Creative Commons license on YouTube

[beret]

Greetings, everyone, especially Ross Scott, who might be the only one qualified to answer my question.

 

As I stated on another thread, I work on the Czech subtitles for Freeman's Mind and some related videos, and I have been posting subtitled videos on my YouTube channel for quite a while.

 

I know that I am basically stealing views from Machinima.com, which is not my intention, but the FAQ here states that I can copy the videos as long as it is non-commercial (and I always use the AF versions, not the Machinima versions), so hopefully I am not infringing anyone's copyright. This has some benefits, too: My copies of the videos are free of Machimia's post-processing (which has harmed the quality of some previous episodes), they are in 480p, and I can literally see and talk to the small Czech Freeman fan base.

 

Since Ross does not intend to restrict the spread of his videos too much, and neither do I, I was thinking of switching all my Accursed Farms videos to the Creative Commons (CC BY) license. This would allow people to copy and remix the videos as they like, while maybe raising awareness of the free culture movement.

 

The question is: Am I allowed to license copies of Ross's videos as CC BY? I can see two problems with this:

• I do not own these videos (I include proper credits in the description, but YouTube might display that I am the author instead).
  
• The license does not restrict commercial sharing (a different license, CC BY-NC, would be required for that).

 

So can I put these videos out as CC BY anyway, or do I have to stick with the Standard YouTube license? Or am I already crossing the line of copyright infringement, should I delete all my videos, give up all my posessions to pay the fine, and go rot in jail for the next few decades?

[Scorpia]

First of all: I didn't see that in the FAQ.

Second,

You really can't do anything without Machinima's permission. I'm going to explain how this works to the best that i understand it. Ross doesn't have full ownership of the videos; Once he submits them to Machinima, he doesn't have any sort of power in what happens to them. They hold the copyrights, sharing, commercializing, etc. even the one's you download from here are owned by them. (hence why the Machinima logo is preserved). So, what i'm saying is, Ross cannot give you permission to do this. Also, technically, you are within copyright infringement because you have the right to download them from here, watch them, make Ross sound like a chipmunk, etc. but not host them on youtube(that's what Non-commercializing means), I'm not sure about anywhere else.

 

Again, this is the best that i understand it. If i'm wrong, I'm sure someone will shamelessly correct me.

 

Edit: Oh, that? Thanks, Goliath.

[St. Goliath]

Q: Can I put your videos on another website, DVD, ipod, etc.?

A: Yes, you can copy and show these videos in any format as long as you’re not selling copies of them.

I personally don't know what's in the contract between Ross and Machinima.com (assuming such a contract exists), but if you trust Ross (or whatever living entity wrote that point in the FAQ) to know and understand the contents of said contract, taking the quote literally means you are granted permission to copy and redistribute the videos under the only restriction that it happens non-comercially. So theoretically attribution isn't even required BUT I would be carefull about using the CC BY-NC here, as that license would grant modification of the vidoes, which is not even mentioned in the quote above and could thus pose a pontential legal trip mine.

 

Please note, at all times, that I'm just a guy on the internet who happened to read a book about copyright law in Austria and I'm not a lawyer. This post is just a guess and does not provide any legal advice whatsoever and in no event shall the author be held liable for any damages arising through the usage of the information provided in this post, especially damages arising through claims of copyright infringement or forms of cancer caused by legaleese combined with ill spelling.

 

Dave

[beret]

I decided to bump this thread because the new videos are released outside the scope of Machinima's contracts.

 

Does that make a difference? Is using CC-BY-NC on YouTube OK now?

[HLPrincess]

I decided to bump this thread because the new videos are released outside the scope of Machinima's contracts.

 

Does that make a difference? Is using CC-BY-NC on YouTube OK now?

 

No, it's not OK.

 

Hey, if you put up Ross' videos on yor channel, that's stealing, no matter what you wrote here. This is his HARD work and YOU ARE STEALING HIS VIEWS. Show some respect and remove these from your channel. You are risking having it banned because of copyright violation.

 

You should have asked Ross before publishing it all.

 

Really, what's wrong with you? Ross had a battle with Machinima for 9 months and just released his videos on his own channel and you just come and ask about the licence?! I'm really pissed off and I'm trying to be polite :/

[Ross Scott]

Hey,

 

Well now that I'm releasing stuff independently from Machinima, the situation has changed some. Since I don't have to go through Machinima anymore, one of my plans was to make a BIG push on subtitles this month. User "danielsangeo" on the forums is pretty much in charge of this. I'd like to respectfully ask that you don't keep putting the videos up on Youtube, because I really could use the views since I'm essentially "rebooting" from leaving Machinima. If you don't mind, please send me or Daniel the subtitles instead. You can put yourself in the subtitle credits, then your subtitles can become the official Czech ones on the videos. I have been horrendously behind on subtitle in the past, but now that I'm getting help, I really think I'm going to make a ton of progress on it. Again, by the end of this month, I'm expecting English subtitles on almost all the videos, and as many foreign language ones as Daniel can process (he won't change the text, but he may have to doublecheck the timing as the new videos no longer contain the Machinima logos).

 

I really do want to support subtitles for as many languages as possible and for once, I think I finally have the means to do it.

[danielsangeo]

Thank you, Ross. I am working on the subtitle files for English as we speak.

[beret]

As I stated in the original post, my intention never was to steal views. I only uploaded copies because there was no easy way to put subtitles on someone else's video. It seemed as a reasonable compromise at the time because 1) the FAQ allowed it, 2) I gave Ross a proper credit, and 3) my views were only a small fraction of Ross's. I only planned to keep my videos up for as long as there were no Czech subtitles on the official videos, which -- as it has turned out -- stayed this way for a couple years.

 

I understand that for Ross, unlike me, views mean income, so I am willing to take my videos down if the subtitles are available on the official ones. This means I will lose feedback from the Czech community, because YouTube does not have separate comment sections for different languages, but I guess it is for the best. It is in my interest to help Ross continue the show.

 

My subtitles for episodes 1 through 31 are attached to my post on the Czech subtitle board. More to come soon.

[danielsangeo]

I am in charge of collecting and creating the subtitles for even the non-English languages. If you could repost your Czech subtitles (the original file seems to have vanished), I will collect them and work on them to add them to the official videos.

 

Thanks for your contribution! If anyone else wants to make non-English language subtitles, please don't hesitate to do so! Also, PM me if you have any so I can compile them. Thanks!

[St. Goliath]

No, it's not OK.

I'd like to respectfully ask that you don't keep putting the videos up on Youtube, because I really could use the views since I'm essentially "rebooting" from leaving Machinima.

Nice that we could finally clarify this issue!

 

Hey, if you put up Ross' videos on yor channel, that's stealing, no matter what you wrote here.

Hm.... Actually no; and this terminology is a major cause of confusion when debating copyright law and related issues. If I steal something from you, you no longer have it. If I copy something, we both have identical versions. Thanks to computers and the internet, copyrighted works got almost completely detatched from physical goods, making "stealing" of copyrighted works impossible and mass distribution an easy thing that does not require any money or time investment and is available to everyone, thus making copyright law a serious issue. Supporters of printing-press-era copyright law and strong enforcement generally prefere using terminologies that create the mental image of physical goods (words like "stealing").

 

However, reuploading the videos could likely reduce the views of the original videos, what is a problem, since you financially depend on them. However, as copyright holder of his videos, Ross is free to use his rights and not grant everybody a permission to redistribute the videos if he preferes, as this is not the default with copyright law, it's just a common use case.

 

You are risking having it banned because of copyright violation.

If Ross sends a takedown notice, yes, otherwise no. To use YouTubes automated "content" (yet another one of those words) detection algorithms, you have to pay for it.

 

You should have asked Ross before publishing it all.

Yes, definitely yes.

 

Really, what's wrong with you? Ross had a battle with Machinima for 9 months and just released his videos on his own channel and you just come and ask about the licence?!

The initial post of this thread is a little older. (September 2012). He couldn't have known that back then.

 

I'm really pissed off and I'm trying to be polite :/

I see. I must excuse for what may seem as a missfit legal/political discussion, but I'm myself trying to stay polite and objective, what is probably a lot easier for someone who isn't directly affected, actually writing this in another timezone thousands of kilometers away.

 

Sincerely

 

Dave