Should yt-dlp be used behind a VPN? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 months ago by Sunny@slrpnk.net to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Only recently discovered yt-dlp, despite its popularity. However I was wondering if I were to use this, should it be used behind a VPN when downloading videos off public websites?

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

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[-] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml 44 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not needed (unless the target site is blocked in your country); as the videos themselves are publicly viewable. yt-dlp behaves like a typical viewer to these sites.

[-] Sunny@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago

Thanks for the info :)

[-] Bougie_Birdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 2 months ago

Just so you have a heads up:

If you use yt-dlp like a regular user, you shouldn't have a problem. If you use it to download like a thousand videos at once then YouTube may block you out or rate limit you or something.

If that happens, or that's your use case, then you may need to use a VPN