogen Inc. had signed an exclusivity deal for India with another OEM. India has always been a key market for OnePlus, so the dispute’s effect on both parties was palpable. Other OEMs came on board, including Spanish firm BQ and UK-based Wileyfox, but with OnePlus effectively alienated, Cyanogen OS was without a “killer product.”

Even Kondik had become frustrated with the lack of progress for the company in its new form. On the one hand, CEO Kirt McMaster was happy to brag to the press that CyanogenMod would soon supplant Google in controlling Android (the Android version of John Lennon’s ‘bigger than Jesus’ claim), while on the other, the previously brisk updates to the platform began to slow to a near halt as all resources went towards producing tailored versions for paying clients.

CyanogenMod continued to be popular as a Custom ROM, but its commercial twin Cyanogen OS was proving a disaster. In July 2016, 30 staff (around one fifth) were fired at a stroke, the Seattle offices were “gutted,” and CEO Kirt McMaster left the company with fledgling COO Lior Tai taking on the CEO role.

Most notably, at some point during this period, Stefanie Kondik was, herself, removed from the Board of Directors of her own company. She later said that she’d “worked with the wrong people” and found herself unable to prevent the business’s failure or the alienation being felt by developers. Worse still, she had lost legal rights to the Cyanogen name. Things didn’t look great.

Then, two days before Christmas 2016, Cyanogen Inc was formally wound down, effectively ending CyanogenMod. After her ousting, Kondik begged the development community to fork the work, so it didn’t go to waste.

A day later, on Christmas Eve, the first use of the name “LineageOS” appeared on the XDA forums.

LineageOS arrives

You can’t keep a good operating system down for long. Very quickly, members of the XDA forums, including former Cyanogen-era developers, had organized themselves into a team to support the orphaned CyanogenMod. Thanks to the legal wrangles, it needed a new name, and LineageOS was chosen, reflecting the continuity from the previous project.

Back in community hands, many unofficial forks under the LineageOS name were quickly released on the XDA Forums over the Holidays, based on source code from CyanogenMod’s last build. A few weeks later, in early 2017, the first official builds began to appear, and a formal statement of intent was announced in a blog post.

The feature set of LineageOS includes several stock apps that were, themselves, developed by the community. Besides dedicated mail clients, the camera app (Snap), and a bespoke file manager, there have also been a number of features that go beyond simply being an alternative “skin” for Android. These include customization of hardware buttons, a global dark theme long before it arrived on AOSP, granular permissions through Privacy Guard, and the ability to block numbers from appearing in your call history.

February 2018 saw LineageOS 15.1 – the first new version to be announced since the XDA-take-back was released on some devices. 13 months later, version 17.1 arrived, by which time the development of the product had returned to a more familiar rhythm. Version 17.1 brought the new “Trust” interface, which provides a dashboard for making your device as secure and private as you want. Version 16 followed in 2019, by which time several forks had appeared, some offering a “Google-less” experience and one even removing all licensed components in favor of a truly open-source environment. Most recently, just after the world went mad, in April this year, Lineage 17.1, the most recent major release, was announced, built on Android 10. Work is now underway on Lineage 18, based on Android 11.

The Story Continues….

LineageOS provides an alternative firmware for literally thousands of phone models, thanks to its open-source, community-led approach. At XDA, we’re very proud of our association with LineageOS and its developers, and we can’t wait to tell you how we’re using it to raise the bar still further.

Read the next chapter at XDA tomorrow (Tuesday, 27th October 2020). Sign up here to get added to our early bird list – we’ll email everyone on that list with a unique link before it goes on general sale, but you’ll have to be quick as stock is limited!

The post From XDA to Cyanogenmod to LineageOS: A brief history appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/3kxMfXw
via IFTTT

Facebook launches a cloud gaming service for free-to-play mobile games

Facebook Gaming on Monday unveiled a new cloud streaming gaming service, although it’s a bit different than what you might expect. Instead of providing access to PC or console games like Stadia, GeForce NOW, and Xbox Game Streaming, Facebook’s new service features access to free-to-play mobile games.

“Cloud gaming is about expanding the types of games we already offer, so we’ll start with the format people enjoy playing on Facebook: free-to-play games,” said Jason Rubin, VP of Play, Facebook. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re starting with games typically played on mobile devices.” Facebook said more than 380 million people play games each month on the social platform, so the company thinks there’s a big opportunity here. For now, the social giant’s service isn’t meant to replace your favorite gaming hardware, but that doesn’t mean the company won’t eventually compete in the same market as Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google, and Amazon.

“We believe in the long-term future of cloud gaming, but we aren’t going to try to wow you with the wonders of our data centers, compression algorithms, resolutions, or frames per second,” Rubin said. Rubin goes on to say that he doesn’t want to oversell the future of cloud gaming, seemingly implying platforms like Stadia or Amazon’s recently-announced Luna have done just that.

If you’re wondering just what Facebook’s end-goal is with this service, it’s probably to do with the potential to sell advertisements. The company outlines how game developers can deploy “cloud playable ads so people can instantly try out a game on Facebook.” These “interactive demos,” Facebook says, blur the line between games and ads, are less expensive and time-consuming to make, and allow for “multiple pieces of creative [to] run from a single APK.”

Facebook’s cloud gaming service will first launch in the U.S., with availability in California, Texas, and Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, including Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and more. Wider availability is expected in the coming months. As for the type of games you can access, Facebook said the first set of games in the new service include Asphalt 9: Legends, Mobile Legends: Adventure, PGA Tour Gold Shootout, Solitaire: Arthur’s Tale, WWE SuperCard, and Dirt Bike Unchained. As the service ramps up, its library will expand with the addition of action and adventure games. These cloud-streamed games will co-exist alongside Facebook’s existing catalog of instant games that are built in HTML5.

For now, Facebook’s new cloud gaming service is only available on Android and on the web, which means iOS users again miss out. “Even with Apple’s new cloud games policy, we don’t know if launching on the App Store is a viable path,” Rubin said. Facebook clearly isn’t happy with being unable to launch the service on iOS, but it’s possible the company could mimic what Amazon has done with Luna. Luna is available on iOS as a progressive web app (PWA), an avenue that Microsoft is reportedly pursuing, but the future of this method is uncertain given Apple’s conservative stance on cloud gaming services and web app standards.

Facebook Cloud Games

Facebook Gaming: Watch, Play, and Connect (Free⁺, Google Play) →

The post Facebook launches a cloud gaming service for free-to-play mobile games appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/35F4VhT
via IFTTT

Apple’s next AirPods Pro may ditch the stem to be more compact

Apple will reportedly introduce two new sets of true wireless earbuds next year, according to a Bloomberg report. The more expensive model will be a redesigned pair of AirPods Pro coming in the early part of next year. In addition, Apple is reportedly making new entry-level AirPods, along with over-ear headphones.

The new AirPods Pro will allegedly eliminate the stem that sticks out from the bottom, giving them a design that’s similar to Samsung’s latest true wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Live. However, Apple has reportedly run into issues fitting everything into a smaller package, which could result in a less ambitious design, Bloomberg said.

As for the new entry-level AirPods, the report claims they’ll include improved battery life and look similar to the current AirPods Pro with a shorter stem and replaceable ear tips. While they’ll look similar to the current AirPods Pro, the entry-level model will still lack high-end features such as active noise cancellation. Both new AirPods earbuds will reportedly feature a new wireless chip.

Bloomberg’s report also claims Apple is planning to introduce high-end, noise-canceling over-ear headphones, which were originally expected to go into production weeks ago. The headphones have allegedly been pushed back due to problems with the headband being too tight. The report also claims some of the headphone’s features had to be scaled back, including touch panels that were reduced in size.

Finally, the same Bloomberg report said Apple is entertaining the idea of releasing a third HomePod speaker, slotting it between the HomePod and HomePod mini. There is a possibility, however, that Apple could simply cut the price of the HomePod ($299), instead of introducing a new product altogether.

Since its release in 2016, Apple’s AirPods line has become one of the company’s most successful products, setting the standard for true wireless earbuds. Apple then released the AirPods Pro in 2019 with active noise cancellation and a more compact design. However, there’s been increased competition from the likes of Samsung, Bose, Google, and dozens of other audio accessory makers over the last few years, so Apple is seemingly hoping its new models will stave off the competition.

Featured image: Huawei FreeBuds Pro (left), Apple AirPods Pro (right)

The post Apple’s next AirPods Pro may ditch the stem to be more compact appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/3mpR3i0
via IFTTT

Google Pay isn’t working for some Pixel 5 users

Any major phone release is likely to come with at least one showstopping bug, and Google’s Pixel 5 is no exception. Reports have surfaced from some users claiming they’re unable to make contactless payments using Google Pay.

Some early-adopters of the Pixel 5 have started to complain on the Google Support Forums (via 9to5Google) that they have been unable to complete transactions from their new Pixel 5 handsets, and since then, 9to5Google captured this very issue on video (embedded below). (For what it’s worth, XDA’s Adam Conway has no issues with his own Pixel 5 review unit.) Despite all the usual troubleshooting steps — clearing the cache, setting up the card again, rebooting the phone — it seems that if you’ve fallen prey to this bug, your only option to rejoin the land of Google Pay-ing is to factory reset your device and hope it doesn’t happen again. But don’t.

We suspect it’s a problem limited to the Pixel 5, as the same set-up, with the same account and cards, doesn’t cause issues on the Pixel 4 or Pixel 4a. This rules out the bug as being Android 11 or even Pixel software-related. The phones in question pass SafetyNet Attestation’s CTS profile check — at least we know that 9to5Google’s unit does — so that’s likely not the cause of the issue, either.

Feedback on Google’s support forums suggests that, based on conversations with banks, the payments aren’t being refused — they’re just not being sent out by the handset in the first place. One theory is that the Pixel 5 is not restoring backed up data correctly when the user migrates, and if that’s the case, a Factory Reset is likely to beget many more factory resets. What we need is a proper fix.

Google has yet to officially acknowledge the issue, but once it does, we can’t see it being unfixable — it’s unlikely for it to be the hardware, which should mean that once it’s acknowledged, there’ll be a software update for the Pixel 5, the Google Pay app, Google Play Services, or all 3, and everything will be rosy again.

It’s no ‘bendgate’ or ‘aerialgate’, so perhaps we should just be glad that in the great scheme of things, Pixel 5’s traditional launch showstopper is relatively minor.

Google Pixel 5 Forums

Google Pay: Pay with your phone and send cash (Free, Google Play) →

The post Google Pay isn’t working for some Pixel 5 users appeared first on xda-developers.

from xda-developers https://ift.tt/31KxvNx
via IFTTT