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I have a niche video site thats doing really well, I have a legal question

by goindeep
9 replies
I have a niche video website where I basically curate videos from face book, youtube and other sources, I upload them to my site in categories and it gets updated several times a day.

I have been getting a few requests of late from the people associated with some of those videos or channels for me to take the videos down. Good to note here thats its not always the original sources of the video or creators sometimes its a third party other times its an associate or just a random nut case giving me his two cents.

I usually explain that I have not uploaded the videos and I do not host them, I simply embed them with the share codes I get from the source site, nothing illegal in that and that they are benefiting by getting plenty of views and even some more subscribers through my site which means more business for them.

Most of the people that engage me are fine with this after we have the discussion (and one or two are even interested in my direct ads) although some linger claiming all sorts of things. I have not been sued thus far but was just wondering on what peoples thoughts were on this topic. Would they have a case against me etc?

Some background info: all the videos I upload are the source video almost all of the time, in the case its not I figure it out pretty quickly and delete it until I can find the source. I upload my own content along with the video, usually a title and a brief explainer or a 'my 2 cents', alt tags, keywords etc...

I monetize with Adsense and some direct advertising using native ads and I guess some people are just pissed off that I can share in earning money with other peoples content and my own efforts. The way I see it is that it is no different to affiliate marketing. I am getting the traffic, I have built my brand, I do all the research, pay for hosting, update my fans, write the content and essentially offer thousands of hours of a particular style of content to my viewers who would otherwise not see most of that content or spend a great deal of time searching for it.

Also as far as I can tell You Tube themselves are pushing for these types of niche channels and websites to be created as they could not and do not want to do it themselves. I cant find the article but there was one from a few years ago were they were actively pushing these types of sites.

If it turns ugly I will definitely seek legal advice but thus far nothing of the sort only some lingering legal threats.

Just curious on others opinions?
#legal #niche #question #site #video
  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    Your post is a little confusing, as you say you don't upload the videos, only embed them...then you say a couple of time that you upload them.

    I'll assume that you add the embed code from Youtube to your web pages and don't actually download the videos from Youtube, then upload them to your site, which would be wrong ethically and legally.

    Embedding YT videos is fine and is why YT even provides the embed code for you. Each time anyone uploads a video to their YT channel, they have the option to allow embedding or not. And they can change this any time they want. If someone complains about their video being embedded on their site, they can turn off embedding.

    However, they also need to understand that they agreed to YT's terms of service, part of which is that people can embed their videos, unless they turn this off in their video's settings.

    If you embed a video that has copyright issues, it's up to the copyright owner to tell YT to take down their video. If YT takes it down, it will no longer appear on your web page.

    The exception to being able to legally embed YT videos is that you can't put any type of over-lays on the video or alter the YT player in any way. There's a couple of video players for sale by marketers that sell the ability to place things like optin forms and links directly OVER YT videos. This is against YT's terms and IMO, rips off the creators of these videos as the over-lays block their own content and things like annotations.

    As a content publisher, you can put links above, below and all around a YT video on your own page, and I've suggested people do this. Why not post popular videos on your own pages and send traffic to them instead of YT? You just can't put things OVER YT videos.

    From a marketing perspective, I almost always want someone to embed my videos. The links in my annotations and cards still work, I still make money from things like AdSense and can get subscribers to my channel from your web page.

    Next time someone doesn't like you embedding their video, point out that they benefit from it and if they don't like it they can turn off embedding at any time in their YT settings for the video. Tell them it's their choice that the video can be embedded and that YT encourages this and even generates the code to embed the video, unless this option is turned off by the user.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    I do the exact same thing that the OP does. I have 25+ sites set up on WordPress with a video website theme I purchased. I set up opt-in forms all over the place and use a free plugin called SumoMe which is a fantastic plugin for pop-up opt-in forms (which work great). It's amazing how much organic traffic these sites can get if you have a decent niche, good keywords, and proper on-page SEO (I use Yoast SEO for this - also free).

    This is a side project for me. I usually work on this about 15-20 minutes a day. I don't use any plugins to automatically curate the videos, even though there are plenty of plugins that will do that. Instead, I'll add 4-5 posts every day manually until it has anywhere from 200-300 posts. I also add my own unique description of the video in the post, but I only add about 25-50 words. I usually start a site and then work on that site only until I have the amount of posts I want, then I'll start another whenever I feel like it. The worst performing site gets anywhere from 50-100 organic visitors per day and my best site gets 1500-2000 visitors per day. This is ALL organic traffic from Google, Bing, Yahoo, and some other smaller search engines. I don't build any backlinks or do any SEO other than following the Yoast SEO plugin guidelines until the little SEO indicator turns green, meaning that my on-page SEO is sound.

    I only monetize with opt-in forms and Adsense, but there are dozens of other ways to monetize these sites if you want to get creative. I've been meaning to look into Amazon for a while now, but I wouldn't advise that until you read their TOS very carefully. I've even flipped a few of them. The lowest amount I sold one for was $75 and the best offer I got was $350. It's usually more profitable to keep them for yourself, but if you need an extra few hundred bucks for some reason they are a good asset to have. I have no doubt that if one were to spend 3-4 hours a day building out sites like these they could make a decent income from it. I can't speculate on how much as it would depend on niche, keyword research, SEO, etc, but if you get it right you can do really well with this.

    Now to address the OP's question...

    I have had the same emails and requests from people. More often than not, it's an affiliate whose posts are getting outranked by mine or it's a nutjob trying to tell me how wrong it is that I'm using videos made by other people as content for my site. Now, bear in mind, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with doing this. There are MILLIONS of websites that do it, including some very popular sites like Huffington Post, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, etc. The whole point of an embed code is so that people can EMBED the videos on their websites and blogs!

    As I said, it's hardly ever the video owner who contacts me. Most video owners (at lease those with half a brain), WANT you to put ther videos on your website because it brings them views and exposure. Basically, it's free advertising.

    I have two different ways that I respond. If it's the video owner I will write back and be very polite, and I'll explain that they can always disable the embed function on their videos if they don't want them to be displayed on third party websites, and I'll include a link to the disclaimer that I add to all of my sites where it explains that none of the content belongs to me and I do not host any of the videos myself, they are simply embedded from sites like YouTube and DailyMotion. I've never had a video owner persist after that, however some of them have gone and disabled the embed code. No problem there. If it's a post that didn't get any traffic, I'll simply remove it. If it's a post that does get traffic, I'll go and find another suitable video and replace the one that was there. Now, if it's an affiliate or a wacko, I DO NOT respond at all, because they are idiots and they are not worth a second of my valuable time. If an affiliate is too lazy to build a few backlinks and do a little on-page SEO so they can outrank me then they probably shouldn't be in the business they're in anyway.

    Oh, and on one occasion only, in the 5 years or so I've been doing this, I have been contacted by somebody with a copyright claim. In other words, the video owner used copyrighted content on the video and somehow they have me confused with the person who uploaded the video. I responded and let them know that I didn't own the video and they would have to contact the third party site where the video was hosted. Several days later the video was removed, so evidently they did that. That has nothing to do with the website owner who is only embedding the content. They need to contact the site that is hosting the video about that. It is a good idea to have a disclaimer on your sites that explain that you do not own or host any of the content, though.

    As far as being sued, I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot give you proper advice on that. Of course, anybody can sue anybody else for any reason they want. Whether or not they have a case is a different story altogether. In this instance, I'm 99.9% sure that they would certainly not have a case, and any lawyer worth his/her salt would not even come near a case like this. I can only tell you that I don't spend one second worrying about something like that, and if anyone did threaten to sue me (only one person ever has), I'd tell them to go pound sand.

    I hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author grow2harvest
      Thank you so much, this is really exactly what I needed to find. I am just starting, and I was really challenged with how to create traffic and content for a site. I think this is the method for me.

      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      I do the exact same thing that the OP does. I have 25+ sites set up on WordPress with a video website theme I purchased. I set up opt-in forms all over the place and use a free plugin called SumoMe which is a fantastic plugin for pop-up opt-in forms (which work great). It's amazing how much organic traffic these sites can get if you have a decent niche, good keywords, and proper on-page SEO (I use Yoast SEO for this - also free).

      This is a side project for me. I usually work on this about 15-20 minutes a day. I don't use any plugins to automatically curate the videos, even though there are plenty of plugins that will do that. Instead, I'll add 4-5 posts every day manually until it has anywhere from 200-300 posts. I also add my own unique description of the video in the post, but I only add about 25-50 words. I usually start a site and then work on that site only until I have the amount of posts I want, then I'll start another whenever I feel like it. The worst performing site gets anywhere from 50-100 organic visitors per day and my best site gets 1500-2000 visitors per day. This is ALL organic traffic from Google, Bing, Yahoo, and some other smaller search engines. I don't build any backlinks or do any SEO other than following the Yoast SEO plugin guidelines until the little SEO indicator turns green, meaning that my on-page SEO is sound.

      I only monetize with opt-in forms and Adsense, but there are dozens of other ways to monetize these sites if you want to get creative. I've been meaning to look into Amazon for a while now, but I wouldn't advise that until you read their TOS very carefully. I've even flipped a few of them. The lowest amount I sold one for was $75 and the best offer I got was $350. It's usually more profitable to keep them for yourself, but if you need an extra few hundred bucks for some reason they are a good asset to have. I have no doubt that if one were to spend 3-4 hours a day building out sites like these they could make a decent income from it. I can't speculate on how much as it would depend on niche, keyword research, SEO, etc, but if you get it right you can do really well with this.

      Now to address the OP's question...

      I have had the same emails and requests from people. More often than not, it's an affiliate whose posts are getting outranked by mine or it's a nutjob trying to tell me how wrong it is that I'm using videos made by other people as content for my site. Now, bear in mind, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with doing this. There are MILLIONS of websites that do it, including some very popular sites like Huffington Post, CNN, USA Today, Washington Post, etc. The whole point of an embed code is so that people can EMBED the videos on their websites and blogs!

      As I said, it's hardly ever the video owner who contacts me. Most video owners (at lease those with half a brain), WANT you to put ther videos on your website because it brings them views and exposure. Basically, it's free advertising.

      I have two different ways that I respond. If it's the video owner I will write back and be very polite, and I'll explain that they can always disable the embed function on their videos if they don't want them to be displayed on third party websites, and I'll include a link to the disclaimer that I add to all of my sites where it explains that none of the content belongs to me and I do not host any of the videos myself, they are simply embedded from sites like YouTube and DailyMotion. I've never had a video owner persist after that, however some of them have gone and disabled the embed code. No problem there. If it's a post that didn't get any traffic, I'll simply remove it. If it's a post that does get traffic, I'll go and find another suitable video and replace the one that was there. Now, if it's an affiliate or a wacko, I DO NOT respond at all, because they are idiots and they are not worth a second of my valuable time. If an affiliate is too lazy to build a few backlinks and do a little on-page SEO so they can outrank me then they probably shouldn't be in the business they're in anyway.

      Oh, and on one occasion only, in the 5 years or so I've been doing this, I have been contacted by somebody with a copyright claim. In other words, the video owner used copyrighted content on the video and somehow they have me confused with the person who uploaded the video. I responded and let them know that I didn't own the video and they would have to contact the third party site where the video was hosted. Several days later the video was removed, so evidently they did that. That has nothing to do with the website owner who is only embedding the content. They need to contact the site that is hosting the video about that. It is a good idea to have a disclaimer on your sites that explain that you do not own or host any of the content, though.

      As far as being sued, I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot give you proper advice on that. Of course, anybody can sue anybody else for any reason they want. Whether or not they have a case is a different story altogether. In this instance, I'm 99.9% sure that they would certainly not have a case, and any lawyer worth his/her salt would not even come near a case like this. I can only tell you that I don't spend one second worrying about something like that, and if anyone did threaten to sue me (only one person ever has), I'd tell them to go pound sand.

      I hope that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Thanks both.

    Kurt, I embed.

    I only use the word "upload" because of the CMS I use.

    I never touch the video, no lay overs, lay unders, pop overs or unders or anything like that.

    If you look at Digg Video or Devour, that's pretty much what I do, only in a niche.

    Nicheblogger75, good to see. 25+ sites seems a little too much for me personally but its easy to see why you are doing that.

    My method is kind of different. I made my site the 'go to' hub of sorts for that niche.

    Definitely telling them to pound sound, lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    If you embed a video following YouTube's terms, and the owner sues you for copyright infringement, then you:

    1. Take down the video since you have notice the copyright owner is not giving you permission to embed the video on your site.

    At this point you are an "innocent infringer" not liable to pay damages because you were following YouTube's rules. That doesn't mean you get to keep the video embed and can't be subject to an injunction to take it down.

    But ... if you keep the embed then you can shift from being an innocent victim to an intentional infringer and subject yourself to a damages claim.


    2. Send a letter with a copy of the lawsuit to Google's legal department, with a copy of your website page and embed, saying you are "tendering" the defense of the claim to Google because you are being sued solely for following their policies.

    Google should then take over your defense and pay for an attorney. If not, it won't be too hard to find a local attorney to sue Google for damages.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
      Originally Posted by kindsvater View Post



      2. Send a letter with a copy of the lawsuit to Google's legal department, with a copy of your website page and embed, saying you are "tendering" the defense of the claim to Google because you are being sued solely for following their policies.

      Google should then take over your defense and pay for an attorney. If not, it won't be too hard to find a local attorney to sue Google for damages.

      .

      Eh, I wouldn't count on Google to come running to anyone's defense, much less pay for your lawyer. People can sue anyone for anything. Whether or not the lawsuit holds up in court is an entirely different matter.


      And any attorney you hire to sue Google will probably want to see some pretty deep pockets. Google has an entire legal department, plus tens of millions of dollars, if not more, to spend on defending themselves.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sven300
    I think what you do is OK...

    But some people argue that we infringe the following You Tube Terms of Use:

    "You agree not to use the Service for any of the following commercial uses unless you obtain YouTube's prior written approval:

    the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page of an ad-enabled blog or website containing Content delivered via the Service, unless other material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and is of sufficient value to be the basis for such sales."


    I think the following two articles are of particular interest:

    Can I Embed YouTube Video at For-Profit Site?

    Embedding copyrighted videos is not copyright infringement

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Sitestomp
    They can't possibly sue you for anything. All you're doing is taking an embed link, provided by Youtube, to post the video on your own site. Youtube encourages this with the share link below every video, so I wouldn't worry.

    If the content creator has a problem with it, they can disable embedding by request. This would break the video embed on your website, but as far as legal grounds... there is none. When they upload a video to Youtube, they are agreeing to Youtube's policies.

    I would just ignore the threats. There's no legal ground.
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  • Profile picture of the author ANDREIS
    You can embed any video uploaded to youtube or other video sharing sites where there is no any special disclaimer saying video cannot be shared at all or it can be shared under special conditions only. Usually those video owners who don't want their video to be shared can disable embedding option, but sometimes they will not do that but will place a disclaimer below the video instead. If they haven't disabled embedding and have not placed a disclaimer forbidding sharing then you can embed that video on your site! Period.
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