Okay let's say I can take feeds of a video site (i.e. YouTube etc) and then display them on my site (i.e. 5 to 10 per site) and let's say there are 6 different sites (i.e. 60 videos on a page). Then when a user click on a video instead of sending them to YouTube or other sites I embed the YouTube player and play the video on my site. Can I get sued or run into legal problems by doing this? Obviously YouTube allows me or anyone to embed and play videos on a webpage, but if I took this to the next level would I experience any problems? Skinny
You shouldn't run into problems provided that you make certain that the videos aren't of copyrighted works, e.g. TV episodes, movies etc. If you link to/host to copyrighted materials that are illegally being distributed you could possibly be held liable for contributory infringement. User generated content should be fine. You should also make sure that you implement a method where people can identify copyright violations and then you should act upon them in a timely manner (removing them from your site).
Have you checked the YouTube TOS on this issue? I'm sure the new Google Administration will have written a rule about it!
I got this response: What I'm building is simply a RSS agreggator for videos. However, I want something clarified. While they do allow me to do this for commercial use and embedd the player for personal use they say it must be non-commercial. What does this mean? Does this mean I can't place Adsense on my site or sell links or does this mean that I can't charge for displaying the videos (obviously won't do this). Skinny
If a site has advertising on the site it is normally seen as a commercial site. Basically it means that the site generates some kind of revenue (not necessarily fro selling a product, or charging for access). My guess would be that you wouldn't be allowed to place Adsense on the pages with the videos. It's basically the same thing Google does with their News service. They don't display any ads on the news pages because that would be a violation of the TOS of the RSS feed providers and would generate income from copyrighted materials.
Ah I see. Makes sense then. But then doesn't that mean that lots of people violate TOS by embedded the videos in sites that contain Adsense or ads (forget RSS)? Skinny
Yes, that's 100% true. I don't think YouTube polices their TOS with regard to this very closely so you might get away with this while the site is small. However if the site grows to a large size and get 10 000+ visitors a day (as an example...) I'm sure they will notice the huge amount of traffic and bandwidth being used and investigate it. Then you might have some issues.
Thanks crusader for the help. So if the site does become costly then and I'm not able to fund it through links or adsense then would adding a donate button work. I just don't want to run myself into a hole. I've contacted YouTube and will be waiting for their reply regarding the non-commercial issue though they will probably say what you've just stated. Skinny