Nah. Friend was doing some “Plex and Chill” and it worked out well for them.

I don’t disagree. I think what I’m trying to say is that you are applying rationality and consistency behind “what is legal” and how that is determined. You’re applying that reason to the way laws are created or interpreted.

But, “what is legal” is not rational or consistent in reality. What is legal or illegal is primarily determined by maintaining the interests and structures of existing economic systems. Systems that are built upon maintaining profits.

I’m not disagreeing with your reasoning. I’m saying that your rational thinking is not being applied by the systems that decide what is legal or what is illegal. The primary logic that is being applied is “is this hurting profits?”. And if the answer to that question is “yes” then these systems will create laws and classifications that are irrational and filled with contradictions; in order to protect those profits.

I’d say it’s more about the ease of use that it’s targeted. The average person is not getting a permanent mp3 or mp4 of a video by watching YouTube.

If they were to target anything it would be browser based extensions that allow that easily with a download button. Which are basically using the same routes that yt-dlp is using and putting a UI element for it.

I know. From the perspective of you and I it’s silly to target some specific popular method because there is no logic to do so. The logic they are using isn’t in the tool and how it’s made. The logic is just targeting something that’s popular. Rather than admit that the economic systems that rely on private property and scarcity are just fundamentally incompatible with digital content.

We’ve lived with an outdated economic system of incentives that should have died when the Internet was born. At least for digital content. This is just another denial of that contradiction. It doesn’t have to have a logical reason for it. It’s been illogical since the start.