It's pretty safe to download videos to your computer for personal use through a converter because it's highly unlikely anyone would know, even if the video was copyrighted. These tools are either web-based or available for download and are generally free.
SAFELY DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE VIDEOS MP4
The easiest way to download YouTube content is to copy a video URL and paste it into a YouTube-to-Mp3 or MP4 converter. While the law of YouTube Land is not the law of the U.S., you still must tread lightly when it comes to possible copyright infringement. So, it's a bit of a gray area whether or not that applies to YouTube's rule that users shall not download content unless there's a native option in place to do that. However, the court did say that companies may be liable if they bypass technological barriers imposed by a website. And that's where it got hairy: the company fully intended to let users access their Facebook data through .įacebook claimed that Power was accessing Facebook's service "without permission." The court found that position dangerous, though-it would be a racket to establish a precedent that basically says companies can sue you for criminal conduct if you break their terms of service. The aim was to create a one-stop shop for all things social media and networking. The foundation cited a 2008 lawsuit between Facebook and Power Ventures, a company that formerly operated the domain and used it to host a website that helped users aggregate data about themselves from their social media sites. That's because the unpaid, ad-based service doesn't have a download option on videos, but Premium subscribers do have the option online and in the native app.īut is it actually illegal to break a company's terms of service? According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on digital rights, that would be a big, fat resounding nope. That's basically a fancy way of saying that you can't download videos unless you subscribe to YouTube Premium. In YouTube's terms of service, for example, the company notes that users aren't supposed to download any content hosted on the site unless there is a designated "download" link displayed. copyright law, which is a bit more nuanced.
There are two sides to this dilemma: YouTube's own terms of service, which make it seem nearly impossible to download a video without paying for a premium service, and U.S.
So what's the deal? Terms of Service ≠ U.S. Just because YouTube doesn't like it when you download videos, though, doesn't necessarily make it illegal. From a content creator perspective, it's frustrating to put a lot of time and creativity into a project only to have your work more or less stolen. Why is it such a big deal? Well, from YouTube's perspective, it's a loss when you download content, because then you're not consuming the ads that the platform would otherwise serve you. Remember: views equal money for all your favorite YouTube creators! ⚠️Please support YouTube creators whenever possible and only use downloaded videos of offline, personal use. That means you probably shouldn't risk downloading content unless you subscribe to YouTube Premium, which costs $12 per month. "You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Service itself, the Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate." When you go to download videos to watch later, you stumble into one of the internet's most frustrating realities: there is no download button on YouTube.Īccording to YouTube's Terms of Service agreement, it looks like you really aren't allowed to download videos outside of any services the company provides: You're getting ready for a long flight or car ride.