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Question by Jake H: Are Youtube videos considered “public domain” for personal use?
I’m making a documentary, and I was wondering if I can take stock news footage from youtube and just use the audio. I planned on submitting this to film festivals and possibly even copyrighting it, so my questions are:

1) Are youtube videos considered to be “public domain” and free for me to use?
2) Would I be I breaking any legal rules if I download the audio and use it?
3) If so, what do I have to do so that I can’t be sued?

Any help would be wonderful. Thanks so much!

Best answer:

Answer by esquilax
Sorry, most of the videos (including the audio part) on youtube are copyrighted. The only things that aren’t would be old movies where the copyright has expired or things the copyright holder has chosen to release to public domain.

You might be able to use small parts for certain reasons under “fair use” or “fair dealing” (the name depends on where you live). You can read more about that for advice (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing ). For example, Saturday Night Live can show a parody of Harry Potter without getting sued because parody is usually covered under fair use.

To protect yourself from getting sued, you really need to contact the copyright holders of everything you want to use and ask them if you can use their work. You can explain what you need it for and see if they’ll let you use it. I’ve heard of documentaries using famous songs and paying the copyright holder $ 1 or nothing for their use.

Good luck with your film!

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