YouTube Trials Downloads

By Dan Gaul Published October 20, 2009

Youtube — Image used with permission by copyright holder

YouTube streams videos. We all know that. You can’t download them. We know that too. But that knowledge is about to be turned on its head.

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The company has said it’s going to trial a system allowing people to download the videos to watch. On the site blog , Thai Tran, YouTube product manager, wrote:

“We’ve started working with a few partners who want their videos shared universally and even enjoyed away from an internet connection.”

Users who partner with the site will be allowed to offer their videos for download under the Creative Commons license, with those downloading paying a fee in order to have a permanent copy of the video.

“Partners could choose to offer their video downloads for free or for a small fee paid through Google Checkout,” Tran added.

Google, which owns YouTube, hasn’t revealed how much it will take from each transaction. The videos will be in the DRM-free MP4 format, so they can easily be transferred to portable devices.

Of course, there are programs that let people grab YouTube videos, but this move will make the content available to everyone.

Initially, YouTube is trialing the new services with the universities – Stanford, Duke, and the University of California. When it’s fully up and running, only approved users will be able to offer their content for download, in order to avoid piracy, according to Vnunet.

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Dan Gaul is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for Digital Trends Media Group, a Portland, Oregon-based…

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