copyright intellectual-property internet youtube
Is it legal to use others Youtube videos on my website to teach people
<p>First time in this exchange community, if my question needs editing please let me know.</p>
<p>I'm wondering is it legal to use/embed youtube videos on my own website (domain in canada). What the website does can be following scenarios:</p>
<ul>
<li>List down several workout videos from youtube, and let users select a video and then they can virtually workout with other peers by all following this video together through this website.</li>
<li>Same as above, except it's education video that let user watch/study it together with others</li>
<li>last one, also very similar, but it's a cooking class video where we let several people watch/learn to do it together</li>
</ul>
<p>I tried to search up online regarding this topic, but I was getting a mixed answer:</p>
<p>it's okay/legal:</p>
<ul>
<li>if the video provides a embed video link (i imagine the assumption here is that since the author/video creator provided the embedding link, that implies it's probably okay to share it, which in my case is embedding/showing the video on my website) and given you are not editing or claiming ownership on the video</li>
<li>another sentiment i was seeing is that, since you are embedding youtube videos, that should be increasing the traffic for youtube and also the video creator as well, so they should be okay with it</li>
</ul>
<p>it's not okay:</p>
<ul>
<li>you need to get direct/clear authorization to use the video (no matter how you use it), the issue we had with this is that, we tried to contact several authors of videos we wanted to use, but did not get response at all.</li>
</ul>
<p>could someone shed some light on this?</p>
<p>Edit:
what we mean by <strong>use</strong> or <strong>embed</strong> is,</p>
<ol>
<li>we take out the embedding link in the html generated by clicking on the <code>Share</code> and then <code>Embed</code> button i.e. Go to regular youtube playing page, <code>Share</code> -&gt; <code>Embed</code> -&gt; take out the link from the <code>src</code> attribute from the <code>Embed Video</code> section.</li>
<li>then we display that video using some javascript player on our website by providing the embedding link obtained above to it. We disabled user interaction on the player (i.e. user can't click on the video and go to youtube), but its clearly still a youtube video with all its original title etc (so for example, user can visit the video or even the channel if they really want to by looking it up in youtube)</li>
</ol>

<p>As you describe the plan, you are circumventing the Youtube embeddable player, which makes this a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/static?template=terms" rel="nofollow noreferrer">violation of the TOS</a>. They say</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You may also show YouTube videos through the embeddable YouTube
player.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And also</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You are not allowed to:</p>
<p>access, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, alter, modify or otherwise use any part of the
Service or any Content except: (a) as expressly authorized by the
Service; or (b) with prior written permission from YouTube and, if
applicable, the respective rights holders; circumvent, disable,
fraudulently engage with, or otherwise interfere with any part of the
Service (or attempt to do any of these things), including
security-related features or features that (a) prevent or restrict the
copying or other use of Content or (b) limit the use of the Service or
Content</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is, you must use <em>their</em> player, and not a different one. You should also consult their more extensive description of &quot;how to&quot; <a href="https://developers.google.com/youtube/player_parameters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, in case this describes what you are actually plannning to do.</p>

<p><strong>What you are doing is against the terms of service which makes it illegal</strong></p>
<p>The legal way to do it is specified by google <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780?hl=en" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.  You're violating the terms of service by using the direct link.  Google is very good at noticing when people don't do it the right way (remember, they also crawl your site nightly).</p>
