Youtube transcription?

February 1, 2012 12:41 PM

How do I get a transcription of a copyrighted (not by me) fifteen minute youtube video, for my own personal use?

It's a single person talking fairly slowly, with no background noise. Ideally, I'd give someone the link, make a secure credit card transaction, and I'd have the transcript emailed to me in say 48 hours.

I know there are plenty of transcription companies online, but does anyone have recommendations from personal experience, especially regarding the copyright issue?

(If I have to provide an audio file instead of a link, what's the best way to get audio from youtube? I'm on a mac.)

posted by zeek321 to computers & internet (7 answers total)

This sounds like a job for Mechanical Turk (I have no idea how hard it is to set up an account as a worker.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:14 PM on February 1, 2012

This'll cost you $5 on Fiverr.com. Just search for "transcription".
posted by darth_tedious at 1:17 PM on February 1, 2012

Still totally curious about other options.
posted by zeek321 at 1:20 PM on February 1, 2012

This sounds like a job for Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk is generally better for many small tasks than for one big task.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:25 PM on February 1, 2012

I'm a transcriber and I take PayPal but it would cost more than $5 because I'm in the UK and need to earn a living wage. I don't see a copyright issue if it's for your own personal use. I would expect you to state that in an email to me, and I would destroy my copy of the text as soon as it was sent to you and you had confirmed it had arrived.

I think that's how the copyright issue would work, anyway - that's my understanding of it, but I will check back later in case of any other comments, as it would be interesting to know.
posted by LyzzyBee at 1:57 PM on February 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Couldn't you just do it yourself? You press play, person says a thing, you hit pause and write down what they said. Repeat until finished. Might take as much as an hour if you're a particularly slow writer.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:02 PM on February 1, 2012

Sorry to threadsit. Generally speaking, I'm happy to pay more than $5 for a quality job that I don't have to fiddle with. And, yeah, I don't even have an hour. Crazy busy. My time is definitely worth more than my money for this.
posted by zeek321 at 2:06 PM on February 1, 2012