Tag Archive for 'digital rights manufacturing'

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Finally, YouTube Will Let You Download Videos Without A Stupid Grabber Tool

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 4:53 AM on January 19, 2009 in Commentary. 0 Comments Tags: digital rights manufacturing, duh, free culture, internet video, the googles, youtube. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/UeZ

I love how Google decides to publicly test new features without issuing a press release. I guess they figured that the blogosphere notices anyway so why bother with the fanfare? But here’s something rather nice: they’re using Already President as far as I’m concerned Barack Obama’s channel to test out their new ability to download YouTube videos from the site.

But Zacqary! There have been lots of tools that let you download YouTube videos for years!

That’s a valid point, Helvetica Bold 10.5 Dark Orchid, but all of those have required you not only to download an extra program or Firefox extension, but they grab the crappy, compressed Flash Video version that you’d see anyway on YouTube. Now, not only do you click a little link below the video, but you also get to download it in H.264 format! That’s the same encoding that they use on Blu-Ray. BLU-RAY! (Though, granted, the YouTube download has a lower resolution and bitrate than a Blu-Ray, but seriously, it’s an improvement)

I grabbed one of the Obama videos to compare, and yes, it’s quite nice:

H.264 is better than standard YouTube FLV

If you view that full size, you can see that the downloaded video has better contrast and is a lot less fuzzy. Keep in mind, though, that it downloads at 480×270; I resized it to 640×360 so it would be the same size as the video on YouTube. But the YouTube video is probably scaled up too.

Sadly, it isn’t the same quality as YouTube HD:

The download is still lower res than it could be.

The download is still lower res than HD, unfortunately.

Again, I scaled the download up. At this level of scaling you start to see where the downloaded copy loses detail. Though the contrast still looks better…maybe that’s Firefox’s fault?

Now, this is still only available for Obama’s channel, but in the coming weeks, Google claims that everyone will have the option to enable their videos to be downloaded. Personally, for the sake of the common Internet user, I’m hoping that it’s an opt-out system. That way the only reason someone would have to stop being lazy and edit their videos is if they want to be an asshole or a corporation.

Speaking of which, when do I get to replace my old videos with HD versions? They’re all ready to upload as soon as you let me, Google.

[Source: Ars Technica]

Jiggle Physics On the iPhone Are Only Acceptable If Used On Real Boobs

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2009 in Commentary. 4 Comments Tags: apple, digital rights manufacturing, iphone, lolwut, physics. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/ksz

Some time ago there was an app submitted to the iPhone App Store called iBoobs. This was an application which displayed a pair of 3D boobs (wearing a bra) and read accelerometer data. Essentially this means that every time you moved or shook your iPhone, the boobs would jiggle. How funny. But as you can maybe see from the link if the German translation is comprehensible, the app was not approved by Apple because “Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”

But yesterday Apple apparently did approve something called Wobble. It’s an application that allows you to add “wobble regions” to photographs. These regions will jiggle when you shake your iPhone. (Hint: You put them on boobies!!!!)

Seems Apple’s being their hypocritical selves again. After the jump, videos explaining why…

Continue reading ‘Jiggle Physics On the iPhone Are Only Acceptable If Used On Real Boobs’

Warner Music Mutes YouTube, So Blame Them Instead

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 1:47 AM on January 15, 2009 in Commentary. 1 Comment Tags: digital rights manufacturing, free culture, internet video, stupid copyright tricks, the googles, youtube. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/53v

I’ve always had my qualms with YouTube about video quality, comment moderation, ease of use, comment moderation, and comment moderation, but what’s got the blogosphere exploding lately is something that I kind of pity rather than hate YouTube for: videos containing copyrighted music are having their audio muted.

This actually isn’t new, just a new option for users hit by an increasingly rabid crackdown by Google’s Video Identification robots. A video that I posted of footage I took at Anthrocon was taken down automatically just because I happened to synchronize the footage with a song that is copyrighted by a gigantic corporation. I was given the option to replace the audio with a different song, which would have killed all my hard work in Final Cut, or I could dispute the claim, either because it was an incorrect match (which it wasn’t) or because it was Fair Use (which it was).

Dispute Submitted to WMG
I don’t love YouTube’s handling of Fair Use, though legally the burden is upon the Fair User to justify it, so I suppose taking your video down before allowing you to defend the use is appropriate. That’s how I handled my video, explaining to YouTube’s input box that my video was non-commercial and did not prevent the copyright holder from making a profit. Submitting that dispute got my video replaced quite punctually, but when I clicked that Submit button, I saw a single line that told the story of who the true villain is here: “Your claim has been submitted to WMG.” Warner Music Group.