Hmmm. Interesting question. I'm not sure it could be considered a file sharing service, because technically they aren't sharing the files. It's perfectly legal

Hmmm. Interesting question. I'm not sure it could be considered a file sharing service, because technically they aren't sharing the files. It's perfectly legal to allow music and whatnot to be streamed online (assuming you own the rights to the content). Users have just found a way around that so they can rip whatever is shared there. Using your same logic, couldn't movie studios selling DVDs be considered a file sharing service, because of how easy it is to rip the content off of them and onto your computer? From a producer and sound design/engineering perspective, I would never consider ripping a YouTube video due to the terrible bitrate of the audio. The max bitrate supported by YouTube is 192kbps, which is really lossy. If I can't get my hands on a lossless format (WAV), the lowest I'll consider going is 320kbps. Although, for the average listener, 192kbps is probably good enough. Especially when factoring in the fact that they're probably listening on crappy laptop speakers or overpriced Beats headphones.