Hi, I've corresponded quite a bit with my voice actor so he's in the loop when it comes to what this will be for. Also I'll be getting full broadcast rights in my package so all set when it comes to that as well. My concern is if YT only considers original commentary now to be that of the actual creator. I'll make note to keep record via email as you've suggested. I greatly appreciate your suggestions.Moved to the copyright / claims / legal forum.
Well, you need to make it clear to the voice actor that this is for a YouTube video and ask them who has the copyright. At the very least, even if they retain the copyright, by paying them to do the voice-over, they should be granting you a license to use the audio in a video. Ask the fiverr seller to grant you written permission to use the voice over in a YT video and then keep that email in your records. Honestly their whole business model is based around recording audio for videos so there is no way they wouldn't be ok with it. If nobody was allowed to use the audio in YT, then they wouldn't have a fiverr gig.
I've not considered narrating as it would completely take away from the cinematic experience I'm trying to provide...although I sure wish I had a hallmark voice to pull it off but simply put, I do not. I just reached out to a real popular Youtuber by the name Nick Nimmin who's channel is to help other content creators & asked " how he would define "original commmentary"...for ex. If I were to write scripts for my videos & hire an award winning voiceover artist from somewhere like Fiverr to narrate those scripts, would this fall under original commentary or is that out the window" & received this reply..."What is the context of the term "original commentary" used? How is it referred to in the documentation you're reading? If it's in regard to the YPP, I'm guessing you will want to provide your own commentary, and in that, they want your own thoughts on the subject matter, not re-stating another work word for word. Commentary not narration."
My humble opinion is that what you're doing is fine. The commentary is original - You wrote the script. It's irrelevant who is speaking. The voice actor is just an actor, reading an original script. The content would only become "not original" if you then used that exact same commentary and voice recording on other videos. That would be duplicate content. Also, YT doesn't like "text to speech" software that many channels do with that ridiculous sounding robotic voice. But that is not what you're doing either.I've not considered narrating as it would completely take away from the cinematic experience I'm trying to provide...although I sure wish I had a hallmark voice to pull it off but simply put, I do not. I just reached out to a real popular Youtuber by the name Nick Nimmin who's channel is to help other content creators & asked " how he would define "original commmentary"...for ex. If I were to write scripts for my videos & hire an award winning voiceover artist from somewhere like Fiverr to narrate those scripts, would this fall under original commentary or is that out the window" & received this reply..."What is the context of the term "original commentary" used? How is it referred to in the documentation you're reading? If it's in regard to the YPP, I'm guessing you will want to provide your own commentary, and in that, they want your own thoughts on the subject matter, not re-stating another work word for word. Commentary not narration."
Quite irritated nonetheless as he's implying i'm going to plagiarize my scripts. I mean I clearly stated I was going to write scripts therefore that is my own thoughts on the subject matter..& he's suppose to be helping other creators yet can't even reply a comment properly smh..I'm at a boiling pt tbh but I would greatly appreciate a 2nd opinion from your colleague. This is the reality of being a Youtube creator, you have to seek help from fellow Youtubers most of which already think they have it all fig'd out because u can't touch base w/YT direct & get an answer to a simple question like this. It's unfortunate & discouraging to say the least. Before I spend a bunch of $$ I don't have, I'd like a straight answer for this question but if I don't get an answer soon it will be too late & i'll be taking a shot in the dark potentially flushing my budget down the drain.
Does YT creator support ever reply to threads in yttalk?? Now would be a great time for someone from YT to chime in & enlighten me w/a legit answer to this question.
I was thinking along those exact same lines although they were starting to get away from me due to the responses I've been receiving from various creators.. I appreciate your humble opinion. I've decided to use my inactive YT channel Twitter account to tweet direct @ many YT employees & Creator Insider in attempts to receive an official answer.. I'm awaiting replies w/my fingers crossed although i'm not holding my breath but there's only 1 way to find out. Thanks again for your opinion as it provides some reassurance in a dire time of need.
