Posting YouTube videos: Is it illegal?

[Jamie D. Grant]

Hiya Gang!

I tried to get some YES/NO answers to this, but it seems to be murky. I also know there's a thread dealing with this on here, but I'm hoping I can get some solid Yays or Nays.

Basically, I have a Youtube vid from the movie "Any Given Sunday" up on my blog:

http://blog.sendwonder.com/2011/01/figh ... -inch.html

Regardless of what's accepted, or can be gotten away with, I'm just wondering if it's against the law.

YES:
NO:

Thanks in advance! This topic has been on my mind for a few days now, and I still don't know how I feel (which shouldn't come into play if the law is cut and dry).

Thoughts?

All my best,

jamie

[Joe Pecore]

I would think you would have to figure out if you can argue the four factors of "Fair use" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use).


The fact that you are just showing the movie clip might make it hard to justify that it advances knowledge or progresses the arts through the addition of something new.

[Pete Biro]

It someone else's intellectual property and not for you to post.

[Richard Kaufman]

It's really hard to figure this stuff out right now. There's a ton of content on YouTube that was not placed there by the rights owner, and the rights owners haven't asked for it to be removed. So, I supposed the rights owners to the movie would have to ask for it to be removed. Then you'll know it's wrong.

[Tom Stone]

If the clip is posted on YouTube by its copyright holder, that person can decide whether to allow embedding or not. So, if that person has allowed embedding, it would be perfectly all right to embed the clip on your site.

If the clip is posted on YouTube, without authorization from the copyright holder, YouTube is the offender since they host the file, show the work and has made the work public.
The uploader is probably breaking all kinds of user agreements, and can probably, thanks to the user agreement contract, also be considered an offender.
But the act of embedding an illegal clip... Don't know, probably difficult to say, since you are not actually hosting the clip on your site - on the other hand, you are making the work public without authorisation, and that is a no-no in the copyright laws. So, in theory, it is clearly illegal, but in practice, it might be tricky to build a case. I'm just guessing.

[erdnasephile]

Jamie:

I do not know the specific answer to your question, but I do have some information you may find helpful.

A while back, I was considering using a clip of a television show for an educational presentation, so I wrote to a friend of mine who was one of the producers for that show. He mentioned that in order to use the clip, all I had to do was write for permission to the studio who had personnel dedicated to approving uses such as this. He said many times a clip would be approved for free.

Although I ended up not using the clip, I was able to pretty easily reach the designated person at the studio who just requested the intended use, duration, format, etc. and was a good source for information on privileges with regards to their material. (The process is very similiar to requesting permission to use previously published academic illustrations and figures for your own papers).

Therefore, if you really need the clip for your site, you might consider contacting the responsible persons at the studio who made the clip to see what their take is on this.

Good luck!

PS: I'm a big fan of Magic Fridays--great stuff!

[Diego]

I recently was talking with a famous actor/director/producer, about cell phones, (which he had a limited knowledge of) and showed him clips from his films, via youtube on my phone.
He was first amazed to see himself on the phone and as the clip continued for a few minutes, he commented how long the clip was...after a couple of minutes more, he wondered out loud, "Am I getting paid for this?!" "What company is doing this?" I explained not a company, but people with too much time on their hands were uploading their favorite clips to share with the world.

Maybe the next day he called his lawyer...

[Kent Gunn]

Hi Jamie,

You asked about legality of posting video clips. Don't know the answer, but I have a question for you.

You're willing to use a clip from a movie you put no work into nor had any part of, on your website and derive some value from it.

If I copy your video on the cups and balls from a pal, and post it with the explanations on the internet without even trying to reach you to discuss it, would I be breaking the law?

I don't think we should make our choices in life by what's legal.

I've seen many on here rail against pirating magic videos. The DVDs that roll out of our favorite magician's basements and studios are theirs to profit or lose their very livelihoods by. Just because Pacino and crew in the movie clip you want to use, without permission are rich, doesn't, for me, grant you the moral high ground.

Do what's right. If you can figure out what's right, let the cops and lawyers sort out the crap.


KG

[Jonathan Townsend]

There's a notion, sometimes referred to the essence of a larger work, which may directly bear on using some speeches (say the Patton speech to the troops from that film) as supportive materials in ones own works.

The notions of fair use, scholarly citation and context also bear on the matter.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

[Scott M.]

If you're not the copyright holder or you don't have permission from the copyright holder, it's not legal for you to upload copyrighted material. That is, unless you are arguing fair use. You have to review fair use guidelines to see whether that's an argument you can make.

That's the law. In practical terms, it is more complicated. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act removes liability from ISPs and hosting services if they respond in a timely manner to a take down notice from a rights holder. More recently, YouTube has struck deals with rights holders in which advertising is placed on top of copyrighted material uploaded by non-copyright holders, and that revenue goes back to the copyright holder. So, there's a lot of stuff up on YouTube that wasn't formally granted permission but which is effectively being monetized. And many rights holders don't care or like the free publicity so they don't issue takedown notices.

[Pete Biro]

When we were doing auto racing shows, FAIR USE was about 90 seconds.

[erdnasephile]

For what it's worth, I think Michael Vincent has done it the right way here where he gets permission to use the clip and clearly gives proper credit: http://michaelvincent.co.uk/