Videos used to be on VHS tape, then DVD, then blu-ray. But these discs are being obsoleted. My library piled ~10s of thousands of audio CDs on tables a couple years ago and simply gave them all away. For a week you could take whatever you wanted. The library did not want them back. They were offloading.
So apparently the trend is: everything is going to the cloud. If I want to learn a new skill, Youtube has become the way to do that. So how do you bring home a #Youtube video? The library has started blocking Invidious downloads– probably fearing copyright issues.
Didn’t people generally used to be able to checkout a dozen or so DVDs? So you could watch the content at home in your overstuffed chair with beer, popcorn, pizza, whatever. The online access restrictions force us to do the viewing inside the library and only during library hours. And of course if I try to carry in an overstuffed chair, a keg of beer, and pizza, they’ll probably bounce me for breaking the “no food” rule. So it seems we’re losing the ability combine beer and videos.
When a video is walking people through the steps of repairing or rebuilding something, it can be absurdly impractical to memorize the video and (for example) try to rebuild your motorcycle. The video has to be in front of you as you work on the device.
In an abstract way, it’s a #rightToRepair issue. I would love to drive a motocycle into a library and disassemble it in the PC area as a publicity stunt.
I wonder if the format might be the issue. VHS disappeared from libraries too when people had weren’t renting them. A lot of people by that point didn’t have a VHS player, so libraries switched to DVD. Right now, my local library carries recent XBOX and Switch games, so physical stuff isn’t disappearing it’s just a format people can use.
So if DVDs and CDs are disappearing, it might be because people don’t have a way to play them. I don’t see how this would work out, but if you could instead borrow drives with massive collections of movies instead, then it might solve the problem of access? Put a DRM on the drive to inhibit copying and companies shouldn’t have an excuse
Dvd players are super cheap but libraries could loan dvd players for people who need them
There are still some CDs at one of the branches so it’s also possible that they were just shedding less popular albums. I noticed someone who spends a lot of time at the PC just listening to music from Youtube. If he wants to listen at home to whatever he’s finding on YT, he’s probably stuffed.
I’m not sure if there is an effective DRM mechanism to give the library control like that, but it would be the same problem unless they also negotiate something with Google in a way that compensates Google. I guess the big problem is that Google is the gatekeeper to begin with. If there were a deal in place, I guess I still would not be enthusiastic about doing something that feeds Google.
The online access restrictions force us to do the viewing inside the library and only during library hours.
I don’t really understand this. Are you saying the library has a digital archive of films and music that you can only access from their computers?
My local library used to have an online archive where you could “borrow” music (in reality you could stream X hours and download X tracks per week). It closed down a year or so ago. And by “closed down” I mean they stopped subscribing to it - the service itself still exists I just have no way of logging on any more. https://freegalmusic.com/ if you want to check if your local library is on it.
It’s a combination of problems. Pre-youtube, content creators all published their work on physical media which libraries could loan out. But Youtube has poached creators in large numbers so content is going exclusively to Google & under Google’s control. And indeed Youtube videos are uniquely accessible from the library’s PCs, and not check-outable.
Books are also an issue. I wanted a specific book. One library network was completely unable to get it. The other network can get it on paper for a fee (I don’t recall the amount). I could get the e-book version but that requires various hurdles I’ve not yet looked into. The fee is being used to pressure people to go the e-book route, which Richard Stallman has warned us about a couple decades ago and his predictions are increasingly proving to be accurate. I don’t recall ATM why I gave up completely. The e-book account probably required excessive info, like mobile phone number or email or something.
The fix i would like to see is the library permitting YT downloads via Invidious (like people with broadband at home can do). I don’t really know the nuts and bolts of the potential copyright issue and I doubt the library does either. They’re likely just taking the safe route to avoid a battle with Google.
I’m not a fan of ebooks but libraries here (UK) do allow ebooks to be borrowed (I think all you need is library card number and PIN - obviously you’ve already given them a lot of info to get the card in the first place)
Stallman’s warning with e-books was that it enables refined control by publishers to the point of only allowing a page to be read once, for example. No way to re-read the e-book, lend it to a friend, or pass it on to your kids. He said they won’t exploit those options right away… they’ll get people to gradually embrace the novelty of e-books first, then gradually stop offering a paper version at all. Then when everyone is transitioned onto e-books they will abuse their power to the fullest.
It’s a somewhat similar transition with audio & video content which is getting centralized under Google’s control.
The challenge with those approaches is that, at some point, piracy just becomes the easier solution again. If books become “read once”,then, even if there’s “perfect” DRM, someone will create book screen recording to epub software, and people will start pirating books more.
It’s well known that the cat-mouse game is never ending. Publishers often seem satisfied enough when the unlicensed copy incurs a quality hit, such as a digital source being downgraded to analog. I’m fine with that. If a consumer is going to be persnickety about quality perhaps it’s fair enough that they go through hoops and/or pay more for it.
It’s interesting that publishers have started viewing file sharing as competition. They figured out that consumers are happy to pay so long as the price is reasonable. If a CD is €20 it’s worthwhile to circumvent the legal route. But if the content is legitimately available for €1 (for example) they’d rather pay than deal with the black market. It’s a shame that unlawful activity is necessary for getting fair pricing. The more suppressed file sharing becomes, the more extortionate legit prices are and the fewer consumers who can benefit.
I don’t understand. There are other options for downloading youtube videos other than invidious right? There are lot of websites where we can download by pasting the link?
Library users cannot install binary apps. They are limited to javascript apps. I’m aware of Invidious and Piped. Most invidious instances are blocked (it won’t be long before all are blocked). I think Piped instances are also blocked but I did not try many. From there, if there are websites out in the wild that are not on invidious or piped instance lists, they may indeed be a solution. I’ll have to see what I can find.
Another option I can think of is, sharing the youtube link maybe on email, or adding to a Playlist, then later download the video if needed later. However this wouldn’t be possible if library users aren’t allowed to access their email wherever they access the videos or copy the links to a word file which can be transferred to a pen drive.
I’m not sure how deferring the download for a later time helps. If I needed to watch the same video multiple times, storing the link would make it easy to replay the video each time the library is visited. But that doesn’t solve the problem of needing to bring the video home for viewing (where there is no suitable connection).
Oh if internet connection is unavailable at home then it’s a problem. Then in such a situation the only thing I could do would be store the link then if there are any chances of getting access to free WiFi then download the videos. At least in my case I can say that if I have to refer to some videos for study purpose I would most probably need to refer to the video more than once so any chances of saving the links and downloading the videos would be useful.
