Commercial use of Youtube Videos in a Community Site

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Commercial use of Youtube Videos in a Community Site

(14 posts) (5 voices)

Started 10 months ago by janiejohnson23
Latest reply from Sparx

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janiejohnson23
Member

Hi,

I am developing a Community website where the users will have the option to embed / upload videos, advertisements, reviews, demos etc.

As You Tube is the biggest & most popular Video site, users might embed / upload You Tube videos in my site. May I know whether this is allowed & if there’s any written permission required from You Tube’s end which I may require. As I would be earning ad-sense and other sorts of revenue thru my website and this might be termed as a commercial use of videos.

Also, can I directly use/ embed the You Tube videos on my site or I need permission from YouTube?

Contact details of the concerned person / department in Youtube / Google would be a great help

regards
Janie
janiejohnson23@yahoo.co.uk

Posted 10 months ago #
0xff
Member

I believe using Youtube videos commercially using Adsense for revenues is against their policy.

Posted 10 months ago #
janiejohnson23
Member

hi, My site is not a Clone of Youtube which is made by using you tube videos only to earn adsense revenue. My site would facilitate shopping & other community activities & videos is one section in the same. Videos is one part of the whole website & adsense is one of the revenue streams. I would like to take prior permission from Youtube & would appreciate if I can get some contact details of concerned person / department

regards
Janie
janiejohnson23@yahoo.co.uk

Posted 10 months ago #
Sparx
Moderator

@Janie - Please have a look here - http://uk.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite

Contact Details here

Also check out YouTube's Partner Programme

Posted 10 months ago #
janiejohnson23
Member

Dear Sparx, Thanks for the info but I have tried all of them & none of them works. Here're the details
1) http://uk.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite : These r general set of information & guides you on how to utilize the video but it's silent on the Legal aspect of using YouTube videos for commercial purpose. Their T&C clearly states : "you agree not to use the Website or any Services (including the YouTube Player) for any commercial use, without the prior written authorisation of YouTube". But there's no way to contact them to take a Written Authorisation.

2)Contact Details here : I tried all the contact threads & also sent mails on legal@youtube.com, copyright@youtube.com, I even tried some different options like sending mail to the CEO @ chad.hurley@youtube.com but that bounced back. I tried sending mails to few more people in Youtube, after checking out some names in different sites, But that too didn't work

3) YouTube's Partner Program : The Partner program is for Content Owners. I even tried contacting thru that but it required a login & once I logged in it showed a message that I cannot apply for the Partner program, as the no. of videos i have in my account & the total no. of views doesn't justify it. This is probably for those people who already got thousands of views for their videos.

I am really frustrated & don't know how to contact them. Please help me out

regards
Janie
janiejohnson23@yahoo.co.uk

Posted 10 months ago #
Sparx
Moderator

Well, Janie: There are phone and fax numbers, so I suggest you contact them via phone and speak to a human being. Other than that, are there any directory enquiry services that provide info? Also, I'd suggest contacting website owners / sysadmins of sites that embed or have a special partnership with Youtube.

I'm afraid all this requires a significant amount of legwork and homework to be done on your part.

Good luck on your quest. Let us know how things proceed.

Posted 10 months ago #
Amit
Key Master

Janie - I think your need is more like that of ning.com, fark or current.com communities where members frequently embed YouTube videos to support the content.

I don't think you require permission for this.

However, if the whole purpose of the site is centered around YouTube video, you may have issues. Check this - Google Against YouTube Clones

Posted 10 months ago #
janiejohnson23
Member

Dear Sparx & Amit, Thanks for your responses.

As advised by you I called up on +1-6502530000 and got the following response :
1)Dial the Extension no. : I don't have
2)Dial 8 to dial by Name : I tried dialing for Catherine Lacavera, Legal person (I got her name from few news sites) but couldn't get through her no.
3) For ads call : 8662466453
4) For Job dial 2 : No response
5) For Search technology integration dial 3 : Again it gave an automated response & there's no Human Being I could talk to
6) For Search Application dial 4 : Same as No. 5 above
7) For Customer Support / Technical support pls dial 5 : Sorry we do not offer customer support on telephone pls contact us on http://www.google.com/report

Dear Amit : Regarding my site. well ,my site is not a clone of YouTube. It would have various other community features + e-commerce activities & videos will just be one part of the whole Portal. Moreover my sole source of earning is also NOT Ad-sense, & its much more than that.

Kindly advise any other route which I may take. I do not want to take any chances with my business, as I would be spending a lot of money in promotion also & if tomorrow YouTube suddenly appears claiming that I am misusing their content etc. & disable all the videos then it would have serious affects on my business.

I sincerely seek a guidance on the above

Regards
Janie

Posted 10 months ago #
Amit
Key Master

Janie - This is what Google has to say on the use of YouTube videos - ""We will enforce our Terms of Use against, say, a website that does nothing more than aggregate a bunch of embedded YouTube videos and intentionally tries to generate ad revenue from them."

Since your site has shopping, community, etc. and videos is just one part of it, I don't think that it should be an issue with Google. But again, I am no legal expert.

Posted 10 months ago #
Sparx
Moderator

@Janie - have you looked into the possibility of hosting the videos on your own site? Naturally I'm assuming all the content that you host will have the legal owner(s)' permission.

If YouTube has a problem with your generating revenue from videos NOT uploaded by you (which I think they will), then the only other option would be to merely link and NOT embed the video in question.

Posted 10 months ago #
janiejohnson23
Member

Amit : Is there a way to take Permission from YouTube Or Shall i just start up with this w/o taking their permission.

regards
Janie

Posted 10 months ago #
janiejohnson23
Member

latest development: I finally got a response from youtube....i am checking out their terms as mentioned by them

Posted 10 months ago #
suyash
Member

Hi Janie

That's gr8...

I am presently working on to launch a free tutorial site for which i want to embed some youtube videos. I would also like to use adsense to support my site as the tutorials provided would be free of cost to my visitors. Please let me know on your developments.

Thanx

Posted 10 months ago #
Sparx
Moderator

@Janie: Did you get the response via email / telephone? Let us know how things proceed. Very glad to see that progress is being made in your endeavour.

Posted 10 months ago #

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