Is it legal to make an app from youtube videos?
Hi IndieHackers,
I was thinking of an app based on youtube videos. I had a question is it legal to use youtube videos that someone else has created on my website? What I mean by using is metadata of the videos and link of that video.
Hi @akshaymattoo,
it may be worth having a quick read of Youtube's policy/legal docs:
https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/policies/copyright/
As @AndrewKamphey mentioned, getting permission will be important.
On the link above you will see a section called Fair Use, which refers to this.
The other place to take a look is Youtube API:
https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/
It has guides on what you can access, and then there is a Terms of Service there that comprehensive on the use of the service.
(https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/api-services-terms-of-service)
Thank you nighbird. I will go through Terms of service.
It's legal and encouraged to embed youtube videos.
Or you could write up a quick "license" and just ask creators to license their videos to you. I worked at a company that we signed 2,500 youtube creators to license deals in 4 years. About 8 to 10 people were working on that. So you can do the math to figure out how long it would take 1 person or 1 part time person to license channels and their content.
Honestly for many small youtubers it is an easy yes if you want to use their videos on your own platform and they get paid.
If you're not paying for their work, IP, then i can't help you there.
Thank you for the quick response. I am going to use their videos but In the end, I am going to redirect them to their channel itself. I am not going to download or store any kind of their videos.
Also, what is a "license" and what do I send them in order to convince them.
Have you heard of listennotes.com? That website is aggregating all the podcast data and has built an API that is paid. Does that mean it's illegal too?
well it's not illegal to scrape data. LinkedIn lost that court battle.
a license is a contract that you state what you're using the video for and what you'll offer in return. It could be revenue per view on your platform, it could be a flat fee, it could be nothing. it's an agreement, a written agreement all parties sign and agree to.
this site might be of help to you to read up on IP, licenses and contracts: https://www.newmediarights.org/legal_how_to_guides_for_citizen_media_creators_online_publishing
If you're looking to aggregate yt data, have you checked out TubularLabs?
GetTingles started as just ASMR videos and got YouTube channels to agree to put their content on the platform. To be honest I don't know what they are up to now a days.
Thank for the link to read. Sorry I may ask silly questions about I fail to understand if scrapping on the open web is legal then what is the need for me to get into the whole licensing thing.