Copyrights and Embedding Youtube Video
Question: We would like to include Youtube videos in our blog posts and online training material. The videos are perfect as they relate to the production and topics we talk about and we don’t have to produce them seeing someone has already done it. Is it illegal to do this? are we infringing on the producer’s copyright?
Answer: Though the odds of actually being sued or threatened with a suit for embedding a YouTube clip are slim, it is still worthwhile to take a few simple precautions to make certain you don’t have problems down the road:
1. Don’t Embed Clearly Infringing Material: Lengthy clips of popular television shows and movies, meaning the length goes beyond what might be considered fair use, should not be embedded. It would be very hard to deny that you knew the work was copyrighted and they are types of content being most aggressively pursued right now.
2. Embed from Official Channels: Many major rightsholders, including CBS, have official YouTube channels that allow embedding. Embedding videos from only these channels is a great way to avoid any potential copyright issues later.
(It’s pretty safe to say that implicit permission is granted if the video is marked as embeddable. It’s up to the copyright holder to protect their rights—and that includes being aware of embedding options BEFORE they upload.)
3. Stick to Popular Amateur Clips: Since the majority of the most popular clips on YouTube are amateur-made, it is probably best to stick to those. Small rights holders, if infringed, have less incentive to sue. Also, by sticking to popular clips, you can reduce the likelihood that the rights holder will “discover” the infringement and take action. In most of these cases, the rightsholder is the one who posted the clip to begin with.
4. Say Something About It: Offer some commentary or criticism regarding the clip or discuss an issue that relates to it. This might not make an infringing use non-infringing, but it could bolster a fair use argument if the clip is borderline.
5. When in Doubt, Link Don’t- Embed: Though linking is not a guaranteed way to avoid being sued for copyright infringement, it is definitely preferable to embedding. If you are unsure about a video clip, consider linking to it rather than embedding it directly.
Even though an embedded YouTube video is considered a link anyway.
In the recent Perfect 10 v. Amazon ruling, the Ninth Circuit made it very clear that where in-line links are concerned, there is absolutely no direct copyright infringement liability. So, for purposes of direct infringement, the answer to one question will generally resolve the issue: where is the copy hosted?
A embed code is no different than a hotlink. You’re not copying the content, you’re providing a link to it in a form which happens to play it. The content never once passes through your server in such a case, it’s streamed directly from the host (say, YouTube) to the users browser.
source: Blogherald
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