this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.org/post/1872634

So, starting now, Google started mandating full JS for YT, effectively breaking all third-party clients and locking the site to their official client.

This reeks of DRM.

UPDATE: Installing Deno and installing yt-dlp through PyPi fixes yt-dlp but the very idea that Google is mandating JS to lock down YT in an attempt at pseudo-DRM is still crappy.

UPDATE #2: inv.nadeko.net is working again for now.

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly surprised YouTube hasn't just required DRM yet

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Well.. the only available option to them for DRM that will work on all devices is Widevine L3 which is entirely bypassable. Spend a few hours on the net and you can figure out how to do it too.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

The only pre-baked option to them...

If they require a full JS implementation, they could crap out different algorithms and rotate you through them. I'm afraid they'll eventually use a coding LLM to generate daily algorithms.

Imagine YT-DLP needing to adjust to code changes daily.

[–] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Well, if they want to make everyone either buy Rokus or watch YT either in Edge on Windows (the official way to watch Netflix on PC currently) or on another Android device than a Roku with the official YT app, they could just implement a full Widevine L1 lockdown, and sadly, just buying a Roku to watch YT on or watching it on a pre-existing Roku along with the paid streaming services, is probably what most people would actually do if they locked it down like that.

Basically, Google would win the ad blocker and third-party front-end war by locking YT into pre-approved apps or devices, and as an added bonus (for them), they'd snuff out any competing platforms as Widevine L1 would also kill the ability to mirror one's YT channel to one of the alternative platforms, and I guarantee most people who just post any random thing on YT don't store their source video files locally to be able to to re-upload on PeerTube, Odysee, or Rumble, if anything, they're likely just filming and posting straight from their phones.

Now, the people with nice studio setups probably do have a local copy of their source files stored somewhere that they could re-up on their alternative platform of choice, but average Joes filming from a phone outnumber them.

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I don’t think L1/PlayReady SL3K will happen. Imagine Google telling people that in order to view content on their website they need to use a competitor’s browser. Sure, technical people like you and I understand what’s happening behind the scenes, but average joe will just think Google fumbled it and can’t make it work with their own browser, it’s bad press for them. I also think that at least for now there’s too many desktop users to be able to pull it off. They’ll have to tell all the desktop users to go fuck themselves in order to do that, and that will get a good amount of people pissed off.

[–] Magnum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

You know YouTube Revanced?

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Could you briefly summarize what's needed to make it happen? Not asking for a step-by-step just very rough overview

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There are a lot of thorough guides on vidhelp along with dumped L3 keys.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're basically just saying go get a guide like you could have just not said anything LOL

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Not sure what’s up with the self-entitlement but I got shocking news: I don’t own you anything. You asked for a brief explanation and I told you where to go find it. Instead of writing that snarky comment you could’ve instead used the web for its original purpose and conduct your own research and not bug strangers on the internet to do your bidding.

[–] SmartmanApps@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Instead of writing that snarky comment you could’ve instead used the web for its original purpose and conduct your own research and not bug strangers on the internet to do your bidding

You're not the only one they're doing it to (I went to their profile to see if this is a pattern, and it sure is).

sleep-pc: a .NET Native AOT tool to make Windows sleep after a timeout

[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Seems like one of them bad apples. Hopefully the admins of their home instance deal with them soon.