800,000 signed a petition for the right to download videos from Youtube

Terms of use of youtube.com prohibit downloading any content from the site, the download of which is not provided by the means of Youtube itself ( paragraph 5.B of the rules ). Nevertheless, browser extensions and third-party services for downloading video and audio from the site are very popular. Philippe Mathesans, owner of youtube-mp3.org , one of the most popular sites for downloading audio content from youtube.com in mp3 format, recently received an email from Youtube asking you to close the site within a week. Instead, he posted a petition on change.org requesting Youtube to openly discuss the legitimacy of such bans. For several weeks, the petition was supported by more than 800,000 people.

In the text of the petition, Matessans compares the ban on downloading content from online services with the sensational campaign of the 80s of the last century “ Home recording kills music ”. The British Phonogram Manufacturers Association has conducted this campaign, fearing that the distribution of tape recorders will lead to a sharp drop in sales of record companies. Despite gloomy predictions, the music did not die in the 80s, and the campaign logo in the form of a silhouette of an audio cassette with crossed bones is now emblazoned on The Pirate Bay, reminding of the inconsistency of such predictions.

Thirty years later, history repeats itself. Another similar website , music-clips.net , received a similar letter, and last year 31 record companies filed a joint lawsuit worth $ 3 million against the Japanese site tubefire.com. Today, it is hardly possible for anyone to think that it is illegal to record a television or radio program for one’s own needs. But on the Internet similar prohibitions still hold.