#827094 No longer possible to save Youtube videos

Package:
firefox-esr
Source:
firefox-esr
Description:
Mozilla Firefox web browser - Extended Support Release (ESR)
Submitter:
Florian Weimer
Date:
2025-11-25 10:51:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#827094#5
Date:
2016-06-12 07:05:17 UTC
From:
To:
After upgrading to the most recent Firefox ESR version in stable, it
is no longer possible to save Youtube videos.  I verified that after a
downgrade and with a fresh Icewasel profile, the “Save video as...”
menu entry is no longer grayed out and works.
#827094#10
Date:
2025-11-25 10:40:05 UTC
From:
To:
(sorry for necroposting)

Indeed everybody in the planet is impacted since 10 years, but that is
not something Debian can fix, legally and technically.

YouTube (owned by Google) invests an interesting amount of resources in
very powerful Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/drm.html

There are workarounds, like avoiding YouTube, and adopting PeerTube and
similar Open Source solutions, but not a Debian fix for this.