How to use a YouTube video in a piece of work

Sometimes it's legal, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes it's impossible to find out, but one way or another, sometimes you really have to use a YouTube clip in a piece of work, like a documentary, music video, or even a song. There are probably better ways of doing it, but this one's pretty smooth:

1. Use Firefox Video DownloadHelper to download the .mp4 file associated with the video.
1. Some programs can work with .flv files (that's a flash video file), and some can't.
2. DownloadHelper's "download and convert" function doesn't work, so don't bother.
3. MediaCoder is a pain to use, but it's free and it can sometimes be made to work.
4. I'm aware of a few other solutions for browsers other than Firefox, and I've tried a bunch, DownloadHelper is the one I've had the most success with.
2. Use Adobe Media Encoder or some other program to convert the file into whatever your editing software can read.
1. If you're bringing it into Ableton, make it into an .mp3 file or something.
2. Sometimes, Ableton can read .flv or mp4 files, even though it doesn't claim to. I suspect that a good installation of codecs from the QuickTime package, and maybe others, might affect this compatibility, at least in Windows.
3. I have to warn you, Media Encoder is a pretty eccentric program, with a lot of usability issues. But it does have a logic all its own, and it's better than we've come to expect from a conversion app.
3. Try to replace the footage with a higher-quality source.
1. YouTube media is good as placeholder material, but if you can find a higher-quality version with some more research, do it. YouTube stuff can be pretty dirty.
2. YouTube does have some licensing information for each video, so if you're worried about legal issues, that's a place to start.