Are YouTube Mashups Legal?

by Presto Smith

Posted: 13 years ago 9 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have seen videos on youtube where another youtube user would copy a viral video and then mash it up with other youtube videos to create a new video altogether. Does anyone have insight as to whether this is illegal due to copyright infringement? Thanks,

-Presto

#legal #mashups #youtube

Paleochora 13 years ago

Good question. My guess that it is technically illegal but probably would take a lot of legal money spent to prosecute a claim.

Another question is about making articles into videos. Fine if you read your own articles and put images or a presentation to it...but what about reading someone else's article? Some would say that's the same as cutting/pasting but it's not really as it will become a different medium completely. Also it is a way for people to use good content without search engine content duplication issues (if, indeed, they exist).

Any legal eagles like to chime in?
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Toby Lewis 13 years ago

I'm with Paleochora... It's probably illegal, but as long as you don't do it with a video from a huge corporation then it's unlikely they'll take any legal action.

Be careful of viral videos put out by marketing companies though
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- David Hooper 13 years ago
  
  You're not likely to get in trouble for uploading anything, but if somebody complains, it will probably be removed. The reason you see so much of it up is because...
  
  1. Mashups help draw attention to original content being used.
  
  2. Most stuff on YouTube hasn't been cleared to begin with.
  
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tmoby 13 years ago

Yes it's technically illegal, and it can never be stopped.

I guess it can be considered a mild form of 'blackhat' youtube marketing. Very profitable if you know what you're doing. Worth checking into if you don't mind copying video content...

But you didn't hear it from me!
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Presto Smith 13 years ago

Thanks for the answers, so it sounds like the general idea is that this is illegal. If these videos are hosted on youtube, it sounds like the worst thing that would happen is that youtube would stop showing the video rather than pursuing legal action.

I thought that you might be able to use them via a creative commons license or similar. Ohh well, I guess I will have to find a new solution.
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Presto Smith 13 years ago

Before I sign off on this one, I wanted to share an example for this thread:

YouTube - ‪Fail Compilation March 2011 ||...

This is a compilation video that the channel owners have created by other videos online. As you will see this has millions of views. Do you think that they are reaching out to each clip owner and getting permission to post a video like this one, or are they just taking such short clips that it does not violate a copyright on the video?

It would be great to have a lawyer weigh in on this one. Are there any intellectual property lawyers on this forum?
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IdeaLady 13 years ago

Copyrights are often decided on the facts of an individual case. A mashup might be considered a derivative work and you do not have the right to create a derivative work from someone else's copyrighted material.

If you were sued you could try to claim fair use (depending on what and how much of the original work was used) or that the mashup was a parody, which is generally allowed. In either case, even if you win you would potentially be out thousands of dollars in legal fees.

To respond to the issue raised by Paleochora, reading someone else's articles would definitely be a violation of copyright law. Don't even think about it.
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supernal 13 years ago

It depends. You can't make money off of it, for instance, if it isn't your work. The people you took the videos from would operate under the same legal stipulations. To that end, if you at least mention the people that contributed to the mashup, and links to their profiles or a credits scene at the end or something, I think you'd be fine.

But I'm no lawyer, so don't go rushing into this on my word alone.
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Presto Smith 13 years ago

Thanks for the additional input on this one. I finally found my answer:

Youtube Creative Commons

If you follow the link above, you can see that the users have the option to apply a creative commons license to the upload. So, using videos that have this type of approval should be legit. Thankfully YouTube has a search option that only shows CC licensed videos
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