How does one rip public domain videos from Youtube?

I'm planning to utilize a few scenes from public domain videos in Youtube. First, I'm assuming it's legal. I've e-mailed them but they don't respond. Maybe they're busy being acquired by Google for $1.6 Billion! Oh, if I only had the money ... LOL

Youtube allows anyone for embedding the code of a video (when authorized by the copyright-holder) and playing the video on their website; but I want to download the videos so I can edit them in FCP. Since they're Flash/Macromedia Shockwave or whatever, I don't know how to download them. Is there a way to download video from the Internet regardless of format used (when allowed by the copyright holder)?

Thanks for your help.

Vi

> First, I'm assuming it's legal. I've e-mailed them but they don't respond.

[www.youtube.com]

The terms stated here only provide that the makers of YouTube content are granting YouTube a non-exclusive license to distribute and exhibit the materials. Supposedly the terms also provide that:

"You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service."

However, in U.S. copyright law, any copyright agreement has to be on paper. Even if a musician verbally tells you it's okay to use a song, it's not enough. And if a certain YouTube videomaker claims s/he hasn't read the terms, you could be heading into a whole lot of trouble.

I'd say contact the makers of the videos, ask for proof that they have chain of titles (true and documented ownership of and right to negotiate for what they've posted), and get at least an e-mail (which, I think, may count as "on paper" these days -- grey area, as far as I know) stating that they give you permission.


www.derekmok.com

Okay, Derek, thanks for the info. But what about public domain stuff, like from the 1910-40 ? The copyright on movies expires after a certain number of years. Do you know what the law says?

Hi Vic,

There's a great deal of that material, which is actually set up for downloading at www.archive.org .

Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

Thanks, Travis. I checked the website but I can't find anything worth downloading. Youtube is another story; they have a lot of movies. Is there a way technically to do it? I'd like to be able to copy my own trailers from Youtube, for example, because I uploaded them as 15-75 MBs and they play like 500 k. I'd like to be able to use them on my own website in different spots. I don't always want the Youtube link to be there.

So if there's someone who knows how to do it please comment.

Hi again, Vic.

The files on Youtube are all Flash encoded. Since they send them from a real "Flash Server" instead of using progressive download, you don't have access to the download file. This is an intentional "feature" of Flash, which protects, to a certain degree, the videos you place on a Flash site.

Now, you could use a screen capture program of some sort, then try to isolate the video. Or, you could simply point a camera at your lcd screen and zoom in to the video. Probably the easiest thing to do is contact the person who posted the video, whereby you might even get legal permission to use the video.

In the case of your own work, since you already have the videos, you could encode them to Flash, .mp4 or .swf - you should get similar filesize to quality ratios.

Good luck

Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

not commenting on legality, what you are trying to do is quite simple. i'll credit wired magazine but i can't find the exact post right now.

using a mac and safari for your web browser, simply start playing the video you are interested in downloading. while the video is playing, go to the window menu and select, "activity monitor". from the resulting list, find the entry that includes the website name and the name of the video you are watching. click the reveal arrow and find the largest file in the resulting list. double click that file. it will download to your desktop (or whatever folder is set up for downloads). then go to www.versiontracker.com and download "isquint". after installing, launch isquint. drag the downloaded video file onto the isquint window and click "start". voila. you will have a useable video file on your desktop.

once again, i am not suggesting that this sequence of events is legal or moral, i am simply giving a technical solution to your problem. be safe and be fair. good luck.

Thanks a bunch :-) I would never steal a video from anybody; but like I said, I could download my own videos from the web (as they're smaller in size and I don't have Sorenson and such programs). I'm also interested in the public domain videos.

Travis, that was a good idea. I'll try it.

I often get movies from youtube.

I use a screen capture software called Snapz Pro X by Ambrosia technologies.

Free trial and I think I paid about $80 for the licence after 10 days.

Highly recommended it works great.

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

I use SnapzPro as well. However, in Vic's particular case, I think it would defeat the purpose. He *has* high-quality first-generation versions of his own videos. What he's trying to do -- and this makes no sense to me -- is to use YouTube to compress his movie files into small Flash files. So to recapture them back from YouTube using SnapzPro would be to end up back with big-format files, except they've gone through three layers of compression (first export, compression by YouTube, compression by SnapzPro).

Really, the best way of doing this would be to take his own first-generation video clips and compress them to YouTube size himself.

However, if he has permission from the makers of the videos, SnapzPro would work very well to get the video off. Otherwise it's plagiarism, and a copyright violation.


www.derekmok.com

i have yet to fully understand why anyone would want youtube videos in the first place. arent they already compressed beyond any reasonable level of reuse???

Ripping "YouTube" videos for a project is absolutely a BAD IDEA. The quality is beyond doggie-doodoo and not viewable any larger than 320x240 (it even stinks at THAT rez). Not a good way to "save a buck", IMHO...

Technically, I don't see the attraction to "YouTube". I guess watching a clip of someone lighting a fart and having his pants catch fire is pretty funny...but what's disturbing is that the dude actually put his camera on a tripod, focused it between his legs & pressed record. Some folks have way too much time on their hands (ROTFLMAO).

From a technical standpoint, "YouTube" video is a total nightmare that goes against all that is holy in Broadcasting. It's just raw ftg from (mainly) consumer recording devices that is sent in and re-compressed for posting. When a viewer comes to that part of your piece you can be sure they will say..."yikes...looks like he ripped THAT from "YouTube".

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I agree with Joe, but I think Vic is just trying to use those on his website.

Even then, it's gonna look horrible.

I personally don't see how it's worth the trouble of getting permission from those people, but to each his own.

If you *are* trying to use those clips to go to tape, though...yechhhhhhh.


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for the help, Johan. I'll look for the software, maybe someday it will come in handy ... for some other use I'm sure. Sometimes there are interesting videos on youtube. At this time I'm interested in the real old movies, mostly black and white. It's something special I'm doing. I need public domain stuff only. I don't like to use anything without written permission.

Thanks everyone for commenting on this thread.

i know that myself and joey are taking this thread somewhat OT, but just for the record - the fact that youtube has blown up to the monstrosity that it is really scares the living bejeezus out of me...

[keepvid.com]

Works beautifully. Not touching the legal aspect of it though.

My bad.

I missed the point here.

The best way to compress flash videos, by far, is to use the video encoder app that comes with flash 8.

Sorensen squeeze works but it is inferior to video encoder.

There is always the "myspace" option as well.
Myspace also enodes in flash - at low quality.

Check it out.

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

Youtube is a reality though. Who can argue with $1.6 billion? That's what Google is paying for it.

On Youtube you can't see great video graphics; it's primitive by what we're used to editing even in video; but millions of people are using Youtube as a form of expression.

So it's an artform -- bad quality and all, yet a form of communication.

The end result -- what we see and hear -- is the most important, not how bad the quality is. I saw a 1 second video on Youtube a few weeks ago. Thousands of people had seen it; it was one of the most popular videos on Youtube. It was more like two frames. If you blinked you didn't see the movement :-)

Andy Warhol made an 8 hour movie in the 70s showing a man asleep. He moved once in the whole movie. LOL Youtube is the opposite. And much more popular.

The reason images look so bad on YouTube is that they are double compressed as you know. You upload a compressed file to be compressed again in Flash. How would your movie look if it was not double compressed? Pretty good I imagine. That is why sooner or later, Youtube will develop a web based app that will allow you to upload a "uncompressed" movie to then be automatically compressed by Youtube. Sort of like what Current TV does now with VideoEgg Publisher.

[www.currenttv.com]

Michael Horton
-------------------

Andy Warhol made an 8 hour movie in the 70s showing a man asleep. He moved once in the whole movie. LOL Youtube is the opposite. And much more popular.

I don't care how big of an Andy Warhol fan your are, I'd find it VERY difficult to sit thru that. I mean...really! And how did he film that? He have to swap out film rolls every 11 minutes or so. What that a multi-camera shoot?

Nearly 4 hours of ACTION and ADVENTURE with THE LORD OF THE RINGS last installment was quite enough.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

"...The end result -- what we see and hear -- is the most important, not how bad the quality is."

"WE"? Oh boy...if that's what you think then "YouTube" is YOUR cup of tea. That's your individual opinion though - you can't possibly think you speak for everyone. If you (personally) can sit through 8 hrs of a man sleeping (LOL as you put it) and call it "art", then whatever anyone tells you here - you are going to form your own opinion on anyway.

My opinion...the majority of "YouTube" is for voyeurs & exhibitionists. There is a REAL curiosity for "real people" doing real stuff (which is why it's so popular)...but it isn't an "art form" (though there are SOME legitimate forms of expression on "YouTube". A guy throwing up into a trash can or footage of 2 drunk teenagers cow tipping IS NOT ART. If you think so, then the display quality of your work DEFINITELY won't matter to you so post away.

Mike is right and when the quality gets better, you will see higher quality productions being posted.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I see I've put my foot in my mouth again. I didn't mean I think the Andy Warhol movie was good. I never saw it, only read about it. I'm just using it as a contrast to the opposite phenomenon happening. The short movies of Youtube are the opposite of the long, boring movies that pretended to be art. Well, Andy Warhol was considered an artist by many. He certainly was popular and better know than a lot of us :-)

I'm not saying we should make bad quality shorts. I love the short movie Shane edited about a girl not wanting to use the public toilets. It's excellent editing. I'd want to see short movies of exceptional artistic merit on Youtube; but the quality isn't going to be there because the techonology isn't there yet. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't let the opportunity go by us. We should post our stuff and not worry about the quality. When the quality is good, we can re-post the short films again.

To put it in a nutshell, let's embrace Youtube instead of reject it.

Problem solved.

Download videos from youtube...

Just go here and you have to download a patch plugin for Firefox. Really easy.

[javimoya.com]

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

Thanks, Johan. I downloaded the VideoDownLoader. Now I have to figure out how to use it.

"...Now I have to figure out how to use it."

Holy cow, man... all you have to do is a little homework. If you read the page where the download lives, you will find DIRECTIONS (?...!). C'mon.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

try to get "PodTube" and app that download an mp4 from what safary is seeing in you tube.
I tried it and the mp4 is not bad considering... I used quicktime pro to convert it to 720 x 480 and then I could clearly see large blocks. still you can apply a little blur to the footage. and it will look a bit better. Go get creative, and make your idea happen.

[www.versiontracker.com]

<<<i know that myself and joey are taking this thread somewhat OT, but just for the record - the fact that youtube has blown up to the monstrosity that it is really scares the living bejeezus out of me...>>>

Lot of that going around. Jon Stewart has a piece where he says everybody knows who he is and nobody has "Comedy Central."

Much like NTSC is the standard distribution model for analog television in the US, YouTube is the standard for web distribution. I'm not particularly well set up for web videos, but I have no trouble at all playing YouTube on everything.

Koz

Thanks, Carmen. I downloaded it. I'll try it ... er ... I mean I'll do it: I'll rip a video from Youtube.

By the way, Joey, I'm looking for the Master Yoda scene where he says the now famous words, "Try not! Do or do not. There is no try." When I find that scene I'll let you know, maybe we can do a cartoon with it by inserting a couple of shots of us -- over the shoulder -- we could do a comedy routine, I'll play the straight man and you could do the funny lines :-) It'll make a nice little cartoon, don't you think?

It's the scene (I think it's in Empire Strikes Back) where Luke's X-Wing is half sunk in a swamp and he's trying to levitate it out of the water using the force...but he can't. Yoda tells him to focus...Luke says "I'll try". Yoda says "NO...Try NOT. DO..or do not. There is no TRY". This is my mantra. If you are afraid of failure, you never take risks whole heartedly and you set yourself up to fail. There's nothing funny about it...it's a state of mind. If you think you want to "try" something, you have already set yourself up for failure in your head. If you set out to "DO" something, failure IS NOT AN OPTION.

Just DO it.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.