I love to use online videos to compliment course content in the program that I teach. This article, from Edutopia, talks about ways of getting content from sites such as YouTube into your classroom when typical state filters (such as here in Delaware) block that site from schools.

Edutopia recommends using a couple of sources to download videos off of YouTube so that you can still show them in your classroom later. While I am familiar with this practice, a comment by a reader following the article really caught my attention. In it, the reader stated that YouTube’s TOU (Terms of Use) says that when users access YouTube they are agreeing “not to access User Submissions (defined below) or YouTube Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Website itself, the YouTube Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate”. Hmmm…. what about Edutopia’s recommendation to download the videos using plug-ins/websites/etc… if it’s blocked from where you work? Is that violating YouTube’s TOU?

At the very end of the article, the author does state in one sentence near the end of the article (after telling you multiple ways of downloading these online videos) that according to YouTube’s TOU, “you’re not supposed to download unless you see a download link”. But most YouTube videos don’t have a download link. The author also goes on to say that:

“Although the fair use clause in the Copyright Law of the United States allows the use of works without permission for teaching, the user must adhere to some key regulations that can be vague and confusing. One thing is clear, though: Any material first published after 1978 is copyright protected. You can find the U.S. Copyright Office’s educational-use guidelines in Circular 21. The University System of Georgia links to a fair use checklist; you can also email the video’s maker for permission. “

So if any material first published after 1978 is copyright protected, and the videos on YouTube that are allowed to be downloaded (according to YouTube’s TOU) have a download link, then why would you need a work around to let you download the videos in the first place?

Will this article just teach teachers that it’s ok to download videos without regard to YouTube’s TOU? This seems to go against all of the teachings to not violate copyright policies in the first place.