Daily Crunch - GitHub reinstates YouTube downloading project

GitHub defies a takedown order, Strava raises a big round and Moderna reports promising COVID-19 vaccine results. This is your Daily Crunch for November 16, 2020.

The big story: GitHub reinstates YouTube downloading project

Back in October, the Recording Industry Association of America sent a DMCA complaint to GitHub over a project called YouTube-dl, which allows viewers to download YouTube videos for offline viewing. According to the trade group, YouTube-dl both circumvented DRM and, in its documentation, promoted the piracy of several popular songs.

However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent GitHub a letter criticizing the RIAA’s argument and suggesting that, among other things, it mischaracterizes how YouTube-dl’s code actually works.

In response, GitHub has restored the project’s code. It also says it’s rethinking how it will handle takedown notices in the future, with a new $1 million developer defense fund and the response of technical and legal review of any future claims filed under section 1201 of the DMCA.

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The tech giants

You can now embed Apple Podcasts on the web — Apple is making it easier to discover and listen to podcasts via the web.

Apple’s IDFA gets targeted in strategic EU privacy complaints — The complaints, lodged with German and Spanish data protection authorities, contend that Apple’s setting of the IDFA breaches regional privacy laws.

Spotify adds a built-in podcast playlist creation tool, ‘Your Episodes’ — The feature lets you bookmark individual episodes from any podcast, which are then added to a new “Your Episodes” playlist.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Strava raises $110M, touts growth rate of 2 million new users per month in 2020 — Strava has 70 million members already according to the company, with presence in 195 countries globally.

Squarespace adds support for memberships and paywalled content — Squarespace’s new Member Areas allow businesses to charge for access to exclusive content.

Computer vision startup Chooch.ai scores $20M Series A — Chooch.ai hopes to help companies adopt computer vision more broadly.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Will edtech empower or erase the need for higher education? — Campuses are closed, sports have been paused and, understandably, students don’t want to pay the same tuition for a fraction of the services.

Three growth tactics that helped us surpass Noom and Weight Watchers — Over the past year, nutrition app Lifesum has acquired users at nearly twice the rate of both Noom and Weight Watchers.

Unpacking the C3.ai IPO filing — C3 is actually in pretty good financial shape, generating both growing recurring software revenues and cash in some quarters.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Moderna reports its COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5% effective in first data from Phase 3 trial — Following fast on the heels of Pfizer’s announcement of its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy, Moderna is also sharing positive results from its Phase 3 trial.

HBO Max arrives on Amazon Fire TV devices — As a part of the new deal, existing HBO subscribers on Amazon will be able to use the HBO Max app at no additional cost.

Original Content podcast: ‘The Vow’ offers a muddled look at the NXIVM cult — It’s a fascinating documentary hampered by some unfortunate storytelling choices.

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