Copywrite laws and the legality of sharing videos.

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   Joseph041167posted 13 years ago

   How concerned should we be about sharing videos mainly from YouTube, but also from other areas, as far as legal and copywrite issues go? Sometimes in YouTube down at the bottom it will say something like, "general youtube license." Should we approach videos the same way we approach images? Is YouTube always free and fair game?

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      paxwillposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      "copyright"

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      paxwillposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      sorry, rest of my answer got cut off
      
      I think you can always stay on the safe side by simply providing a link to the video if you are unsure about the copyrights.

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      ankitharrytomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      If the embed code is available it means that the video copyright owner has agreed to sharing the video.

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         Greekgeekposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Technically, sites like YouTube allow the person who uploaded the video to decide whether or not the video may be shared. That person can disable embedding if he/she chooses. If they've left the embed option on, then they've given us permission to embed the video.
         
         It gets a little tricky when people upload content they don't own. For example, a lot of the photos uploaded to Pinterest are uploaded without the photographer or artist's knowledge or permission, yet Pinterest provides embed codes.
         
         Generally, I wouldn't embed images from a site like Pinterest, where it's pretty clear that most of those doing the uploading are taking copyrighted content without permission. I'm less worried about video clips from YouTube.
         
         Another factor to consider is that brief excerpts are usually judged fair use for purposes of critique, commentary, reviews, news reporting, education and parody, provided that one adds some kind of substantial or transformative content to the original. So a short video clip in an article full of commentary may be fair use even if the longer film from which the clip was taken is copyrighted. Whereas an embedded, full-sized image is not an excerpt, so embedding an image usually isn't fair use without the copyright holder's permission.
         
         (I don't have the link handy, but Google "Stanford law copyright fair use" for a really excellent website detailing the four factors of fair use... it should be required reading for anyone publishing online.)

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            Joseph041167posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks, you all, these answers were absolutely wonderful. I wrote some notes down, and I am studying and thinking about all of this.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Joseph, Greekgeek has answered your question thoroughly and accurately.
               
               However the short form of it may be easier to understand:
               
               If the person who posted the clip on Youtube hasn't disabled the "Share" button, they've given you permission to embed it.
               
               The only thing you have to look out for is pirated stuff, i.e. if the person who posted the clip has copied it from the television, or a movie, or from a DVD they've bought.  TV programs, movies and DVD content are all copyright so the person was breaking the law in filming an excerpt.   It should be bleeding obvious if that's the case, though!  The username or description is usually a giveaway as to whether the clip has been pirated or whether it's been posted by the movie or television company.
               
               The other important point is that by embedding a clip on HubPages, you are NOT copying.  You are displaying the video on HubPages - viewers can click and be taken direct to the original Youtube version, so it's more like a backlink to the clip than a copy of it.

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