Depends on the jurisdiction. Some make a explicit difference, e.g. German law speaks of (rough translation of the critical bits by myself) &quot;temporary reproductions that are [...] integral and necessary part of a technical way of a) transmitting through a network [...]&quot; which in practice means that streaming is ok in cases where explicit saving is not. For private use, downloading from not clearly non-legal streaming sources is fine though (again, in Germany)