
Ask HN: Liability of Video Downloaders? - matbram
By now everyone has probably heard of video downloaders. Many people like to download videos from popular video streaming services.<p>There are tons of websites out there that offer this functionality already, and they’ve existed for many years already. What I’m wondering is the legality of it all.<p>Lynda.com TOS: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lynda.com&#x2F;aboutus&#x2F;website-use-policy<p>Vimeo.com TOS: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vimeo.com&#x2F;terms<p>Now I know there is a difference between something being illegal vs violating a company’s TOS agreement. Let me explain why I ask this though.<p>I’ve created a browser extension that allows users to download videos from Vimeo and Lynda.com. You of course aren’t able to access and download videos you haven’t payed for, but if you have paid for them, you can download this content for watching later. I plan on implementing some extra paid features and displaying ads in the free version.<p>There are legitimate reasons for wanting to download these videos including but not limited to…<p>1.Constant buffering due to slow internet connections<p>2.Limited data plans and&#x2F;or bad coverage in your area<p>3.You want to be able to view the videos on devices that may not have a dedicated app for the service you’re using, or lacks internet<p>4.Watching media on the go where you may not have internet access<p>5.Content that gets removed over time<p>With all that being said, I think the legality of it all would fall on the end user. Since this is a browser extension, everything is done and handled client-side in the user’s browser. The browser extension isn’t downloading anything from any of these services itself, it’s simply finding the urls of the content, (which is automatically requested by web browsers whenever you stream a video normally anyway), and supplying them to the user to download.<p>Anyways, I’m mainly just wondering what you guys think about it, and as a developer just creating the tools, do you think this is something I should worry about?
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joepie91_
If you're in the US: you might run afoul of the CFAA, which is overly broad.
If you're elsewhere: you're _probably_ fine.

But seriously, ask a lawyer if you're concerned about this. It's not likely
that you'll get qualified advice on here.

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matbram
Thanks joepie91. Yeah I'm planning on consulting with an attorney before
launching it.

I mean there are tons of services and even extensions doing the same thing
already, but I just want to make sure legally I'm ok. Good advice mate :)

