Reddit Orders 'SaveVideo' Bot To Shut Down Or Face Lawsuit

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: 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. '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 doesn't 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. Most Reddit users commenting on the shutdown are taking the stance that it is Reddit's admins who have threatened legal action but the announcement certainly leaves room for other scenarios too, including repeated complaints from copyright holders. [...] Reddit has no official comment at this stage but has informed TorrentFreak that it was "not responsible for whatever notice or litigation threat" received by SaveVideo. Update: SaveVideo's operator says the downloader bot is back. "Reddit has confirmed to me that the notice did not originate from them," they added. "With that being said, I have restored all the bot/website's services back to normal." We'll see how long this lasts...

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You're making the leap of faith that he read anything past the headline.

Re:

[Moryath]

Bold of AC to assume an alt-right individual can read!

Re:

[youngone]

Funny all the so called conservatives think any of those capitalists are progressive.

Re:

[thereddaikon]

There's a lot to unpack in your statement. But suffice it to say you've done a great job of putting your ignorance of politics on display.

You don't have to be a capitalist to believe in private businesses.

Believing in private business does not preclude you from being a progressive.

The only way a "progressive" can be defined as someone who does believe in private business is if your definition means anyone to the right of Marx isn't progressive enough.

And that would be an extreme and minority viewpoint.

As fo

Re:

[youngone]

You're being a sheep by believing them when they say they're progressive, or liberal, or whatever they're telling you today.
They use the various culture war labels to profit from you, and it is obviously working.

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[kaatochacha]

They self-define as such. In fact, they go to great lengths to allow people to self-define as whatever they want--true or not. Disagreeing, like you are, makes you a bigot with the usual calls for cancellation/banning/stuff the conservatives did in the fifties.

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[Anonymous Coward]

There are so many things wrong with this I don't even know where to start.

Reddit is not a progressive company. It's just another corporation. It hosts forums from the extreme right to the moderately left (they got rid of that one forum, ChapoTrapHouse, that was slightly to the left of Joe Biden.)

Reddit has not, actually, called in any lawyers, see the update.

Using the existing system to fix problems when you have no other system available is not some example of the implied hypocrisy you think it is [thenib.com].

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[theshowmecanuck]

He called them out for being a bunch of cunts. Granted his reasoning was wrong. But they're still cunts.

Re: Progressives

[ArmoredDragon]

Because r/Stalin is clearly moderate left?

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[BoogieChile]

Only slightly left of Joe Biden, who, as everybody knows is a god-hating commie [ktla.com]

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[ewibble]

By definition I am center, is true for however is speaking, people don't think their opinions are either too left, or too right they think they are just right, otherwise it wouldn't be their opinion would it? So if you find people to your left, more moderate you are probably left leaning, if you find the people to on the right more moderate you are probably right leaning. I don't even know how to judge what is the actual center in a non-biased way. Do you just arrange everybody's opinions on a linear scale

Reddit what

[NagrothAgain]

The near instant article update refutes the entire submission.

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[burtosis]

You must be new here.

dupe is contained within original post

[SethJohnson]

The second paragraph is a dupe of the first paragraph. Seems to set a record for fastest dupe post on Slashdot.

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[Anubis IV]

Enjoy the roller coaster.

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[dysan27]

Not just that, the update was already up on r/savevideo before the original article was posted on /.

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[jason777]

Perhaps its a cleverly disguised ad?

So, news for nothing then?

[Fly Swatter]

Some nerd got fake served.

why are things harder than they should be?

[diffract]

Having to use a helper bot to save a video is a failure of the platform. This reminds me of the absolutely horrendous steps you have to take to download an audio file to an iPhone an assign it as a ringtone

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[Rockoon]

Probably downloads *linked* videos, and that reddit doesnt host any at all.

Quick, set up a website where people can link to a video someone on the internet, and your website has a download button for those linked videos.

Otherwise, just like this is "a failure of [reddit]" we've just seen that you are also a failure, failed to even bother to think before posting even.

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[BoogieChile]

> When locally-hosted videos appear on Reddit

Right there in the article

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[not_mchurch]

nope, it's specifically for downloading videos hosted by reddit's videoing hosting. the bot does nothing for linked videos.

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[thereitis]

> This reminds me of the absolutely horrendous steps you have to take to download an audio file to an iPhone an assign it as a ringtone

Indeed, when I discovered the suggested "workflow" to make that happen I was even more appalled at the iPhone platform than before, and that's saying something! If iPhone was supported by the heart medicine drug makers I would not even be surprised.

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[GonzoPhysicist]

The bot must exist due to a failure of the various apps people are using to access reddit, you can still right click videos from the normal webpage and "save as"

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[ponraul]

Also, Reddit memory holes everything after the most recent 1000 posts to a subreddit or user. Everything further back needs a deep link.

But what I want to know is...

[ItsJustAPseudonym]

Have the gods of Reddit decided, and are they obliged to obey or risk a lawsuit? The article is unclear on that point.

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[91degrees]

Yes, but the law tends not to be fussed about the technical details of putting bytes into storage. It's more about the overall effect of things on society.

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[91degrees]

Sounds like a plan. Let's tax companies rather than letting them exploit loopholes. Let's always fine them for the air and water being poisoned rather than worry about the specifics of how. Let's treat offshored work the same as domestic work.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Getting Reddit-played isn't for users only anymore

[Opportunist]

Getting trolled off Reddit seems to be no longer for "normal" users only, now if you don't like a bot instead of just a user, you can get them removed as well.

Just without the aid of Reddit, at least so far, so it doesn't really last. Let's see how it develops.

Wow

[nospam007]

Clickbait that confesses its non-news status in the last sentence, respect!

Delete This

[bill_mcgonigle]

A story about them getting scammed might be worth the read but not this.

Damages?

[dcw3]

IANAL, but aren't they required to show damages in order to win a lawsuit? Obviously, if that's the case, they're hoping you give up because they can cause you to spend a ton in legal fees even if you're in the right.

Who and why?

[Headw1nd]

Everyone is saying this is no longer a story, but frankly I think this makes the story more interesting, who stands to benefit from impersonating reddit and getting this service shut down? I could easily see this being a ruse by one of the big copyright holders worried that this will be used for "piracy". It's not like they haven't used dirty tricks in the past. As an alternative, maybe someone was hoping to impersonate SaveVideo after they shut them down and spread malware/shitty ads.

As she said

[ebvwfbw]

That was quick!