Is it? I'm curious what part of copyright law forbids making and disseminating transcripts of videos posted online.
Speaking as a non-expert: US copyright law "copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of their works, to create derivative works, and to perform or display their works publicly."
I can't see transcription escaping being seen as a form of copying, also potentially as a derivative work. Also, "display their works publicly" doesn't require commercial advantage.
It's not clear at all to me that doing so non-commercially isn't covered under fair use.
If people copy original works 'non-comercially', the court won't look at whether it made them money without also looking at whether it
cost the content owner money. The video transcript is available on the YT page
but not without clicking on the YT page, so the owner is deprived of income by uploading it elsewhere.
Legal advice would be your friend here, if you want to 'ride the line' instead of playing safe.
But not on ASR, as Amir has made his call, post #21 above, plus an
article, so that ends it for now.
cheers