There's an obvious difference between a browser that, in normal use, doesn't allow storing of streaming video, and a tool that does and isn't supported by Google at all.
Yes, you can download the full video with a browser. Yes, you can use wget or curl to do that. But youtube-dl's community was dumb enough to give clear cut examples of downloading copywritten material, which is obviously not what the RIAA or probably even YouTube's lawyers want.
Courts care about intent, and it's a straw man to argue that technical similarities mean they're half-assing their enforcement.
You can right-click->save-as the video link in the network panel of dev tools of either Chrome or Firefox. Google's own browser lets you save youtube videos with a few clicks. Also taping TV and radio is legal as well, even though the receiving device doesn't offer that functionality, unlike Chrome.
Yes, you can download the full video with a browser. Yes, you can use wget or curl to do that. But youtube-dl's community was dumb enough to give clear cut examples of downloading copywritten material, which is obviously not what the RIAA or probably even YouTube's lawyers want.
Courts care about intent, and it's a straw man to argue that technical similarities mean they're half-assing their enforcement.