A practical, non-legalistic explanation of when saving a video is legitimate, what fair use does and does not cover, and why "it was publicly available" is not a defence.
This is the guide we would most like people to read, because almost every problem involving a download tool comes from a misunderstanding covered below. It is general information rather than legal advice — the details vary by country, and for anything consequential you should ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
The default is that you may not copy
Copyright arises automatically the moment a work is created and fixed in some form. Nobody has to register anything or add a notice. A video uploaded to a platform is protected from the instant it is recorded, and the exclusive right to make copies belongs to the rights holder.
Cases where you clearly may
- Content you created. You are the rights holder.
- Content licensed for reuse — Creative Commons, or a platform's own royalty-free library, on the licence's terms. CC-BY requires attribution; CC-BY-NC forbids commercial use; CC-BY-ND forbids derivative works. The terms are binding, not decorative.
- Public domain works — copyright expired, or created by certain government bodies. Terms vary by country.
- Content where the rights holder gave you permission. Get it in writing and keep it.
Fair use and fair dealing: narrower than people think
Fair use in the United States, and fair dealing in the UK, India and elsewhere, allow limited use of protected work without permission. They are genuine and important. They are also far narrower than internet folklore suggests, and they are defences assessed after the fact rather than permissions you can rely on in advance.
US courts weigh four factors: the purpose of the use (is it transformative — commentary, criticism, parody, scholarship — or does it merely reproduce?); the nature of the original; how much was taken and whether it was the heart of the work; and the effect on the market for the original. That last factor carries a great deal of weight. If your use substitutes for the original in the market, the analysis usually fails whatever the other factors say.
- Myth: crediting the creator makes it fair use. It does not. Attribution is not permission.
- Myth: under 30 seconds is always fine. There is no such rule; taking the most recognisable 20 seconds can weigh against you.
- Myth: non-commercial use is automatically fair. It helps, but does not decide the question.
- Myth: "no copyright infringement intended" changes anything. It has no legal effect whatsoever.
Personal use, private copying and time-shifting
Some jurisdictions permit private copying for personal use, and recording a broadcast to watch later — time-shifting — has been held lawful in several. But these exceptions are inconsistent between countries, several have been narrowed, and none of them override a contract you agreed to. Which brings up the point most people miss.
Platform terms bind you separately from copyright law
When you use YouTube, Instagram or any similar service, you accept their terms of service. Those terms typically prohibit downloading except through features they provide. That obligation is contractual and it exists independently of copyright — an act can be permitted by copyright law and still breach the agreement you made with the platform, with consequences ranging up to losing your account.
Our position
This site provides a general-purpose tool, in the same way a web browser or a media player is a general-purpose tool. What is downloaded, and whether that download is permitted, is determined by the person pasting the link. We do not host, index, catalogue or recommend any content, we keep no library of what has been downloaded, and we do not circumvent access controls — private, age-gated and members-only content is not retrievable through this service, and that is deliberate.
Rights holders who believe content has been used in breach of their rights can reach us through the notice procedure on our Copyright & DMCA page, and we act on valid notices. Using this service to infringe copyright breaches our Acceptable Use Policy and ends your access to it.
About this article. Written and reviewed in-house by the All-in-One Video Download team at Parv Gupta. It is not sponsored, contains no paid links, and no advertiser had any input into it. Spotted an error? Tell us at support@allinonevideodownload.com and we will correct it.
General information only — not legal advice. See our Disclaimer.