Fair - what word should i have used in place of illegal to describe DMCA?
Youtube DL was taken down because it was DMCA'd, to which we all (mostly?) agree was an abuse of DMCA, but nevertheless the premise seems to be that it was effectively a form of piracy - no? Isn't Piracy (and supporting Piracy/etc) "illegal"? Or is there a better word to use here?
Getting DMCA'd doesn't mean anything more than somebody submitted a letter saying "I believe this content infringes my copyright, please take it down.". It does not establish guilt.
Just because the RIAA cries foul doesn't mean there is actually anything wrong here. Piracy is illegal, but youtube-dl is not a piracy tool, just like VHS recorders were not piracy tools. Making personal copies of videos is absolutely legal, and seems to be the prominent way to use youtube-dl (Why else would you use it? The content is already available for free on youtube itself!).
So what you should call youtube-dl is "Something the RIAA doesn't like", basically.
Right, but there is an implication that if it was piracy it is illegal, no? Lets not play coy.
My comment of illegal isn't a court of law, my intent was clearly discussing the idea that if the RIAA is accusing youtube-dl of piracy (effectively), and then they themselves increase popularity of youtube-dl, they would effectively be promoting piracy, aka something illegal.
Ya'll are getting hung up on the details. It was a joke.
Well not a joke i guess, no punchline hah. But still - humor /cheeky comment about if it's considered piracy ("illegal"), and the RIAA end up promoting it, aren't they themselves promoting piracy. That's all :)
The RIAA falsely claims youtube-dl is a tool for piracy. This is not reality. Accepting the RIAA's premise is problematic.
The right words here are not "piracy" or "illegal," but it is not clear what statement you are trying to make. I can't recommend any better words without additional context.
Maybe “arguably illegal”? The RIAA’s argument is that youtube-dl is a tool for circumventing copyright protection, which is related to the concept of piracy or copyright infringement, but prohibited by different laws. Marketing a circumvention tool can be illegal even if there are ways to use it that don’t infringe copyright. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention
Youtube DL was taken down because it was DMCA'd, to which we all (mostly?) agree was an abuse of DMCA, but nevertheless the premise seems to be that it was effectively a form of piracy - no? Isn't Piracy (and supporting Piracy/etc) "illegal"? Or is there a better word to use here?