On June 8, 2023 Invidious received an e-mail from Google/YouTube to ask the project to be stopped.
Even though this e-mail is invalid from the start (since Invidious doesn’t use any part of the YouTube API and doesn’t do anything illegal), some people people asked me why I’m not stopping my work on Invidious, so here’s the explanation:
The e-mail is addressed “To Whom It May Concern”, the reality is that it doesn’t “concern” me.
The e-mail continues with “We recently became aware of your product or service, Invidious (“Your Client”), which is being offered at invidious.io.” here lies the important part:
Invidious isn’t my “product or service”, it isn’t “my Client”. I don’t own any part of it and it isn’t trademarked by me. Moreover it isn’t “offered at invidious.io” (though, it is unrelated to the premise of this post).
Invidious also isn’t “me” or “mine”, therefore, I wasn’t asked anything.
This is the important part, which make this whole e-mail unapplicable by me by design.
Invidious isn’t my project, I don’t own Invidious or the “Invidious” trademark, I’m not Invidious, I don’t represent Invidious. I’m just… me.
Invidious is.