So now there is a thing called Hooktube, which explains itself this way:

Share YouTube videos without giving them views. Bypass country blocks and age restrictions. Download YouTube videos and music. Keep your data private from the G.

HOW: Just replace the domain in any YT link with hooktube.com and you get a light-weight page that loads YouTube’s media files (mp4, webm, etc) directly into your browser’s native media player.

That’s a good privacy enhancement to know about! And here’s a video I happened to find on Hooktube:
Eben Moglen on Facebook, Google and Government Surveillance.