I will have to look into that. Thanks for the response. Does anybody know how to rip videos from various websites, though? I feel like it is definitely possible. I use a program called JDownloader which can rip videos from Youtube, MegaUpload, and various other "streaming only" sites. Somehow the program is able to extract the URL of the video file(s) and download them directly. This program however does not support any of the news sites (including CNN).

At this point I am mostly curious about the theory. I am curious how a hacker would go about finding the URL and download the files themselves. I looked at Youtube source code and examined it with a HTTP debugger and can't seem to figure out the URL of where the video is stored but I know it is possible because the JDownloader program does it. I am sure that I, along with many here, would be able to benefit from knowing how to download from various "streaming only" video websites.

Depending on the documentary, you can often include segments of news footage for the purpose of commentary, especially if your commentary is on the news commentary itself (e.g. criticizing CNN's coverage). That's one of the main purposes of fair use, since otherwise CNN would be able to veto critical commentary of its broadcasts.

See, e.g., the Daily Show, which does not license the news footage it shows.