All they did was take down the website that links to the GitHub repository. They already tried to have GitHub pull it, and they did but then restored it and setup a legal defense fund for projects in similar situations which seems like a pretty big "fuck you".
This story is a nothing-burger, the equivalent of the blue bucket meme.
Yes, the article is not very good. Main players here are google and gihub. My experience with media is that they often don't publish everything, sometimes because of incompetence sometimes for sponsor money. So we have to use our heads a bit.
Not even mentioning google, not even.asking google what they think of youtube-dl, not even asking MS to comment. Give us at least a question and 'they said no comment'.
Not really good reporting and we got used to that.
Why would they mention Google at all? Google can't sue anyone for Copyright Infringement when someone downloads a video off their site, because Google doesn't own the copyrights of the videos.