YouTube Video Disappearance-Handling

[s2t2]

Sometimes YouTube videos get deleted by their uploader and are no longer available for viewing on Debate Watch. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBiPlVGU8PU

To circumvent the inconvenience this places on the system (viewers are no longer able to view and rate, current ratings lose benefits of further demographic comparison, site dependability suffers), one of the following suggested courses of action should be adopted:

A) Identification and Removal

A scheduled job should identify any videos that have been deleted, and should flag them for removal from the library.

Pros:

• Simple approach.
• Assured compliance with copyrights/licenses.

Cons/Issues:

• How to detect deleted videos via the YouTube API?
• How to retain viewing and rating data for videos that have been removed from the Debate Watch library and are no longer available for viewing?

B) Source File Downloading and Self-Hosting

Upon being added to the video library, the source video file (.mp4) and thumbnail images (.png) should be downloaded to a local filesystem and backed-up to Amazon s3.

The system should conditionally render the proper video player (YouTube iFrame API by default for videos that are still available, JWPlayer for "self-hosted" videos).

Pros:

• Reliable video availability.

Cons/Issues:

• The source video files will probably fill up space on the production machine and need to be hosted by a CDN service like Amazon Cloudfront.
• Copyright/license infringements?

[s2t2]

C) Source Restrictions

Only videos from whitelisted sources with a high likelihood of remaining published should be added to the video library. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89FbCPzAsRA

Pros:

• More reliable video availability.

Cons:

• How to determine likelihood of remaining published?
• Still need mechanism for removal.