To transfer songs from laptop to iphone- is this illegal?

I'm new to apple products but what I have gathered is that you can't download songs without paying for them on itunes?! What my friend did though, is

1. Go onto youtube and search her favourite song
2. Using the song's url, she converted it into mp3 through YOUTUBE to MP3 converter
3. It downloaded onto her laptop
4. She used that downloaded song and put it on itunes, her playlist
5. She connected her iphone to the laptop and transferred the song from itunes to her phone

is this illegal? If it is, how can she get caught? Seriously worried, please only sensible answers.
and also, EVERY WEBSITE we used was legal, such as youtube and mp3 converter! None of the websites were pirated.

This is pirating, illegal, stealing from the artists, heartless. Just spend that 99 cents on a song instead of on Candy crush or some BS

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