Main target of the takedown was the youtube-dl project, a Python library that had amassed more than 72k stars on GitHub and was used in many YouTube video ripping tools and services.

A Github repository is basically a folder designed to store files. It is also available online for anyone to download, access, and contribute to the files/code within the folder.

In case people were wondering about why RIAA and Github are wrong about taking down youtube-dl: As a YT creator, I use youtube-dl to make a backup of my channel - my own content.

GitHub has issued a warning that accounts could be banned if they continue to upload content that was removed due to DMCA takedown notices.

The Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) has taken down the popular Youtube-dl GitHub repositories using a DMCA takedown notice.

Security engineer Lance Vick noted that programmers have even exploited a bug to attach the original YouTube-dl source code to GitHub’s repository for DCMA takedowns. Hey @GitHub.

A well-known software for downloading YouTube videos, youtube-dl, has been restored to GitHub a few weeks after a takedown notice from the RIAA.