Are amatuer videos on youtube public domain?

I am not trying to do anything, I was just curious.

 

No, not unless the owner explicitly says so.

 

But, in the event that you do download it or whatever, the chances are the person won't care... There are some exceptions with people wanting money so bad...just be careful...

 

Read the terms of use. Google seems to think everything is public information, even a photo of your house (whch can be viewed by virtually anyone).

 

Something being viewable by the public is different than something being in the public domain. Google owns the copyright to all photos they take, from google street view as you mentioned. What they are doing is also entirely legal because the photos are taken on public property.

 

This google copyright thing is pretty stupid. If I go out in public and take pictures of people in public property I don't have rights to their image. I can't do anything with those images unless I have a model release. Being on public property is not grounds to be able to take photos and claim them as your own.

You can't even take pictures of public monuments and sell the pictures because it's owned by the public not you.

Seams like there is a double standard on the laws of copyright.

 

As an individual take the picture from public property, or from your own property you have the rights to it. You have to start worrying about model releases and what not when you are taking pictures of people whom are identified. Google's copyright ownership is no different then an individuals.

 

Your understanding of the law on this topic is sorely lacking.

 

he understood it right. If you make a picture you own it. The only exception is if the picture has people in it, or it is a place where making photo's is illegal (airports, military bases - you could go to jail for that picture)

 

That part is simply not accurate.

If you insist that it is please share with all of any any authority for that position. What is the basis for the "exception" you seem to think exists?

I think you are both confusing concepts. I can go outside right now and take a picture of people on the street and I will own the copyright to that image 100%. However, there are limitations to how I may use the photo I own. I cannot use the photo in some commercial purposes to make it seem like the persons in the photo are endorsing a product, etc.

The notion that one cannot take and own pictures of people taken in public is so obviously wrong. Open up any newspaper, magazine, website, and you will see an infinite number of photos, owned by the photographer, taken of people in public.