Can a business use someone else's YouTube videos online for $$?

May 7, 2024 10:20 AM

If a business has a fully pre-recorded online class/course that they charge money for, can they put other people's YouTube videos in the course? YouTube's Terms of Service are a mess and copyright law is unlcear (to me). Is that monetizing someone else's work?

One of the driving schools I work with is developing an online course for Adult Driver Ed. The class has no teacher and isn't conducted live; students pay the school for an access account and can then "take" the course (basically watching six hours of PowerPoints with AI voiceovers) so that they can apply for a driving permit.

Since this is very much a product being sold, what are the rules/laws about grabbing a bunch of videos off of YouTube and embedding them in the presentations?

posted by tzikeh to Law & Government (11 answers total)

I've taken multiple university-level classes that have embedded YouTube videos (videos not produced by the course providers) in the course material. As I understand it, copyright-wise embedding is the same as linking but it's not exactly settled law. The main issue with using external videos in your course isn't about rules or laws, it's practical - the videos can be taken down or restricted (including disallowing embedding entirely) by the owner and then you have a dead spot in your presentation. If you try to get around this by copying the video, then you are violating copyright law and opening yourself up to trouble. Lots of YouTubers won't actually mind at all because they get ad revenue off embedded plays, but maybe you don't want embedded ads in your course.
posted by mskyle at 10:45 AM on May 7

Response by poster: mskyle I promise not to threadsit but here's the distinction that might make a difference -- the way these classes are created is basically as videos of powerpoint presentations with YouTube videos interspersed with the slides. it's not a slide presentation that the students can advance slide by slide on their own with some slides including linked or embedded YouTube videos -- it's six hour-long videos which I believe are powerpoint presentations exported as video with the YouTube videos playing at different points in the presentation. They're not links -- it's like video of videos.
posted by tzikeh at 10:57 AM on May 7

Best answer: No, legally, you cannot just take someone else's video, stick it in another video and sell it (unless the video you are inserting has a license that allows this, like a Creative Commons license. Youtube's terms of service aren't the issue here.
posted by ssg at 11:46 AM on May 7 [5 favorites]

Best answer: it's six hour-long videos which I believe are powerpoint presentations exported as video with the YouTube videos playing at different points in the presentation. They're not links -- it's like video of videos.

Yeah, when you export the PowerPoint to video you're making a copy of the YouTube video and you can't do that without the permission of the rightsholder. This is different from live links/embedding and would be a copyright violation.
posted by mskyle at 11:56 AM on May 7 [2 favorites]

Are you sure that these aren't links in the Powerpoint video? I am not deeply familiar with Powerpoint but many media apps allow you to embed playable content as links that play as if the media is part of a file, even though the underlying asset is fetched from the network when it's played.

I would be a bit surprised if Powerpoint downloads Youtube videos directly.
posted by zippy at 12:01 PM on May 7

I would be a bit surprised if Powerpoint downloads Youtube videos directly.

Powerpoint doesn't, but if you make a video from a powerpoint presentation, you're copying any videos contained in the presentation. This gets rid of the practical issues that I mention in my first comment (the YouTube account holder can take down the original video without changing OPs company's product) but also creates a copy and thus a copyright violation.
posted by mskyle at 12:07 PM on May 7

Response by poster: zippy: Are you sure that these aren't links in the Powerpoint video?

Yes. I have the powerpoint decks and I have the completed videos.
posted by tzikeh at 12:31 PM on May 7

I will point out that the concept of Fair Use or Fair Dealing create certain scenarios where you can copy a work (or portions thereof) without the permission of the rightsholder (though not necessarily without a lawsuit). I will also note that a great number of lawyers are employed because of how fuzzy the limits of those scenarios are, and your company should spend some money now to talk with some lawyers to give you advice specific to your situation and jurisdiction.
posted by yuwtze at 12:53 PM on May 7 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: yuwtze: your company should spend some money now to talk with some lawyers to give you advice specific to your situation and jurisdiction.

No need - this was a very simple matter of --

Me: "You can't do that!"
Them: "Why not?"
Me: "Illegal!"
Them: "Oh for real?"
Me: double-checks with MetaFilter that my general thinking about it being legally stupid is right, even if it's not entirely 100% oh-noes illegal
Me: "Yah pretty much"
Them: "Ok, we'll take them out."
posted by tzikeh at 1:36 PM on May 7 [11 favorites]

I guess you have your answer to this specific question but I just have to chime in and say this course sounds like an accessibility nightmare. I guess people learning how to drive won't need audio descriptions, but what about captions and sign and...
posted by Alensin at 4:19 PM on May 7 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Alensin - you wouldn't believe how bad driving schools are at literally everything, including teaching people how to drive.
posted by tzikeh at 5:47 PM on May 7 [3 favorites]