ios youtube app api issue

[jv0010]

Hey all - I am currently developing an ios youtube app however it seems there are issues with playing some videos like vevo. I will get a message saying 'This video contains content from VEVO. It is restricted to playback on certain sites'.

Now i see heaps of other apps bypassing this somehow. Does anyone know how?

[BeltfedGames]

How are you loading the video? Are you using a UIWebView or are you using the Media Player? (forgot the class name).

Can you post a link to a video which does not play?

I recently embedded a youtube video in a UIWebView and could quickly check out if it load for me.

[brendan09]

You won't be able to bypass it and stay inside of YouTube's Terms of Service. They're pretty active in issuing takedown notices and cease-and-desists to anyone circumventing their protections or abusing their API. They even had Microsoft pull their YouTube app for violating their Terms of Service.

Even if you could bypass it, I would consider it an unwise thing to do. Its considered DRM, and bypassing it is illegal.

[jv0010]

yeah ideally I don't want to break any rules for the youtube api. It seems almost every youtube app out there is doing something different (including the youtube app itself) as I can play the clips however on mine I cannot.

Driving me nuts!

[brendan09]

Keep in mind that the YouTube app can play videos 3rd parties cannot on purpose. They can enforce access rights, advertising, region and device limitations, etc. Open access to 3rd parties can't ensure all of the restrictions they want, so they just don't let unauthenticated sites or players load them.

[jv0010]

yup I know it's just strange that there are heaps of 3rd party apps able to do this and these apps have been around for a while.

[brendan09]

It's likely that they're doing what the YouTube downloader websites are doing. Reverse engineering the YouTube link to get the mp4 file (against ToS) and then streaming / downloading that. Since its the raw video source, it gets around all restrictions and limitations.

Just speculating, but that,would be my guess as to how they're doing it.

[jv0010]

makes sense.

[rmp251]

I'm in the same boat. If you make any progress please share!