That's quite a paranoid conspiracy theory you have there. The first mention of one of the urls (Icona Pop) in the git log is this:

commit f7ab6cbe160afbba60537c7a830a4c65c6f0b3ea Author: Filippo Valsorda <filippo.valsorda [at] gmail.com> Date: Tue Jun 25 14:38:00 2013 +0200

    add tests for use_cipher_signature videos (#897) and the ability to test multiple videos per IE

diff --git a/test/test_download.py b/test/test_download.py index 9af626dca..067bde4bb 100644 --- a/test/test_download.py +++ b/test/test_download.py @@ -153,9 +153,11 @@ def generator(test_case): return test_template

### And add them to TestDownload -for test_case in defs: +for n, test_case in enumerate(defs): test_method = generator(test_case) test_method.__name__ = "test_{0}".format(test_case["name"]) + if getattr(TestDownload, test_method.__name__, False): + test_method.__name__ = "test_{0}_{1}".format(test_case["name"], n) setattr(TestDownload, test_method.__name__, test_method) del test_method

diff --git a/test/tests.json b/test/tests.json index fd037d818..f6a70f153 100644 --- a/test/tests.json +++ b/test/tests.json @@ -11,6 +11,32 @@ "description": "test chars: \"'/\\ä�<86>��<9D><95><90>\n\nThis is a test video for youtube-dl.\n\nFor more information, contact [email protected] ." } }, + { + "name": "Youtube", + "url": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ltcDfZMA3U", + "file": "1ltcDfZMA3U.flv", + "note": "Test VEVO video (#897)", + "info_dict": { + "upload_date": "20070518", + "title": "Maps - It Will Find You", + "description": "Music video by Maps performing It Will Find You.", + "uploader": "MuteUSA", + "uploader_id": "MuteUSA" + } + }, + { + "name": "Youtube", + "url": "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxajLWwzqY", + "file": "UxxajLWwzqY.mp4", + "note": "Test generic use_cipher_signature video (#897)", + "info_dict": { + "upload_date": "20120506", + "title": "Icona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charli XCX) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]", + "description": "md5:b085c9804f5ab69f4adea963a2dceb3c", + "uploader": "IconaPop", + "uploader_id": "IconaPop" + } + }, { "name": "Dailymotion", "md5": "392c4b85a60a90dc4792da41ce3144eb",

> That's quite a paranoid conspiracy theory you have there.

RIAA people have been known to do it, you know.

[citation needed]

One could argue that such a test is used only out of necessity - music videos by publishers are unlikely to have their title or metadata changed, which makes for a good static test.

He could have just uploaded a copy of Big Buck Bunny to an empty YouTube account just for tests...

I agree that they probably shouldn't have done this legally but programming wise, those videos are special (and that's why they are in tests) and looks like only VEVO can upload special videos like that and not a random pleb.

youtube-dl going out of its way to support VEVO's videos is kinda evidence against the project, seems to me...