Is downloading audio or video from Youtube illegal?

Also, is it illegal to talk about downloading audio or video from Youtube. I'm not perfectly sure of any of this because a user of this website has justified downvoting many of my questions and answers because talking about this is supposedly illegal. Meanwhile, I thought if you could record audio tracks from the radio without anyone calling it illegal(except for some of the users on this website) then you could download audio tracks from youtube in the same manner.

recording audio legality

asked Feb 12 '11 at 17:26

zman
3.5k●15●26●82

7 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

"You shall not download any Content unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content." http://www.youtube.com/static?gl=US&template=terms

Copyrighted material is copyrighted material whether it's on youtube or on p2p, both are illegal unless you have been authorised by the owner to use it.

It's perfectly legal to stream it because it's hosted by youtube and the content owners can request to get it remove or blocked in some countries. Although as it is a form of advertising, not many do.

However the risk when downloading is much like p2p, so many people download copyrighted (illegal) material but so few people are caught so even though it's wrong, you probably won't go to jail for it.

answered Feb 12 '11 at 17:49

SignOff
(suspended)

edited Feb 12 '11 at 17:51

by buffering the video, you are technically downloading it right? so i guess the proper word is illegal distribution of the copyrighted material. hm?

i think TV shows are copyrighted too, there's been a LOT and BIG of trouble in my country when a TV show of one network is shown on the other network.

(Oct 30 '11 at 12:03) xedric14

After some research I have found out that it IS illegal to download copyrighted audio/video off youtube. I have no idea why this does not apply to radio or TV etc. Although I wouldn't count talking about downloading youtube videos (The the broadest sense) as talking about illegal content.

answered Feb 12 '11 at 17:34

Mattophobia ♦♦
7.0k●73●122●206

edited Feb 12 '11 at 17:35

Thanks for the answer. Do you have any links of your research?

(Feb 12 '11 at 17:35) zman

I'll be honest I'm just going by what the majority of people have said after doing a Google search. So I wouldn't count my research as 100% truth.

(Feb 12 '11 at 17:36) Mattophobia ♦♦

Alright well thanks again for your input.

(Feb 12 '11 at 17:38) zman

Although, I can assume that copyrighted materials would be illegal to download on the ground that they're copyrighted.

(Feb 12 '11 at 17:38) Mattophobia ♦♦

1	It is illegal to download music off of youtube. It is not illegal talking about it, that is absurd. It would be likened to saying just asking is it illegal to steal a car, is in itself illegal. answered Feb 12 '11 at 17:41 Joshuah Kelly 76●11●11●16

1	Nobody will ever bother arresting someone for downloading off youtube unless they are making copies and selling it or something lol answered Feb 12 '11 at 17:43 Gary 1.2k●25●35●51

Mozilla had an add-on that I tried today and was able to download clips as mpeg files. Plus, a professor gave a presentation about how we can download, edit, and re-upload videos, like a wiki-learning community. He never mentioned a word about illegal. The add-on works great w/no .exe files to run.

answered Feb 13 '11 at 00:53

systerwoody
86●10●11●15

0	I have a google chrome extension which when you click it it brings up a download link on any flash files. Is this legal on youtube? answered Oct 29 '11 at 06:07 joshwd36 1

0	Anything that is licensed under the Creative Commons is okay to download, repost, reuse, etc. http://www.youtube.com/t/creative_commons answered Oct 29 '11 at 20:20 AlanStryder 2.0k●8●20●42

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