Before we proceed to see how can we download a YouTube video, let’s find out if it’s legal to download a YouTube video?
Every YouTube video comes with a license. In other words, every video is copyright protected. YouTube does not appreciate at all downloading it’s videos. As the company clarifies it in its terms:
You are not allowed to 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.
You need to watch them online and since, Google runs ads on videos, that’s how the company and the content creators make money. Therefore, from YouTube, it’s a big “NO” to download any video.
In addition to that, it is a crime if you download a video from a popular channel and re-upload it through your own channel. YouTube will ban you or it will remove your channel for continuous copyright strikes. On the other hand, it is okay to download YouTube videos for personal use. Just like we have websites for stock images, there are royalty-free videos that are legal to download.
The following scenario can help you better understand for it’s legal use.
If you have a slower internet connection, buffering a video takes time and frustrates quite a lot. For instance, if you’re living in a remote area where there are frequent outages, or connectivity problems and you’ve got exams let’s suppose, it is okay to download the videos for your personal use and remove/delete them after you’re done.
Downloading a video and misusing it by any means is illegal and you’ll get a penalty.