I’m part of a small group of Jr Self Taught Web Developers who were recently brainstorming ideas for a Group Project App we could put together and actually create a user base.
I offered up the suggestion of a podcast application which would have the major feature of being akin to YouTube Sponsor Block, but specifically for podcast episodes.
Essentially, a user contributed database of timestamps for podcast episodes where the mention of cutting to sponsored ads or mentions of sponsorships would be marked so they could be edited out of the episode and then the user could also download said episode where ads are cut out of the final audio file.
My idea was shot down due to fears of possibly infringing on copyright and we ended up with going with another idea. I’m certainly not upset, and am actually excited with the project idea we did choose, but it did get me wondering about whether this idea actually could have legal implications.
I know specifically with YouTube there appears to be a sort of legal loophole that prevents Google from suing projects like invidious, yt-dlp, and YouTube Sponsor Block, but am unaware of the specific details as to how this works.
Thusly, I just wanted to ask if anyone has any insights into whether this project idea would incur any legal infractions from the likes of IheartRadio and other media platforms?
To be clear, I’m not seeking legal advice here, and I’ll be taking any responses with a grain of salt, but I just wanted to see if anyone knows anything on this subject and the legal concerns raised.
I very much dislike being advertised to and podcasts are one of the last bastions of media where advertisements still come up regularly and I’d love to make this application for those who are frustrated with how often they have to skip through sponsor mentions.
Thanks in advance.
Retransmission of a podcast from your own server - no.
Cutting sponsored fragments on the end device - yes.
At least in most countries.
From what I understand, they’re able to practically make custom audio files for every download. Sharing the time stamps wouldn’t work that well. Re-distributing podcasts without the ads would definitely land you in legal trouble, cause every audio file is their “work of art”.
Not a problem for ublock because you’re editing their work of art for your personal use, and sharing unaltered stuff.
And youtube sponsor block is just sharing time stamps you might be interested in.
AI system that can recognize patterns and auto skip forward?
Yes, using a trained AI model that recognizes ad segments could be possible for this, albeit expensive due to the cost of GPUs on a VPS.
Great plan! Forking Antennapod would be a good idea I guess.
Also many youtube videos are 1:1 available as podcasts, using the sponsorblock db here would already help.
That’s a good point, Perhaps that would be a place to start. Thanks!
Take multiple downloads of a podcast from different locations, automatically filter out any audio that is unique to either stream. This can be done with hashing or other means. This would address dynamic advertisements.
Everything left over can be manually time stamped by volunteers to bracket the ads.
Alternatively. Take multiple podcasts from a series and filter out all audio they have in common. This would handle static ads, intro music, etc.
Nice! That sounds like a solid approach. Right now I’m just solidifying a strategy before possibly consulting with a digital rights lawyer. This is probably a few years in the making, but I’m gathering ideas from various communities and all insights are helpful!
Thank you!!
