I just learned that Youtube is starting to pull down videos by Acts 17 ministries. Those are the guys (and girl) who were involved in the Dearborn silencing attempts in 2009 and 2010. Here is one of my posts on the Dearborn incidents from last year.
Here is David Wood's post on this, including embeds of two videos from a mirror account.
My guess is that Muslims started a flagging blitz against Act 17's videos, though why just now is something of a mystery.
Incredibly, David says that he didn't save copies of all his videos. I find this rather difficult to believe, and of course he and the lawyers from Thomas More Center must have the raw footage from last summer, but in any event, in case the rest of his account comes down, it would seem that some of the most important videos to capture would be these:
I just hope David's friends are rallying round and mirroing his entire Youtube account, because I'm sure there are many more that should be saved if his account does get taken down.
What alternative venues to Youtube would readers recommend for Acts 17?
Comments (19)
Lydia,
If you want to download them, downloadfever.info is a good site for ripping them from Youtube. I just grabbed backup MP4 copies of them. You can do FLV (flash video) or MPEG4. IIRC, they're damn near the same codec, but MP4 is more portable.
Posted by Mike T | August 20, 2011 6:51 PM
Great Mike. What do you think of Vimeo for them if they are thinking of starting a new channel elsewhere?
Posted by Lydia | August 20, 2011 9:20 PM
One of the simplest ways to download is with Ask and Record, which will automatically store every video you watch in FLV.
That's what I just did with all of these.
The Elephant
Posted by The Masked Elephant | August 20, 2011 10:26 PM
I can't imagine why they didn't have all of them elsewhere. They need to hurry up and mirror their entire account somewhere else on Youtube itself and probably start a new one with vimeo. Of course, these guys all have lives.
Posted by Lydia | August 20, 2011 10:38 PM
I have a piece of free software called youtube downloader. I don't know if it's the best, but it works.
Why would youtube (Google) do this, btw?
Posted by William Luse | August 20, 2011 10:50 PM
It should be noted that YouTube has done little to move against the overwhelming amount of jihad material available on their site. What has YouTube done to remove the hate speeches of jihad cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has inspired numerous Muslims, including the Major Nidal Hasan (the Fort Hood shooter), to violence?
Posted by Daniel | August 21, 2011 12:04 AM
Bill, that's really neat. Is it better (if you know) than the ones mentioned by the Masked Elephant, above?
You might suggest it in the comments thread at Answering Muslims, linked above.
The best theory I've seen suggested so far is that Youtube pulls videos after x number of times that they are flagged. I assume then that they pull a person's account after y number of his videos have been thus flagged and pulled. So on this theory, the Muslims have started flagging some of David Wood's videos in large numbers. What I don't understand is why they would do that _now_ rather than at the time when those videos were at the height of their popularity and influence.
Posted by Lydia | August 21, 2011 8:43 AM
What do you think of Vimeo for them if they are thinking of starting a new channel elsewhere?
Vimeo would be a poor choice. First, their standard is glossy, artistic video and animation, not "man on the street" type documentary videos. Second, they are as skittish about legal controversy as YouTube is, especially when you consider their guidelines.
http://vimeo.com/guidelines
Posted by Step2 | August 21, 2011 9:06 AM
You could self-host them. However, it would need to be on an account separate from W4 because one of the lefties/radical muslims' favorite tactics is to do a WHOIS lookup on the domain and pester the heck out of the hosting service.
Posted by Mike T | August 21, 2011 9:35 AM
Well, yes, and W4 has no actual connection to Acts 17. Neither do I. I'm just a fan.
Posted by Lydia | August 21, 2011 11:46 AM
I'm not familiar with the one mentioned by ME. I assume it works. I checked out Mike T's suggestion and it looks good too though I didn't try it. There is other free software that will do the same thing *if* you have a youtube account. Log in and download.
As to hosting the videos, that's really Acts 17's responsibility, although if you've already downloaded the videos you might let them know they can get them from you in case they failed to catch them all.
I was wondering if there was any way to counter the flagging?
Posted by William Luse | August 21, 2011 3:25 PM
I don't _think_ there's any way to counter the flagging--e.g., off-setting it with "positive" flagging or anything of that kind.
Posted by Lydia | August 21, 2011 3:27 PM
Okay, I just tried downloading the videos with two different pieces of software and with Mike T's downloadfever.info. None of them worked. So youtube has disabled that for these videos, assuming I've not done something wrong. The videos are still available at youtube, and I successfully embedded them on a blogsite. If anyone tries to download and is successful, I'd like to hear about it.
Posted by William Luse | August 21, 2011 4:58 PM
I had to right click on the links on downloadfever.info to download them properly. Since they're media files, most browsers will try to play them if you left click on them.
Posted by Mike T | August 21, 2011 8:39 PM
I'll give it another shot.
Posted by William Luse | August 22, 2011 2:30 AM
It worked. Of course, if I'd just followed the instructions accompanying the links...
Posted by William Luse | August 22, 2011 2:59 AM
I never meant to imply you or W4 did. The reason you need a separate account with your hosting service if you want to help them by mirroring the content is that it mitigates the risk to W4 posed liberals who are wont to harass your host.
Posted by Mike T | August 22, 2011 8:37 AM
They could try GodTube, but I am not sure if the venue is appropriate.
Posted by t.will | August 23, 2011 10:40 AM
If ANYONE downloaded the original 2008, 2009 videos, I would appreciate hearing from you. With everything going on in the Middle East, my old saved links no longer worked. I was saddened to see the truth so blatantly violated by Dearborn politicians.'
PLEASE EMAIL ME AT gooddog23@comcast.net IF IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DOWNLOAD THOSE ORIGINAL VIDEO POSTS before Jesus returns.
Lord, please forgive us, and help us to share Your Truth with an increaasingly unbelieving world.
God Bless You All !!
Posted by David | October 26, 2011 4:17 AM