Its a shame that content creators don't truly own the content on YouTube and can simply opt out of DRM on their videos.
Also weird timing considering boycotting is a common topic right now.
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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DRM
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Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures, such as access control technologies, can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies govern the use, modification and distribution of copyrighted works (e.g. software, multimedia content) and of systems that enforce these policies within devices. DRM technologies include licensing agreements and encryption.
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Google is also experimenting with my not using YouTube any more.
I’m sitting here reading this as my spouse watches the stock YouTube client with ads on a TV that also has SmartTubeNext installed. Evidently, the ads are preferable over a less refined UX when you’re less neurodivergent and don’t jolt out of your seat whenever a stupid, loud ad comes on. As much as I’d like to say DRM will kill YouTube, objectively speaking, it probably won’t. What it may do instead is kill YouTube clients with better accessibility for neurodivergent folks like SmartTubeNext.
How to kill YouTube in one stupid step.
I guess their CEO wasn't paying attention when the music industry got trounced by pirating.
Why would it kill YouTube?
Spotify has DRM for all of their songs, it has not killed music streaming.
What this actually does is make it formally illegal to rip YouTube videos (circumventing DRM is against DMCA). It's also a shot against youtube-dlp, which refuses to cross the line of cracking the DRM, which would be doable, but they don't want to on account of the legal issue.
How exactly will this kill YouTube? This will only kill ad blockers.
Nah, maybe some people will switch ad blockers off, but for most, the msin takeaway will be to look for a competing service.
What competing service
Other entertainment. If Youtube makes my head hurt, I'll go touch grass, watch a movie, read some news, play boardgames, etc.
And if one can't get out of their phone, then there is Tiktok I guess.
You vastly overestimate people's tech savviness.
And you vastly underestimate the value Youtube would lose if the tech-savvy segment of their audience went elsewhere.
Those left behind are a different market. Youtube creators would have to dumb themselves down even further, driving even more worthwhile content off the service. Soon Youtube would be the Facebook of video sites, geared towards a shrinking population of people too old and stubborn to move on.
I say YT should absolutely shoot themselves in the foot like this.
Probably not going to kill it, but the number of users and view counts will drop dramatically. The idea is, that it cuts all deadweight users, which reduces Google’s expenses.
Everyone who is allergic to ads, will leave and find their video entertainment elsewhere. As far as those users are concerned, YT will be dead to them.
Those who remain, will either pay up, or have ads shoved down their throats. Line goes up, and shareholders are happy. The money must flow.
As the enshittification of YT has marched towards its terminal stage, many youtubers have already prepared for it by migrating their videos to other platforms. YT doesn’t like tits, so those videos had to go to Onlyfans, Justforfans or whatever. YT doesn’t like guns, so those videos went to Pepperbox. YT doesn’t like providing a steady income to anyone, so many videos went to Nebula. Then there’s also palces like Floatplane, Locals, Playeur etc. I’m sure there are lots of other video platforms too. The way I see it, YT can die, and the fragmented video landscape will only thrive as a result.
Sure, but I still think yall are really overestimating how many people will actually care. You might need to reevaluate your bias. The average person will definitely not change apps or websites. Maybe 1% of users will care to find an alternative for their video needs. And even then, some videos are only on YouTube.
Oh, but here’s the thing. YT is already abusing the people who make the videos. Many of them are already using YT as a platform for promoting their real video platform. They will only upload advertisers friendly watered down versions and mention at the end that if you want to see the real one, head over to one of the countless other platforms they’ve built over the years. All of that is already happening, and it can become a significant factor in the future.
Will it though? Who knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If it does, it means that more and more people will migrate to the real video platforms where they can watch the uncut version of every video. I think there’s real potential to shift the video consumption culture from one ad supported platform that abuses everyone involved to several paid platforms, that treat everyone much better.
Youtubers have complained about YT being a horrible landlord for so many years, and yet they can't leave. They keep trying, but very few succeeded. It's a shitty situation, but that's where the audience and the money are.
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If they were to force a TEE based DRM like Widevine L1, it would likely cause significant issues as there are a considerable amount of devices that don't support it (for example most PCs).
If they were to use software based DRM like Widevine L3, it would be easy for enthusiasts to crack and the tools for doing so would just get much much better.
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This kills the YouTube. Maybe not quickly, but it will be a large nail in the coffin should they double down on it.
I use youtube for mediocre garbage content to fill airspace. I don't need it. I would be better off without it. Don't push me google, because I'll fucking jump.
I already jumped off of a number of their other services, what's one more?
Funny enough they used to use their own video playback codec which had to be cracked in order for downloaders to work, so technically they've been doing DRM for a long long time.
More than ever, people need to start using alternatives. I recommend Odysee. It has a couple issues that they're apparently working on but it's easily the best overall alternative.
Youtube Alternatives are only going to start taking off is that alternative is willing to pay content creators enough for them at least a liveable wage. And it needs to be stable Odysee's payment system relies on other people and tips are unstable at the best of times. A youtube alternative has got to have a better payment system than relying on strangers to tip the creator.
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I've been thinking about using Nebula. Does anyone has any experience with it?
Its got some great creators, Ive been on there a couple of years. Only downside which some might be glad to be rid of is a lack of comments, and feedback. Without any interaction you're just watching videos; doesn't feel like a community or conversation.
Seems a shame because there are creators who appear to value the voice of the community on a platform where their audience has no voice.
There's a thread from five years ago where a founder Dave Wiskus said they had plans for a thread-like comments section. So it's weird; must not align with whatever else it is they're doing.
I'd say the same thing about dropout TV. How can we get in the comments without a comments section!?
Dropout really needs some way to interact, even if it's just a shared fanmail address. I don't think my view counts make it clear how much I appreciate some of their content and talent.
I tried to contact Grant O'Brien through Twitter (made an account specifically for that), but it didn't look like he was very active at all, probably got more interesting stuff going on. But no artist is too busy to read fanmail, right?
I think they don't want to own moderation of it. Which I get, but ultimately feel the same way you do. I'm happy I'm on there, few years as well, but do wish they had a comment section.
No comments? You might have just sold me on it.
For the comments, I use grayjay with nebula's plug-in so there's the polycentric comments, but there's very little of them.
Been on Nebula (with curiosity stream) for 4 years. They're great. Good price, many of my favorite YT creators are also on Nebula, and their Nebula content either drops first, or has extended cuts and no ads ever.
They definitely have less channels and stuff overall, but a much larger percentage of their content is geared towards my interests. Also, I would say their minimum quality and production values are significantly higher than YT.
Wonderful service. Nice, educative sometimes, and entertaining videos. Mixes well with grayjay/my other subscriptions on youtube/odysee.
I pay for Premium and if they actually do this I'll stop my subscription. Web DRM is stupid and I hate that other Streaming Services already have it. Apart from being another resource sink in browsers, it'll stop third party clients which I use and it also turns off Nvidia Shadowplay which is annoying as it doesn't automatically turn back on once the DRM content is no longer loaded.
If they do this my watching 2 hours a day with YouTube Premier is over. I will not subject myself to advertising.
The number one reason I use YouTube is for fitness routines I can do at home (going to a physical gym means I will not workout), and keeping up on finance news. I will gladly find other ways to get this information. I just use YouTube because it’s the easiest and has all of the people I like in one place.
I'll pay for deezer or apple music if I have to, lol
In a way this enshittificication is necessary to make the replacement possible. Whatever it will be.
Widevine L3 is trivial to decrypt at this point, there are even APIs on the web to decrypt it. Playready SL2000 is starting to get much easier to decrypt as well.
Forcing TEE based DRM (Widevine L1 and playready SL3000) would have the potential to cause too much collateral damage. They would almost certainly have to have exceptions some devices. If they intentionally break compatibility on browsers other than chrome, they would probably face antitrust issues.
So it is likely there will always either be a way to bypass or decrypt.
I've almost completely quit youtube. Go ahead drive in that final nail.
Probably explains my looping 403 errors on SmartTube, but it eventually loads after several attempts.
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