Current Events > Reddit orders u/savevideo bot to shut down or face lawsuits

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https://torrentfreak.com/reddit-orders-savevideo-bot-to-shutdown-or-face-lawsuit-210713/

u/SaveVideo was a Reddit video downloader bot that helped users download and save videos from Reddit. The service was used by millions of people but according to its operator has now shut down following an ultimatum from Reddit. "The gods of Reddit have decided and I am obliged to obey or risk a lawsuit," SaveVideo announced yesterday.
Reddit is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, ranking 19th in the world and 8th in the United States according to Alexa data.
The social sharing website is built around users submitting text, images, and videos, allowing users to vote on content and pushing the most popular items to the top. While much of Reddits content is hosted externally, millions of items of multimedia content are hosted locally unless users make use of services designed to help them download it to their own machines.
Video Saving Bots Are Popular
When locally-hosted videos appear on Reddit, users can call on help from so-called downloader bots. These automated tools allow people to download videos and similar content to their own machines, meaning that they can be viewed without the use of Reddit. Once liberated, this content can also be uploaded to other platforms, if the user desires.
According to an announcement yesterday, Reddit appears to be running out of patience with these tools. The operator of a bot called SaveVideo said that they had been contacted by Reddit who advised that if the service isnt shut down, serious trouble could lie ahead.
Massively Popular SaveVideo Ordered to Close
SaveVideo (which operates from the RedditSave.com domain) is a decently sized operation by any standards. SimilarWeb stats indicate that since the start of the year, RedditSave.com has attracted a steady 10 million visitors per month. But now, however, the show is over.
It has been a great pleasure to serve you all in the past few months. However, as they say, All good things must come to an end, its operator writes.
The gods of reddit have reached out to us. They do not want us to continue this service any longer.
The operator of the bot service says they have complied and as a result, the SaveVideo and RedditSave bots have been shut down. What is more surprising is that this doesnt appear to have been a simple request from Reddit but one that was supported by the threat of legal action.
The gods of reddit have decided and I am obliged to obey or risk a lawsuit, the bots operator explains.
Additional Information is Sparce
TorrentFreak contacted the bots operator yesterday but at the time of writing we have yet to hear back. Reddit hasnt yet responded to our inquiries either so in the meantime, questions remain as to what the bots did wrong.
The Reddit voting system generates karma points for successful/popular submissions to the site and in this respect, SaveVideo certainly isnt lacking. At the time of writing it has 354,677 comment karma and 7,479 post karma, so its popularity isnt question. However, as we have seen with last years attack on YouTube-DL, tools that allow people to download content from sites arent always popular with rightsholders.
In this case, no external rightsholders are cited as the cause by the bots operator but from the information supplied, that cannot be ruled out. Most Reddit users commenting on the shutdown are taking the stance that it is Reddits admins who have threatened legal action but the announcement certainly leaves room for other scenarios too, including repeated complaints from copyright holders.
SaveVideo Has Been Suspended Before
Five months ago, the SaveVideo bot went down unexpectedly only to return 72 hours later with a brief message.
I am back from a 3-day ban, SaveVideo wrote, without providing additional details.
A month ago the bot service went down again, this time for a whole week.
Hey, I got wrongfully suspended for 7 days. Good to be back. You can continue downloading now, the associated account informed users.
Again, no information was provided as to why a suspension was warranted but with two suspensions already on the books, its open to question why Reddit indicated that legal action could be the next step rather than an outright ban. The bots appear to be run on a semi-commercial basis, soliciting donations from the page found here, but whether that played any part in Reddits ultimatum is unknown.
Reddit Has Been Cracking Down On Other Downloader Bots
While SaveVideo appears to have been given the opportunity to cease-and-desist, other Reddit downloader bots havent been so lucky.
Around a month ago, VRedditShare was also suspended, although that decision was later reversed.
However, VRedditDownloader, was previously suspended for unspecified reasons and the same applies to SaveThisVideo, which appears

TC said a bad word

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Tyranthraxus posted...

TC said a bad word

Reddit?

Or Digg?

lawsuits

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MachineJaipur posted...

Reddit?

Or Digg?

Take a closer look at the next to last paragraph in the quote block

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Saving videos isnt illegal. They shouldnt have been posted to begin with.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Take a closer look at the next to last paragraph in the quote block

Oh lmao.

For a site we're not supposed to mention, you think automod would catch it

Kloe_Rinz posted...

Saving videos isnt illegal. They shouldnt have been posted to begin with.

Companies have never concerned themselves with what is legal when dealing with DMCA claims.

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MachineJaipur posted...

Oh lmao.

For a site we're not supposed to mention, you think automod would catch it

sballen cares more about yet another site redesign degradation rather than actually coding things that matter

This ban has nothing to do with legality and is solely Reddit trying to force you to link to its own page and use what is quite literally one of the worst video players on the internet.

Which is hilarious when you consider that so many of the videos that get posted in the first place *are* stolen.
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Bio1590 posted...

This ban has nothing to do with legality and is solely Reddit trying to force you to link to its own page and use what is quite literally one of the worst video players on the internet.

Which is hilarious when you consider that so many of the videos that get posted in the first place *are* stolen.

Tbh besides the inability to scroll the timeline without fucking up the loading, I can't say I've had too many issues out of reddits player.

Though I only really browse via Brave on mobile so

Bio1590 posted...

This ban has nothing to do with legality and is solely Reddit trying to force you to link to its own page and use what is quite literally one of the worst video players on the internet.

Which is hilarious when you consider that so many of the videos that get posted in the first place *are* stolen.

You could have taken like 2 minutes to read the article where they explain the legal complaint & who sued reddit.

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Anything that can be viewed can be copied.

Tyranthraxus posted...

You could have taken like 2 minutes to read the article where they explain the legal complaint & who sued reddit.

I read the article.

The SaveVideo creator makes reference to possible legal action but doesn't say who from.

The reference to OF is about one or two other downloader bots, and the author of the article is just assuming it possibly applies to this one as well.
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Bio1590 posted...

The reference to OF is about one or two other downloader bots, and the author of the article is just assuming it possibly applies to this one as well.

Someone uploading OF stuff to Reddit is already being naughty.

hmmm this is an interesting one. not sure where i stand on the idea. i can see it both ways. i wonder why reddit would care so much though, AFAIK by now hardware costs for running video streaming should be pretty minimal these days. streaming services are battle hardened now. and more efficient than ever.

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pure_temper posted...

i wonder why reddit would care so much though

Streisand Effect avoidance.

they could just default everyone to 1080p resolution and make a paid service if you want 4k or w/e.

that way there's reasonable free tiers and if you want api access included, for downloads, you can pay for the 4k service or something. make it an actual Reddit feature and other sites will follow. i could see api revenue at some point exceeding ad revenue for certain sites.

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pure_temper posted...

they could just default everyone to 1080p resolution and make a paid service if you want 4k or w/e.

random thoughts:

• That's completely non-viable without absurd drm, which then makes downloading meaningless
• The inevitability is locking the peasants to 480p.

I feel like there's a bad storm brewing with these copyright freaks. One day I won't be surprised if you wake up and half of all YouTube videos are just wiped clean. Even if it's just a video like: "How to draw Mickey Mouse" that was created by a random artist, not Disney's property.

They'll all be gone one day. Anything that's tangentially related to the copyright will be gone.

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Turtlemayor333 posted...

They'll all be gone one day. Anything that's tangentially related to the copyright will be gone.

...and Dailymotion's audience grew three-thousand sizes that day

Questionmarktarius posted...

Someone uploading OF stuff to Reddit is already being naughty.

Yes, and at the core of it this is Reddit's problem, but of course they're trying to make it other people's problem as well.
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what a joke

they better not shut down twitter's savevideobots or @thisvid or whatever

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pure_temper posted...

they could just default everyone to 1080p resolution and make a paid service if you want 4k or w/e.

that way there's reasonable free tiers and if you want api access included, for downloads, you can pay for the 4k service or something. make it an actual Reddit feature and other sites will follow. i could see api revenue at some point exceeding ad revenue for certain sites.

This has nothing to do with that.

This is Reddit simply making the fact that people illegally upload copyrighted material to it other people's problems.
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MachineJaipur posted...

Bio1590 posted...

This ban has nothing to do with legality and is solely Reddit trying to force you to link to its own page and use what is quite literally one of the worst video players on the internet.

Which is hilarious when you consider that so many of the videos that get posted in the first place *are* stolen.

Tbh besides the inability to scroll the timeline without fucking up the loading, I can't say I've had too many issues out of reddits player.

Though I only really browse via Brave on mobile so

Sometimes, v.reddit links don't even work for me on mobile. It doesn't even load the video, it just loads the thumbnail and acts like an image file. You have to switch to desktop mode for it to do anything
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Bio1590 posted...

This is Reddit simply making the fact that people illegally upload copyrighted material to it other people's problems.

Probably some Section 230 issue of knowing allowing downloads.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230
Go look at 230(c)(2)(A)

Just noticed the post on Reddit now has a note from one of the Admins

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ojccls/reddit_orders_savevideo_bot_to_shut_down_or_face/h51p64a/

We're currently investigating this issue, but I can confirm that Reddit was not responsible for whatever notice or litigation threat u/SaveVideoBot received

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I'm gonna continue to be skeptical of an admin who has been caught red handed editing other people's posts through ad hoc queries.

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Reddit admin is saying they didn't do anything
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ojccls/reddit_orders_savevideo_bot_to_shut_down_or_face/h51p64a

but then who did???

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MixedRaceBaby posted...

but then who did???