Saving youtube videos

[Sheridan]

Do any of you get lots of requests to unblock sites that basically download and save youtube (and others) videos?

 

Now I know this is breaking T&C's for youtube etc, and those sort of sites are usually blocked but I'm just wondering if anyone makes any exceptions?

 

We get the usual argument here 'it works at home' and we have to gently remind some people they at not at home, they are at a place of work with its own liability!

[LosOjos]

Only make the same exceptions as the law.

[bossman]

@Sheridan:

 

It is not up to you to make the decision as to whether staff disregard digital rights AUP's or copyrighted material usage but your HT should be informed by either yourself or your line manager as to the consequences of such actions by staff and what liabilities the school will suffer for not having a proper procedure and policy in place.

 

i.e. I think it could be on here about a school being fined heavily for use of a "Getty" image so I would have this pointed out to all Staff with no exceptions.

 

It is a misconception that schools can do what they want with whatever they find as long as the name the ownership details in the document or video or whatever!

 

That is our take on it and some staff as ever try it on every time as if the answer will change but I just let my line manager deal with it as its above my paygrade.

 

First stop Line manager then HT.

[Sheridan]

Well thats sort of my attitude as well - its breaking the law (in some cases), copyright or just T&Cs therefore its not allowed. Just because they do it at home, or spend hours here trying to find a way around it doesn't mean its ok!

 

I'll have to dig out some examples of schools being done for breach of copyright to back up my point.

[Roberto]

We've had the odd request in the past. We say no and explain why. It's not generally been a problem after that.

[Trapper]

I've bought a license for 4k Video Downloader. Works well.

[LosOjos]

I've bought a license for 4k Video Downloader. Works well.

 

Owning a license for a piece of software does not exempt you from the copyright restrictions of any material you use it to download.

[bossman]

@Trapper:

 

I have a license for a shotgun but that doesn't give me the right to go around shooting people or things randomly as that would be breaking the law now wouldn't it?

[timbo343]

Yep, we have this all the time. Bssically its the staffs way to get videos from youtube which are blocked in school. Youtube is blocked point blank for y7-11 but youtube edu is allowed for 6th form, but yet they (only a hand ful of teachers) think its ok to download videos.

 

I keep saying to them, downloading videos off youtube is illegal and i keep throwing the T&Cs at them. If youtube allowed me to add teachers/users to our youtube account so they could add/edit playlists, i would but youtube edu is all but broken in the admin side at the moment.

[dhicks]

Do any of you get lots of requests to unblock sites that basically download and save youtube (and others) videos?

 

Actually, no - if teachers want to use YouTube videos they simply load them up in a web browser on YouTube. We have decent bandwidth, good wireless around the school and YouTube isn't blocked (we're a prep school, and pupils are closly supervised, YouTube blocking for pupils is something we could turn on if it ever became an issue). The only problems tend to be when someone wants to use a YouTube video in assembly, where wireless performance tends to be a bit poor and the video can spend ages buffering, but we're getting that sorted. It's not as slick embedding a YouTube link in a PowerPoint file and having to click through to show the video, having an auto-playing video embedded right in PowerPoint looks rather better, but it's good enough.

 

People do use YouTube-downloader utilities at home, or at least try to, but they seem to be one of the main vectors at the moment for malware - I've cleared several people's laptop of assorted junk recently, and it seems to be the ones who've installed some kind of YouTube downloader that seem to have the most dodgy-looking stuff floating around.

[Sheridan]

Actually, no - if teachers want to use YouTube videos they simply load them up in a web browser on YouTube. We have decent bandwidth, good wireless around the school and YouTube isn't blocked (we're a prep school, and pupils are closly supervised, YouTube blocking for pupils is something we could turn on if it ever became an issue). The only problems tend to be when someone wants to use a YouTube video in assembly, where wireless performance tends to be a bit poor and the video can spend ages buffering, but we're getting that sorted. It's not as slick embedding a YouTube link in a PowerPoint file and having to click through to show the video, having an auto-playing video embedded right in PowerPoint looks rather better, but it's good enough.

 

This is the same for me, they have access to youtube at all times and a decent wireless facility. They seem to want to hoard videos for the rare event the internet is down (very rare!) or some other reason.

[sonofsanta]

What kind of example do we set if we say "well, it's illegal, but we'll do it anyway"? The law is the law, whether we agree with it or not, whether we think we'll get caught or not, and in our professional capacity we have to ensure the school abides by it.

 

Morally I have a lot of issues with copyright law and its implementation these days, personally I act in a certain way (*cough*), but professionally I play it by the letter. I'm paid to. If anyone wants to argue, they can explain to the Head and the governors why they want to break the law and expose the school to the implications of that.

 

(I do always phrase it as "I'm sorry, but copyright law says no" rather than getting angry, though)