I use mpv to watch videos and streams because my computer and my GPU are old and can't manage the amount of RAM these sites need, their buggy players, or the chat on streams keeps logging and wasting RAM. Without mpv youtube-dl and yt-dlp integration I couldn't watch them.

There are a lot of tools to download videos, some of them integrated in the web browser as add-ons. You could even download them directly using Developer Tools.

This a tantrum against a tool, like the ones against VHS, CD-ROMs, cassettes, DVDs or bitorrent.

I've used it to pull the audio off videos of live jazz performances, so I can run slow-down tools and play along to learn. I could do the same by recording the audio out of my laptop.

That type of thing is not the majority use case for youtube-dl, but for any type of digital media there are plenty of individual, educational use cases that do not involve "pirate" activity (i.e. further distribution). Whether or not that's officially ok or not, I'd assert it is morally ok.

As an aside, if YouTube is the only or canonical source for some material, getting it from the distribution channel (YT) and getting any access to the media in question are now one and the same problem. But let's not get confused about the value YouTube is providing - they are just a distributor, not a creative originator.

Doesn’t matter, saying you can’t download this publicly available video is like saying you can’t copy the text of this article, both are inane to think of.

I've never used it to pirate music, and half of the videos on youtube youtube doesn't own the rights to host. They just index them, surface and highlight them through the most popular (one of the few remaining) search engines in the world, and massively distribute them from some of fastest servers on earth until the rights owner notices and interacts with them personally or through a lawyer to complain.

It's how they built the business.

I used to live in a place with very crappy internet and watching youtube even in 360p was a no go. And youtube doesn't let you buffer entire video since 2012 I guess.

I figured if I feed whatever I want to watch to yt-dlp and give it some time I will be able to watch videos without buffering and in much better quality too

It's more like communication than high-seas assault.

yes

Audiovisual material is the public forum of modern times. It’s important to be able to review and criticize a movie and reupload it on public forums.

Imagine not being able to show the Nuremberg Trial to pupils in class, because it would be copyrighted. It would give free hands to war criminals. Imagine not being allowed to show negative footage of Biden because it’s copyrighted and the White House doesn’t grant the right to anyone.

Subnormal