I understand why ffmpeg does it. No one is expected to pay for it. Until this age of LLMs when bot traffic became dominant on the web ffmpeg site was probably acceptable expense. But they probably don't want to be unpaid data provider for big LLM operators who get to extract a few bucks from their users.

It's like airplane checkin. Are we inconvenienced? Yes. Who is there to blame? Probably not the airline or the company who provides the services. Probably people who want to fly without a ticket or bring in explosives.

As long as Anubis project and people on it don't try to play both sides and don't make the LLM situation worse (mafia racket style), I think if it works it works.