Because geek is cool and clever

Whose Tube is it anyway? February 17, 2009

A question I seem to get asked more than others is the one about downloading videos from YouTube. Can it be done? If so, how?

I rarely find the need to download YouTube content as I simply mark something interesting or entertaining as a favourite on my account and play it back from the site.

However, there have been occasions when an earmarked video has suddenly been ‘removed by user’ or disappeared for other reasons (yes, OK, copyright violation) so I can understand when it might be prudent to grab a local copy.

Search Google for ‘download youtube video’ and you’ll be hit with hundreds of results for software and Firefox extensions written to do just that. Some undoubtedly work better than others but it turns out that all of them are under threat since Google announced this week that it is to crack down on such applications.

Why is Google, the owner of YouTube, suddenly so keen to stop us downloading its content?

It’s no coincidence that this comes at the same time as the company offering paid-for downloads of some videos.
YouTube is attempting to make money by allowing partners to charge for downloads. In this test initiative, selected partners can offer their videos for a fee which is paid through Google Checkout.

Clearly not many people would pay for something that was simple enough to get for nothing.

For now, most traditional methods of downloading videos still appear to be working. My personal favourite (still operational at the time of writing) is pwnyoutube.com. When you find a video on YouTube that you would like to keep, simply add the ‘pwn’ to the front of the address and you will be offered the clip in various formats.