It's true that unauthorised content copying is quite a problem, and should neither be supported nor condoned. It's also true that almost none of the copybot systems are detectable by client detection systems. What they do detect are the tiny number of viewers that have had copybot-like features added to them. Of course, it's hard to figure out why anyone would make one of those viewers, since most of them are easily detectable, leading to widespread bans for whoever is stupid enough to use one.

Then again, maybe some of those viewers are deliberate honeypots, promising content-ripping features (some of which might even potentially work), but instead reporting the user to client-detection and copy-protection services. This would not surprise me, when I stop to think about it. Either way, the detectable clients probably aren't responsible for very much unauthorised copying. They seem to get caught too quickly for that.

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