this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Question. Wouldn't the catch-all solution for YT is to pair the AJAX calls for the video with a "view video key", and that key to be found out after running a deeply obviouscated javascript served with the html of the "view video" page?
They could even bundle some of the key-building-js with the ad being served.
At some point in order to "block the ad" , the ad blocker would have to run or analyze tons of JS code , making the ordeal to difficult to compute.
My guess is they can't afford the complication on the server side.
They could probably force the ad to be decoded by asking the client for proof. They couldn't prove that it was actually shown to the user though.
What I don't understand is why they don't block downloading the video during the period where an ad is supposed to be playing.
I think that is actually what they've already been doing for at least a decade?
Whenever you download a youtube video using something other than a js-enabled browser, then I think something like yt-dlp's jsinterp.py needs to evaluate some javascript to extract the key.