QUESTION
Is it illegal to download youtube videos?
Asked on Sep 20th, 2012 on Intellectual Property - Maryland
More details to this question:
So let say an artist puts his copyright music video on youtube to be viewed for free. By playing the video my computer is technically downloading a copy of the video to my computer in a temp file while I watch it. Am I allowed to then copy it from the temp folder its in for playback later? and copy it to my Ipod/MP3 player so I can listen to it/watch it later when I don't have internet access?
1 ANSWER
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As a general matter, these kinds of questions are best answered by looking at the reasonable expectations of the copyright owner. An author or other creative artist who uploads a video to YouTube expects it to be viewed for free. As a general matter, since you are privileged to have a copy of the video on your computer or iPod in order to view it for free, the author's expectations are not frustrated if you view the video "later" rather than immediately after downloading. Simiarly, the author has no economic interest in requiring that the video be viewed immediately rather than "later."
Answered on Sep 21st, 2012 at 8:04 AM