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General Discussion

Posted by Julia R Waldner
Julia R Waldner
2,845 Points

Embedded YouTube videos - copyright question

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone of you know the current legal status of using embedded youtube links on my business website/blog? Is this infringing copyright? The infos of the copyright basics course were really helpful, but doesn't mention anything about youtube links concerning that matter. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction where I can find answers to this or knows the answer. Thanks in advance!

1 Answer

Shawn Gregory
PLUS
Shawn Gregory
Courses Plus Student 40,672 Points
Shawn Gregory
Shawn Gregory
Courses Plus Student 40,672 Points

Julia,

Take a look at this article here and you'll get your answer. Mind you it's a bit outdated but it's a good place to start and I believe that nothing new has come up since then.

Cheers!

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

From the posted link:

For example, if I found an episode of The Simpsons on YouTube that I thought was really nifty and I embedded it in my blog, I wouldn’t be violating any copyright laws even if the person who uploaded the video to YouTube ripped it straight from The Simpsons’ season 3 DVD. It would be the person who put the video on YouTube who was breaking the law, not me.

Also worth quoting from the posted article,

bypassing Flava’s pay wall by viewing the uploaded copy is equivalent to stealing a copyrighted book from a bookstore and reading it. That is a bad thing to do (in either case) but it is not copyright infringement

Now wether it is a good idea from a business public relations perspective to be doing something that (most likely) required someone else to break a law well that's a different question.