Podcast App That Doesn't Censor?
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So this isn't exactly free software, but I figured if anyone could help me out within the places I'm already subscribed to it would be here. If this isn't the right place, feel free to inform me or delete this thread.
There are a couple channels that I have watched for a while now on YouTube and recently moved to watching them on BitChute instead (in the process of de-Googling). These videos range from anywhere between five minutes two two hours. So I wanted to see if I could get them as a podcast instead so that I could download them and listen to them on the way to work and whatnot. I have unlimited data, so that's not the issue. The issue is that I don't always have service, so streaming video on my half-hour drive to work isn't a good option. Plus then I have to use YouTube.
So I searched in the Podcasts app and to my surprise they were there! I say surprise because these are both semi-edgy political commentators and one of them has been banned from some online platforms. Problem is, I tried to listen to one and it wouldn't play. Next I tried to download one and it would just error out. I got to thinking... are these being censored or is something going wrong on the creator's end?
I downloaded several different podcast apps to see if I could replicate the issue or if it was just a problem with that one app. And of course, it doesn't work on any of them. Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, The Podcast App, Overcast, etc; the podcasts I was trying to play were either blocked on everything or there was a problem with both of the creators not producing their material correctly.
So instead of relying on the Android and iOS app stores, I tried a website instead. This website is called PlayerFM. I do a search, and there they are. I click play, and a couple seconds later I can hear them speak. I download the PlayerFM app for iOS and the issues magically re-appear. Something HAS to be going on with those apps because both of the podcasts work fine online.
It really seems like that's the issue; Google and Apple censoring certain creators because they deem them unclean. Either that, or all of these apps are using some kind of service that is blacklisting certain creators.
But maybe there's something I'm missing. I'm not an expert on how podcasts are created and published. I don't know what's going on on the back-end.
Anyways, does anyone know of any podcast app where everyone is allowed to have a voice? I just bought an iPhone XR, but I also have a Galaxy S7 Edge that I can switch back to if it's on Android. Also, I have not tried F-Droid yet. I literally just thought about that like a minute ago.
> Anyways, does anyone know of any podcast app where everyone is allowed
> to have a voice?
My suggestion would be to avoid any app that is tied to a particular
server. Most podcasts that I have encountered have an RSS feed either on
their own website or hosted on a third-party site like libsyn. You can
use whichever RSS client you prefer and add whichever RSS feeds you want
to it.
Trisquel comes with an RSS client, Liferea, preinstalled. I have found
Liferea to be fine for reading, but its built-in audio player kind of
sucks, so I don't recommend it for podcasts. Trisquel's default audio
player, Rhythmbox, also has RSS capability and would probably work
better. VLC can also play podcasts from RSS feeds. VLC is what I
use for podcasts.
I don't personally use a smart phone, so I'm less familiar with what
options there are for mobile. I believe that there is a mobile version
of VLC, but I don't know how touch-screen-friendly it is. An F-Droid
search shows numerous RSS readers,[1] but some of them might be more
geared toward reading news articles, so I'd look through them and try to
find one with a good built-in audio player.
I also see several podcast apps in F-Droid.[2] I would pick one that
allows you to add RSS feeds manually. Some of them also can search and
download from various sources, which is fine as long as it doesn't limit
you to those sources.
> I just bought an iPhone XR, but I also have a Galaxy S7 Edge that I
> can switch back to if it's on Android. Also, I have not tried F-Droid
> yet. I literally just thought about that like a minute ago.
The iPhone is as good as garbage freedom-wise, but the S7 is compatible
with LineageOS.[1] LineageOS is not 100% free like Trisquel, in that it
includes some proprietary firmware, but it is far better than iOS and
Android. (Another mobile OS, Replicant, is 100% free, but it is not
compatible with your device.[2]). LineageOS uses F-Droid instead of
Google Play.
Since it sounds like you aren't currently using the S7 anyway, I
recommend installing LineagOS. Having two devices is very helpful for
migrating to a free operating system, because you have a device with a
familiar system to fall back on as you get used to the new one.
As far as operating systems go, iOS is the most locked-down and
restrictive I've ever encountered. Android is not quite as bad in this
respect, but it still has a lot of proprietary components, and it is one
of the worst, if not the worst, operating systems privacy-wise.
[1] https://search.f-droid.org/?q=rss&lang=en
[2] https://search.f-droid.org/?q=podcast&lang=en
> Android is not quite as bad in this respect, but it still has a lot of
> proprietary components, and it is one of the worst, if not the worst,
> operating systems privacy-wise.
Well, not "the worst" when you consider something like this.[1]
It can be hacked, restrictions removed or surveillance tools disabled. The same cannot be said of MacOS or Windows.
I don't think Red Star represents the "worst" of anything. It works as intended (read: keeps tabs on people's activities). Most proprietary software does the same.
The place I worked at, they had a program installed on the Win machines there that recorded everything that the staff did on the computer. Red Star is no different. I think it's mainly government workplaces that use the distro, and they are constantly monitored anyway. Consider it "employers' privilege". After all, NK is a hereditary corporation ruled by a CEO by birth and a business enterprise owned and controlled by a single family.
Of course, privacy-wise, Red Star is a nightmare. But we are aware of it, so are the North Koreans. Most people never realized how much bulk data our "safe" operating systems gather about us. Just think of the revelations put forward by Edward Snowden.
> Android is not quite as bad in this respect, but it still has a lot of
> proprietary components, and it is one of the worst, if not the worst,
> operating systems privacy-wise.
Well, not "the worst" when you consider something like this.[1]
name at domain wrote:
> Most podcasts that I have encountered have an RSS feed
Well. That’s actually a definition of ‘podcast’ — an extension over RSS.
> I'm less familiar with what [podcast players] there are for [*droid-like OS].
‘Antenna Pod’ is the most featureful, I believe.
> I believe that there is a mobile version of VLC, but I don't know how touch-screen-friendly it is.
Quite friendly, it has a native GUI not a Qt one.
However, here is where we are able to truly realise how miserably *droid-like OSes are designed: you can run only a single instance of a given program! So it would be rather inconvenient to use generic-purpose mediaplayer, such as VLC, for listening any type of long audios in background: you opened something more urgent to watch or listen — and oops — a playlist is cleared, you have to navigate back to what you’d been listened manually.
> I also see several podcast apps in F-Droid.[2] I would pick one that allows you to add RSS feeds manually.
I would be surprised, if any does not.
> LineageOS is not 100% free like Trisquel, in that it includes some proprietary firmware
...drivers and even applications required for running on a specific hardware.
> LineageOS uses F-Droid instead of Google Play.
Nope, it does not have F-Droid preinstalled.
> Android … is one of the worst, if not the worst, operating systems privacy-wise.
Could you elaborate, please? First of all, do you mean Android or LineageOS?
When I want to listen to something on YouTube when I'm out walking, I first download the audio from invidio.us. Copy the YouTube link and search for the link on invidio.us, and it will find the video most of the time. invidio.us then gives you a download button and a choice of formats, including audio only. Then you'll have your own self made "podcast". You can find the home page of the content creators and send them a tip to thank them for the content if you like.
You can also download YouTube linked videos with youtube-dl command line tool on your GNU/Linux computer.
The one libre podcast app I've used is gpodder. It works pretty well and has a huge collection of podcasts it can download.
I just want to add that every invidio.us channel page has, close to its top-right corner, a button with the RSS logo, a link to the related RSS feed.
> I just want to add that every invidio.us channel page has, close to its top-right corner, a button with the RSS logo, a link to the related RSS feed.
I did not know that. What a great service he's put together!
name at domain wrote:
>> I just want to add that every invidio.us channel page has, close to its top-right corner, a button with the RSS logo, a link to the related RSS feed.
>
> I did not know that. What a great service he's put together!
Yes, the question is why do your have a desire to give up a piece of your computing freedom by relying on SaaS(S), though.
youtube.com have been always provided RSS feeds.
I use a free software RSS client (Liferea) on Trisquel to automatically fetch every hour the list of the latest videos my favorite channels posted. Although I have no account, the site my RSS client contacts knows my IP is interested in those channels. I had rather have invidio.us with that piece information than Google (aka Big Brother). That is one reason to use invidio.us. Another reason is that I will download the video from invidio.us anyway, to not run proprietary JavaScript. As a consequence, I want the link to invidio.us' page.
There is no SaaSS here: I am not doing any of my personal computing on somebody's else computer. Just downloading information I do not have. Using YouTube's equivalent services would not be SaaSS either. But, as explained above, it would mean feeding Big Brother and executing proprietary software to access the video.
name at domain wrote:
> I use a free software RSS client (Liferea) on Trisquel to automatically fetch every hour the list of the latest videos my favorite channels posted. Although I have no account, the site my RSS client contacts knows my IP is interested in those channels.
> I had rather have invidio.us with that piece information than Google (aka Big Brother). That is one reason to use invidio.us.
In other words, you use them as a resource-specific proxy. Why not use a generic proxy instead, if you are so paranoid? You could even proxy actual mediasteams through it, so Google would not see your address not only when you update feeds, but also when actually watch something.
> Another reason is that I will download the video from invidio.us anyway
You will download them from Google, as invidio.us does not host or proxies any video.
> to not run proprietary JavaScript.
> As a consequence, I want the link to invidio.us' page.
There is no need to run proprietary programs to get a link to a video from youtube.com. But, please, _think_: even that would be better, that using invidio.us or any other SaaS(S)!
> There is no SaaSS here
Of course, it’s a clear example of SaaS(S) with all negative implications: from a complete surrender of your computing freedom — as I said, even a proprietary program is better, since there at least is no chance that it will shut down at any moment; to a harm for your paranoia, since you report what videos you watch to a third-party for no reason.
> I am not doing any of my personal computing on somebody's else computer.
There is no any ‘personal’ in SaaS(S). ‘Software as a service’ means simply that: you could run a software on your machine, instead you rely on a service, that evidently runs similar software on their machines.
That’s exactly what you do: there is mpv+youtube-dl / weboob / minitube / NewPipe / etc you could run. And finally, you could even run Invidious (a software behind invidio.us) on your own machine, if you like its interface.
> Just downloading information I do not have. Using Google's services would not be SaaSS either.
Google’s won’t, invidio.us is.
There is no any ‘personal’ in SaaS(S).
Yes, there is (the emphasis comes from the original article, which defined SaaSS in the first place):
A user of the server would send her data to the server, which does her own computing on the data thus provided, then sends the results back to her or acts directly on her behalf. The computing is her own because, by assumption, she could, in principle, have done it by running a program on her own computer (whether or not that program is available to her at present). In cases where this assumption is not so, it isn't SaaSS. (...) Which online services are SaaSS? The clearest example is a translation service, which translates (say) English text into Spanish text. Translating a text for you is computing that is purely yours.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
Asking for and downloading the list of the latest videos a channel published or the videos themselves is not doing my own computing. I do not send my data. I access published information. It is not SaaSS. The same article explicitly says so:
Rejecting SaaSS does not mean refusing to use any network servers run by anyone other than you. Most servers are not SaaSS because the jobs they do are some sort of communication, rather than the user's own computing. The original idea of web servers wasn't to do computing for you, it was to publish information for you to access. Even today this is what most web sites do, and it doesn't pose the SaaSS problem, because accessing someone's published information isn't doing your own computing.
And I avoid executing nonfree JavaScript (I cannot even have videos miniatures listed on YouTube!) and feeding Big Brother, topics the same article touches:
If a service is not SaaSS, that does not mean it is OK. There are other ethical issues about services. For instance, Facebook distributes video in Flash, which pressures users to run nonfree software; it requires running nonfree JavaScript code; and it gives users a misleading impression of privacy while luring them into baring their lives to Facebook. Those are important issues, different from the SaaSS issue.
Using a proxy site is not SaaSS either, as explained right after in the article, with the search engine example:
Services such as search engines collect data from around the web and let you examine it. Looking through their collection of data isn't your own computing in the usual sense—you didn't provide that collection—so using such a service to search the web is not SaaSS.
Do you run your own Web crawler and search engine?
That’s exactly what you do: there is mpv+youtube-dl / weboob / minitube / NewPipe / etc you could run.
What is the fundamental difference with using an RSS client and a Web browser to do the same? I do not see any.
> Yes, the question is why do your have a desire to give up a piece of your computing freedom by relying on SaaS(S), though.
That doesn't make any sense. I do not have this "desire" you are speaking of - I haven't subscribed to any youtube RSS feeds through youtube or through invidio.us. I was simply stating that the invidio.us dev, who is a member here, has done a good job. Additionally, the RSS feeds don't "serve" you any software as a service. The RSS feeds just notify you when a new video is available. If notification is too much "service" for you, then don't subscribe to it. Has nothing to do with "your computing freedom" - it's not running proprietary js on your machine. If you mean that you are giving away a bit of your privacy, I'm sure that RMS would agree with you, so certainly that's always a tradeoff. But it's a tradeoff in the same way as giving your email address to someone is a tradeoff of privacy.
name at domain wrote:
>> Yes, the question is why do your have a desire to give up a piece of your
> computing freedom by relying on SaaS(S), though.
>
> I do not have this "desire" you are speaking of - I haven't subscribed to any youtube RSS feeds ... through invidio.us.
Okay. I hope, you don’t use any other SaaS much either.
> I was simply stating that the invidio.us dev, who is a member here, has done a good job.
I do not allege the contrary.
> Additionally, the RSS feeds don't "serve" you any software as a service.
RSS feeds don’t. As well as, say, CSS stylesheets don’t. invidio.us does.
Hell, we even know _what_ software it serves!
> Has nothing to do with "your computing freedom" - it's not running proprietary js on your machine.
Relying on a SaaS has _anything_ to do freedom of computing: by using a SaaS your have neither a right to run that software as you wish, nor modify, nor distribute, and even worse: you don’t have any guarantee that it will continue to do the same thing any longer — it might be changed contrary to your wishes or even shut down completely any time, which is normally not happened with proprietary program on your machine, and therefore it’s typically _better_ to rely on nonfree software than on SaaS.
In other words, it’s an equivalent to proprietary program + universal backdoor + timebomb with unknown term.
> If you mean that you are giving away a bit of your privacy
No, I’m not a paranoid.
> RSS feeds don’t. As well as, say, CSS stylesheets don’t. invidio.us does.
You seem confused. invidio.us is nothing more than some libre scripts to access YouTube content. It's not hosting any content itself. No difference from me running scripts like mps-youtube or youtube-dl on my own machine, except that in this case the scripts are running online.
And if you are worried about being tracked by youtube, invidio.us has onion services you can access through Tor.
invidio.us does ["serve" you software as a service].
No, it does not. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html is pretty clear. Read it in its entirety if you believe I quoted it out of context.
In other words, it’s an equivalent to proprietary program + universal backdoor + timebomb with unknown term.
No, it is not. If you claim it is, please explain:
- what proprietary software I run (since I use a free software RSS client and a free software Web browser to access a site that distributes no proprietary JavaScript, I imagine you are referring to the server-side software but that it does not do my own computation, in the same way that search engines indexing the Web do not do my own computation);
- how accessing a list of videos on invidio.us or watching on that site the videos themselves gives somebody a universal backdoor to my system, i.e., how somebody can then install software on my system (that is what a universal backdoor does), or simply access personal information besides the pieces any website you visit receives (the IP address, the user agent, etc.);
- how doing the same is a timebomb (I imagine you are referring to videos you cannot access anymore, because they were removed, but there is nothing you can do to avoid that, except saving the videos locally what invidio.us lets you do easily, contrary to YouTube).
I am a translator!
gPodder does the job on the desktop.
mps-youtube is a command line app that will search and play youtube songs/audio or download them. Very nifty. You could definitely use it to turn your youtube links into podcasts. It is GPL3 licensed, and in the Trisquel repository.
github link: https://github.com/mps-youtube/mps-youtube
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