The legality of this YouTube to MP3 conversion will heavily depend on what content is being downloaded and why it's being done. As per the Digital Millennium Copyright ACT (DMCA) in United States copyrighting material from YouTube to MP3 is illegal. If YouTube does provide a direct download button, then you are not allowed to download videos. However, this does not stop an estimated 70% of Internet users who have converted YouTube videos into other formats from doing so in any case; it is simply indicative of the gray area surrounding these tools.
For those of us in the industry, we often come across terms like "fair use" when considering YouTube to MP3 legality. Fair use allows the limited use of copyrighted material without permissions to measure as such things like commentary, criticism or education. And it almost never applies on downloading a music / video for personal enjoyment. When a user downloads content that is copyrighted like popular songs or excerpts of lectures in their journals without proper rights, the issue becomes copyright infringement which leads to potential legal consequences.
The move follows a high-profile case in 2017, when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) pursued legal action against YouTube-MP3. org, which had been the largest conversion site at that point. It was responsible for 40% of YouTube to MP3 conversions globally before it settled and finally went offline. Ps — this shows how important law enforcement regarding copyright is in the digital world.
Some of the content is legally allowed to convert but not all. Public domain content, royalty-free music and personal videos uploaded by the user are some instances where converting YouTube to MP3 is legal. This covers about 20% of the YouTube content, so legally users are able to download and convert these videos.
Few of us consider this one: any-given-location compliance. Copyright laws may vary between countries and what is legal in one can be illegal in another. For instance, in Germany it can range from €150 to €1,500 per download for illegally downloaded copyrighted content.
As Tim Berners-Lee — founder of the web and W3C director, had once epitomized it beautifully that “The Web is more a social creation than a technical one”. Considering the moral issues with YouTube to MP3 production this is a good point. Through technology it is easy to find ways around these legal restrictions, but as a society our basic moral imperative should be supporting creators and content.
To sum up, while YouTube to MP3 conversion can be justified in technical terms under certain conditions of use case (YouTube video-licensing rules are quite complex), most actual uses fit into a muddy grey area concerning the law. These are nuances to be thought about by anyone who is an ethical consumer of content. For those users still in fine and correct behavior land when it comes to YouTube to MP3, youtube to mp3.