YouTube Videos are the go-to solution for many when it comes to entertainment or educational needs, or if you want the solution to anything else. Reports suggest that YouTube is the second most used search engine after Google, despite the fact that it is a streaming service and not a search engine. However, despite the fact that it is so popular, one cannot download YouTube videos via Chrome extensions or be it any downloader. Here’s why.
Once you start using YouTube, you agree to its terms of service which say that “You are not allowed to […] access, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, alter, modify or otherwise use any part of the Service or any Content except: (a) as expressly authorised by the Service; or (b) with prior written permission from YouTube and, if applicable, the respective rights holders”.
The keyword here being download, implicates that you cannot use any type of Video downloaders, including Chrome extensions, on YouTube to download or save any video to your PC. Due to this, the Chrome web store, responsible for handling the Chrome extensions, does not allow any sort of YouTube video downloader. There are always videos which are protected by the sites and cannot be downloaded.
Read More: How to download YouTube Shorts?
However, if you are on mobile, things are a bit different because then, YouTube officially allows you to download videos via its own App which are also visible only in YouTube app.
You must be thinking as to what would happen if you do try to download videos from YouTube. If you try to go against the Terms of Service, YouTube has a bunch of legal options available, ranging from a ban to even a civil lawsuit. However, YouTube has never sued anyone for downloading videos from its website unofficially, yet.
Despite all the facts mentioned above, there are still a bunch of 3rd party video downloaders available which allow you to download YouTube Videos. Copyright laws do play a major role here and if you are going against these, you are essentially breaking the law. But in some cases, it is legal to download YouTube videos such as those videos that are available in the public domain, or those that have creative commons license.