Add --prefer-insecure option (Fixes #2364)

youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py

@@ -148,6 +148,8 @@ class YoutubeDL(object):
                        again.
     cookiefile:        File name where cookies should be read from and dumped to.
     nocheckcertificate:Do not verify SSL certificates
+    prefer_insecure:   Use HTTP instead of HTTPS to retrieve information.
+                       At the moment, this is only supported by YouTube.
     proxy:             URL of the proxy server to use
     socket_timeout:    Time to wait for unresponsive hosts, in seconds
     bidi_workaround:   Work around buggy terminals without bidirectional text

youtube_dl/__init__.py

@@ -237,6 +237,9 @@ def _hide_login_info(opts):
         '--proxy', dest='proxy', default=None, metavar='URL',
         help='Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection')
     general.add_option('--no-check-certificate', action='store_true', dest='no_check_certificate', default=False, help='Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.')
+    general.add_option(
+        '--prefer-insecure', action='store_true', dest='prefer_insecure',
+        help='Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)')
     general.add_option(
         '--cache-dir', dest='cachedir', default=get_cachedir(), metavar='DIR',
         help='Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may change.')
@@ -257,7 +260,6 @@ def _hide_login_info(opts):
         action='store_true',
         help='Do not read configuration files. When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)')
 
-
     selection.add_option(
         '--playlist-start',
         dest='playliststart', metavar='NUMBER', default=1, type=int,
@@ -756,6 +758,7 @@ def _real_main(argv=None):
         'download_archive': download_archive_fn,
         'cookiefile': opts.cookiefile,
         'nocheckcertificate': opts.no_check_certificate,
+        'prefer_insecure': opts.prefer_insecure,
         'proxy': opts.proxy,
         'socket_timeout': opts.socket_timeout,
         'bidi_workaround': opts.bidi_workaround,

youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py

@@ -1130,14 +1130,18 @@ def _extract_annotations(self, video_id):
         return self._download_webpage(url, video_id, note=u'Searching for annotations.', errnote=u'Unable to download video annotations.')
 
     def _real_extract(self, url):
+        proto = (
+            u'http' if self._downloader.params.get('prefer_insecure', False)
+            else u'https')
+
         # Extract original video URL from URL with redirection, like age verification, using next_url parameter
         mobj = re.search(self._NEXT_URL_RE, url)
         if mobj:
-            url = 'https://www.youtube.com/' + compat_urllib_parse.unquote(mobj.group(1)).lstrip('/')
+            url = proto + '://www.youtube.com/' + compat_urllib_parse.unquote(mobj.group(1)).lstrip('/')
         video_id = self.extract_id(url)
 
         # Get video webpage
-        url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s&gl=US&hl=en&has_verified=1' % video_id
+        url = proto + '://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s&gl=US&hl=en&has_verified=1' % video_id
         video_webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
 
         # Attempt to extract SWF player URL
@@ -1162,7 +1166,7 @@ def _real_extract(self, url):
                                                   'asv': 3,
                                                   'sts':'1588',
                                                   })
-            video_info_url = 'https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?' + data
+            video_info_url = proto + '://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?' + data
             video_info_webpage = self._download_webpage(video_info_url, video_id,
                                     note=False,
                                     errnote='unable to download video info webpage')
@@ -1170,7 +1174,7 @@ def _real_extract(self, url):
         else:
             age_gate = False
             for el_type in ['&el=embedded', '&el=detailpage', '&el=vevo', '']:
-                video_info_url = ('https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?&video_id=%s%s&ps=default&eurl=&gl=US&hl=en'
+                video_info_url = (proto + '://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?&video_id=%s%s&ps=default&eurl=&gl=US&hl=en'
                         % (video_id, el_type))
                 video_info_webpage = self._download_webpage(video_info_url, video_id,
                                         note=False,
@@ -1445,7 +1449,7 @@ def decrypt_sig(mobj):
             'duration':     video_duration,
             'age_limit':    18 if age_gate else 0,
             'annotations':  video_annotations,
-            'webpage_url': 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s' % video_id,
+            'webpage_url': proto + '://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s' % video_id,
             'view_count':   view_count,
             'like_count': like_count,
             'dislike_count': dislike_count,