[pfreivald]

As an author, I see my work pirated online all the time. Even items I have on Amazon for free, even my editing blog (which of course anyone can read)--used without my permission elsewhere.

Even with attribution, taking this work (which is copyrighted by virtue of the fact that I created it under US law) and putting it elsewhere throws off all kinds of metrics from Amazon rankings to blog page views--which hurts my publicity and place in search engine algorithms.

The same is true of a YouTube video; and it doesn't really matter whether or not any harm was intended, or whether or not you believe it's significant, or what-have-you.

A general rule of life is to not use other peoples' work without their permission.