Using obviously copyrighted content - What am i missing?!

[Duffbeer]

Youtube tells you that you can't monetize videos that contain copyright content. However, when you watch bigger channels, it becomes evident very quickly, that almost all of them use content like hollywood movies, other youtube videos, photos or famous songs to make their videos more appealing and interesting to watch. Clearly, non of the stuff they use belongs to them and most of the time, they are not even mentioning the original sources in the description.

On the other hand, if i was trying to create a top 10 list for example, where footage of a christian bale batman movie was shown, my channel would get banned into f*****g oblivion. How are channels like cinema sins, pewdiepie or mojo using all this stuff without getting sued?

I just don't get it. How is this legal and how does it work?

 

[Crown]

Moved to the copyright / legal forum.

 

[KudoJin]

Before I start this, I want to say I am NOT a lawyer. I just did waaaaaaay too much research on this stuff. That said, even with my research this should not be taken as any sort of legal advice.

In the case of CinemaSins, they are using the copyrighted movie footage for the purposes of comment and critique, which falls under fair use. They are allowed to do that.

WatchMojo could probably be argued in a similar manner, but it's not as clear as CinemaSins so I wouldn't be surprised if WatchMojo lost if a company ever took them to court.

As for channels like PewDiePie, I stopped watching his videos a while ago but I'm assuming you're talking about those channels that include clips of copyrighted content in their regular stuff. That isn't as clear cut. If the clip is short enough, you MIGHT be able to argue fair use, but I wouldn't bank on it. Honestly if the companies wanted to take down those videos because of copyright, they probably would be entirely within their legal rights to do so. Whether or not fair use applies can only be decided on by a judge, so until this actually goes to court we probably won't know for sure.

But let me ask you this - what company wants the negative publicity that would come with taking down a video of someone as big as PewDiePie? Now I'm not saying that PewDiePie can get away with anything, if he started uploading full movies without the permission of the movie studio he'd probably be banned in the blink of an eye (and then also sued for about 10 million USD), but I do believe that he has a little more leeway than a lot of his peers due to his channels sheer size.

Of course, another possibility is that his channel is so big that he can easily ask the companies in question for permission to use said content, and then get the permission. I'm not the one who runs PewDiePie's channel, so I don't know.

Anyway, TL;DR:

For channels like CinemaSins, that type of content falls under fair use. Channels like WatchMojo might fall under fair use as well, but it's not as clear. PewDiePie just has the advantage of being a huge YouTuber that has a ton of resources at his disposal to get permission or something else I haven't thought of.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Again, I am NOT a lawyer, but I'll try to answer as best I can.

 

[Hidayatullah shah]

the same issue with me and i think with most of the guys. youtube content id is not so smart if it is then go and check youtube you will find lots of copyright contents and no body want to tell you how they doing that. i think the these guys paying and maybe if we upload so there income will be reduce hahahaha
every day i post more then 50 videos each one different for other and there is always claim. i 100s of channels, no voice change no color change not even the watermark remove no rotation nothing and still they monetizing there video. i want someone tell me how they doing that...
Sirg_00@yahoo.com
+966541732947 Whatsapp

 

[Idec Sdawkminn]

the same issue with me and i think with most of the guys. youtube content id is not so smart if it is then go and check youtube you will find lots of copyright contents and no body want to tell you how they doing that. i think the these guys paying and maybe if we upload so there income will be reduce hahahaha
every day i post more then 50 videos each one different for other and there is always claim. i 100s of channels, no voice change no color change not even the watermark remove no rotation nothing and still they monetizing there video. i want someone tell me how they doing that...
Sirg_00@yahoo.com
+966541732947 Whatsapp

The question of this thread was answered. You have a different question and already made your own thread about it. Please don't hijack other people's threads.