Downloading YouTube Videos
Posted May 25th, 2010 @ 12:26pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Section 5B of the YouTube Terms of Service says:
Content is provided to you AS IS. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service. 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.
So, why then are things like ClickToFlash (which can download just about any YouTube video) allowed? Why then are sites like YouTubeDownloader.com - which even uses the YouTube logo and has the name right in the URL - not asked to stop?
Is it just a laissez-faire approach to their terms of service? Does this mean - since they've not enforced their terms of service for so long - that they're going to have trouble enforcing it in the future?
I ask because the software I'm helping to develop will include a "download from the Internet" feature that will download videos from, well, just YouTube for now. So, what gives?
Donate Life
Posted 03 Jul 2010 at 10:15pm #
The software isn't the problem, it's the behavior. MPAA/RIAA's limited success aside, it's hard to go after people who write software that might be against some other software/site's ToS.
IANAL, etc.
Posted 06 Jul 2010 at 12:55pm #
It strikes me that one must "download" YouTube content in order to be able to view it. If YouTube wants their TOS to state that users can't "download" anything, then their entire site becomes irrelevant.