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Deletube

A new website called Delutube allows you to watch videos that YouTube have deleted.

Ars Technica write:

Even casual YouTube users have no doubt come across video clips that the company has taken down for one reason or another, but a new service gives viewers at least a chance to see the offending content. Delutube, as its name implies, can serve up some video clips even after YouTube has purged them.

Looking through a selection of random clips on Delutube provides insight into YouTube’s takedown practices. A large number of the clips contain copyrighted music, though the video is typically of high school girls trying to look like strippers as hip-hop plays in the background. (Note that not all of these clips may be work-safe.)

Delutube allows visitors to enter the video ID (pulled from the end of the YouTube URL) of a deleted clip, then attempts to retrieve the clip from YouTube’s system. Clips are not apparently deleted from YouTube’s database at the moment they are taken down (or they at least persist in YouTube’s cache before being cleared), allowing Delutube a chance of retrieving them. The site also allows for the easy downloading of clips.

This is the kind of site that must give Viacom’s lawyers a headache.

> Deletube
> More on the story at Ars Technica