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I was thinking about this the other day when I was looking for a few music videos on Y0uTube (yes, I know it's crap, but I thought it would be the easiest place to look).
If it is illegal for us to download music and copy CDs etc, why do record companies put music AND videos on Y0uTube for us all to watch free of charge?
Promotion.
Exactly. Why does MTV or even radio exist? Same reason!
Flawed logic Steve, you see on the CD/Tape/Vinyl sleeve and media it says something like "(C) 2007 RCA Records. All Rights Reserved." That literally means that RCA Records (in this case) have the right to do what they want, including making it available for streaming on a website such as Youtube. That's why RCA can put the music video on, and you or I can't.
Going into more detail, the reason the record companies choose to make their videos available, apparently for free, is because Youtube has secured a blanket licence with many of them. This means that Google have paid the record companies to provide their music (I believe through an advertising revenue sharing scheme).
EDIT: Here's an example of the Sony BMG deal: http://youtube.com/press_room_entry?entry=2cwCau7cKsA
Btw, a great way to d/l YouTube videos from the net in different formats is www.idesktop.tv
Nice Site.
To download stuff I tend to just have realplayer installed though as it allows you to download any streaming video.
I d/l some in 3GP2 format to use on my mobile.
One of the few benefits of my outdated browser (Ibrowse) is the way it's cookies work.
Basically anything shown on screen is saved to the hd which includes any streaming media.