With those disclaimers out of the way, it's good to know that not all uses of YouTube converters are illegal, but that still doesn't mean it's a risk-free way to get free content. That's because it isn't illegal to change the format of a non-copyrighted piece of content.Īccording to Stanford, fair use means you are copying copyrighted material for "limited and 'transformative' purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work." In theory, it would be difficult to sue an individual for using one of these converters-and there are still a bunch of live sites still operating-but to be doubly safe, it's a good idea to check to see if the content you're downloading is protected under the doctrine of "fair use," which basically says it's okay to use a limited amount of copyrighted content without checking in with the creator, first. The Recording Industry Association of America even called "the world’s largest site dedicated to offering illegally 'stream ripped' music." The argument was that these converters are one of the most popular ways to pirate music. In 2017, a court ruled on the side of record labels including UMG, Sony Music, and Warner Bros and shuttered.
Just one problem: the recording industry is not okay with you doing that and it's taken action against one of the largest converter sites,. 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. 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.
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