YouTube-DL is no more

[Clemens Lang]

Hi,

On Fri, Dec 18, 2020 at 10:20:56AM -0800, Dave C via macports-users wrote:
> The YouTube-DL github page was taken down per DMCA request.

It has since been restored, likely also due to the public outcry over
the overreaching DMCA request referencing a decision by a German court
famous for a continued display of lack of technical knowledge.

> This brings up 2 questions for me:
> 1. Why did this fail? I had a functioning youtube-dl since last MP
> update with all the required bits (ffmpg, Python, etc) and I don’t
> update component individually; they were last updated with the last MP
> update earlier this year. I haven’t updated MacOS for years. So if it
> was functioning earlier this year, why did it fail yesterday?

youtube-dl talks to remote services that change without notifying the
youtube-dl developers. Changes in upstream services may require
adaptions in youtube-dl, which you didn't have because you did not have
the latest version of youtube-dl.

> 2. Next time(?) I update MP I presume YouTube-dl won’t update. Will it
> be removed? Will it no longer work? Is there a way to keep the port I
> have currently functioning?

MacPorts mirrors the upstream files, so even if youtube-dl were removed
from GitHub, the port would continue to work. Additionally, the
youtube-dl source code was always available from youtube-dl.org, so even
if the GitHub repository would not have been restored, we would just
have switched the port to use that source instead.

-- 
Clemens