However Youtube made it public today that it is working with a limited number of partners to make their videos available for download. It’s up to the partner to decide if the video can be downloaded for free or for a price through Google Checkout.

Though techies who are already downloading videos from Youtube using scripts and softwares think this move is senseless as these scripts let me download all the videos on Youtube for free.

But don’t forget internet is not all about geeks and techies, a major chunk of users are the ones who are still learning to attach a file to their e-mail or trying to figure out how to add people to their Facebook profile.  Its users like these who would benefit from a simple download link at the bottom of the video player.

The paid videos are not DRM managed which means they can be shared and transferred from one device to another easily but these videos are licensed under creative commons which are mostly to do with non-commercial use of the video. Click here to read more about the Licenses.

This program is currently available for partners in US only. If you are interested in becoming one of the partners, click here to apply.

During these tough economic times Google has been trying everything it can to post strong quarterly results which is why we are seeing advertisements almost on all Google properties and new revenue generating models trying to bring in more money. For example, we saw ads on Google Image Search, Google Finance, etc..

Although it is unclear if Google will charge a % of whatever the partners make by selling the videos it’s very clear that Google Checkout revenues will soar if this initiative hits the right node.

I noticed something interesting while watching Videos on Youtube at ChangeDotGov, I noticed a link which said “Click to download”. Yes this certainly means that you do not require to login, use firefox extensions, or anyother third party software to download videos from here… just click on “Click to Download” and start the download immediately.

The downloaded files come in MP4 format. I tried downloading other videos from Youtube only to realize that downloads are available only for videos uploaded by ChangeDotGov.

This feature has not hit the rest of the site yet and honestly I don’t expect to see it in the near future either. Letting users download videos would require Google to make changes to their privacy policy and let their users choose which videos are allowed to be download or otherwise and it would also require them to add LOADS of resources which I know the company is certainly not excited about.

So until the feature comes to the rest of the site, whenever that is, download the videos from ChangeDotGov and have your own collection of Obama’s speeches and campaign. Click here to visit ChangeDotGov.