Google Cracks Down on YouTube-to-MP3-Ripping Sites | Hacker News Reader

Google Cracks Down on YouTube-to-MP3-Ripping Sites

pcworld.com

23 pointsanujkk25 comments

The only thing this can do is increase the quality of MP3s on the internet.

The audio is as heavily compressed as the video, not much point in ripping that.

>The audio is as heavily compressed as the video, not much point in ripping that.

Kids don't care about the quality otherwise they wouldn't be taking this avenue in the first place.

I can't help but think a service like Vevo is playing a big role in this along with the RIAA. Music videos are consistently the most watched videos on YouTube and Vevo has been making a big stink about leaving YouTube.

You never taped a song off the radio?

Yeah, but that was before '94 when I installed my first MP3 player, since then not too much. Mostly CD rips and downloads, I don't think I ripped anything after about '98.

Who on earth would want some sort of horrible transcode of a transcode?

People that can't tell the diference between DVD quality and HD. People that listen to music using their crappy cellphone speaker.

Yes, the audio quality of mp3s is much lower than a CD. This format will never catch on.

The same sort of people who would watch 240p video.

I admittedly have used these services to procure obscure tracks that aren't available via iTunes or other means. That band who did an a cappella cover? No download link on their site or anywhere else? Youtube to mp3.

In that case, it looks like the industry could much better fix the problem by providing legitimate means to get these tracks :)

If you grab the source video yourself you can demux the audio using ffmpeg (I've done this for some live performances that I wanted to listen to offline).

I don't know about transcodes, but there are often live recordings or rare recordings that I can only find on youtube.

I used one to make a ringtone from a crowd reaction in a video gaming tournament video.

Street Fighter 2? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7hkwbKmBM

Thought so!

You'd be surprised how many technology-illiterate people do these things.

Anyone notice that these are no longer being taken down: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=full+album

There are a lot of full albums on you tube now, many with track markers in the description.

I wonder if Google has a practical way to stopping them, reading from the article saying they've blocked the sites (by IP? ... so they'll use TOR?); I guess blocking is the best they can do aside from legal action (if that even works overseas)?

shrug.. youtube-dl + ffmpeg.

youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format=mp3 -l LINK

Can you still just copy and paste from your /tmp folder in Ubuntu? I can't do that on Arch, so I just use the FlashGot Firefox addon.

Quite awhile ago Flash started "deleting" the file in /tmp as soon as it got the file handle. You can still get the file handle using 'lsof' while the video is playing. It would be easier to just use a tool like youtube-dl or clive (or a browser extension) to grab the videos, though.

Not anymore, a Flash upgrade broke that sometime ago.

I use the following script on Arch to do what you're looking to do: http://pastebin.com/9si8EdFQ

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