Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Are websites such as youtube-mp3.org, listentoyoutube.com, vidtomp3.com, etc. legal in the United States?

To be less vague, I have several separate and supporting questions:

1.) Can an individual in the United States access the software being hosted on these websites and use it to download a copy of a copyrighted song hosted on YouTube, without infringing on this copyright and if the song is only for personal use (and if the song is not further distributed)?

- A relevant analogy in which people have taken a private copy of a public broadcast would be people recording a radio program with a cassette recorder or making a copy of their favorite TV movie by using a video recorder.

2. Is it legal to provide these YouTube to Mp3 copying services such as the ones being provided on the aforementioned websites in the United States. For instance, if any of the aforementioned companies were based in the US would they be violating US copyright law, even if they themselves only intended this software to be used to make legal copies (i.e copies of audio which was not subject to copyright)?

3. It has been suggested that copying for personal use in such countries as Germany and Canada is in fact legal, and that companies based in those countries which provide the technology for necessary for people to do so are also operating within the limits of the law...

See: http://edge.youtube-mp3.org/gcase/hra.pdf

See: http://edge.youtube-mp3.org/gcase/wbs.pdf

...Therefore, can individuals affiliated with companies in those countries in which providing such services is legal still be subject to US prosecution if their services are utilized by US citizens?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. And no, this is not for school or anything like that. I'm just genuinely curious as I've seen hundreds of these websites and have always wondered about their legality.


Asked on 3/21/13, 12:30 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Charles Perry Law Offices of Charles R. Perry

This is a complicated series of questions.

Essentially, the services are legal. If a person uses the service to download something that is copyrighted, then that person infringes on the copyright. The service, however, has not infringed. The idea is similar to someone who uses a third party's photocopier to photocopy a text protected by copyright. The person making the copy has engaged in an act in infringement, but not the owner of the copier.

Obviously, if the person uses the service to copy material over which there is no copyright (or has an appropriate license), then there is no problem.

You might want to check the YouTube TOS to see what it says about copyright issues.

The idea of infringement that occurs outside the United States is extremely complicated, and beyond what I can address here.

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Answered on 3/22/13, 4:31 am


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