
From today videos can be tagged with a Creative Commons licence. Does this mean YouTube becomes a free stock footage library?
No it doesn't, there are limitations so the days of a client walking into an edit suite and saying "Let's just find it all on YouTube" aren't here just yet, thankfully.
So what does it mean? Any new or existing video uploaded to YouTube can be tagged with a licence. Confusingly, YouTube have decided to offer 6 different versions plus another two licence options. The licencing gives others the permission to use a video in another video whilst retaining the copyright with the original owner. An example would be making a top ten video of peoples cats, 10 clips from 10 different cat owners edited into a new video. As long as their clips have the correct licence, YouTube will have no problem in publishing your cat mashup. Sorry for the cat analogy but we came across this trending video in the YouTube blog. That channel has had over a hundred million views!
We can see a variety of uses for the licence. A tourist board or large sporting event might publish a load of clips for use in return for the publicity. The quality won't be great even at 1080 but if you a desperate for a shot of snow on mountains or maybe a specific football stadium, it just might work nicely. Legal too.
We will leave you to work your way through the different licences available.
The following options are available for downloadable videos:
- LICENSE: Personal, non-commercial use only
The copyright owner allows only personal, non-commercial use of this video. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, or make derivative works of this video.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works)
The copyright owner allows distribution of this video with attribution but prohibits commercial use or derivative works. For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike)
The copyright owner allows distribution and also creation of derivative works of this video, in each case with attribution and under the same or similar license as this license, but prohibits commercial use. For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution-Noncommercial)
The copyright owner allows distribution of this video and derivative works provided there is attribution in each case, but prohibits commercial use. For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution-No Derivative Works)
The copyright owner allows distribution of this video and commercial use provided there is attribution in each case, but prohibits derivative works. For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution-Share Alike)
The copyright owner allows distribution, commercial use and derivative works of this video, in each case with attribution and under the same license as this license. For more information about this license, please read:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
- LICENSE: Creative Commons (Attribution)
The copyright owner allows distribution, commercial use, and derivative works of the video provided there is attribution in each case. For more information about this license, please read: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
- Public Domain
This work is not under copyright protection.