The Legality of Downloading Content from YouTube
A researched opinion
Teaching with YouTube content, either online or OFFline, for non-profit teaching and commentary purposes is Federally protected "fair use," according to Section 107 of the US Copyright Statute. To see this, read https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/
No copyright statement, Terms of Service, uninformed school website*, or "FBI Warning" can negate this historic and Federally granted right to teachers, researchers, and commentators who want to use copyrighted material for the limited purposes of teaching, commentary, parody, or research.
* I've seen school, ministry, and tech websites post that "you can't," but they're wrong. Read the US Federal Copyright Office's own article!
This right also allows the teacher to control what what their students see in the copyrighted material. For teaching purposes, you can exclude material that doesn't meet your teaching needs. This right includes deleting, skipping, covering up, or turning down the volume on advertisements such as those shown in YouTube videos.
YouTube's terms of service (TOS) which you may or may not have agreed to as a user, states that downloading a video and viewing it "offline" violates their terms of service (not law). Of course, they can make up their own rules, but they can't prosecute you for federally enshrined "fair use."
Teachers also have the right to RE-format copyrighted material in a way that facilitates their use in a teaching situation. It is protected use to convert VHS to DVD for example, or convert a streaming video to an MP4 portable format so that it will work on your teacher's computer. You can also edit the material for teaching purposes, create a montage, add music, and otherwise do anything to enhance the material for the purposes of teaching, parody, research, or commentary. You still need to attribute the material to the copyright holder.
Some Links:
http://fairusetube.org/guide-t...if-video-is-fair-use
https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html
YouTube's own "Fair Use" Foggy "Maybe"
https://support.google.com/you...answer/6396261?hl=en
Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister, author, and multi-media producer. He has been researching and writing about copyright law for Christian Education for a number of years.
