Legal Question in Technology Law in New York
Website Y is an aggregation site that features articles about cool things on the web. Their writers scours the internet and find cool Youtube videos and include/embed (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780?hl=en) them in their articles which are featured on the site. Each article has a bit of information about the video, and the video itself(embedded).
Question: Can website X feature/use the same(exactly the same) collection of video�s on it�s own articles? In other words not any text or images that belongs to Y. In other words, get the ideas of what videos to feature from Y?
I�m quite sure X can embed the videos on their articles without special permission from Youtube, the question is around having the same collection of videos as Y on their articles.
Should this question require the Youtube Terms of Service it can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
1 Answer from Attorneys
Should you require a review of YouTube's terms it is something you will have to hire a lawyer to offer.
You are asking whether Y has any copyright interest in the way in which they organized or presented their material. While that possibility exists, I would say any protection you have would be very attenuated. The other issue to consider is whether Y is infringing by merely linking to the content of others. If you are commenting on each video it may certainly be fair use, but this is a legal defense. So if any copyright owner gets ticked off enough they are always free to drag you into court and force you to prove your use as fair. Just offering some fluffy commentary to get around infringement has been shown to be unsuccessful in many legal actions.
I think you should consult a lawyer in private and have them offer a proper analysis just so you are clear.
If you would like to discuss further over a free phone consult, feel free to contact me anytime that is convenient.
Kind regards,
Frank
www.LanternLegal.com
866-871-8655
DISCLAIMER: this is not intended to be specific legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. No attorney-client relationship is formed on the basis of this posting.
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