YouTube Channels For Dummies

Chapter 16

Ten Things to Know About Copyright

In This Chapter

• Understanding copyright law
• Striking out with copyright infringements
• Avoiding common mistakes
• Knowing what to do when copyright is breached

John Locke said “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.” In the same spirit, copyright law protects the creator from having her material used by someone who didn't create it without permission. The goal is to protect the creator's freedom to create without having to fear that others will profit unjustly. Create something, and the intellectual property belongs to you by way of copyright. If anyone palms off your intellectual property as their own, the law protects you and provides measures for legal action. And if your copyrighted content should appear in video form on YouTube without your permission, YouTube acts as the law on your behalf.

That's great if someone is trying to take advantage of you, but sometimes it's you who gets put on the hot seat. Thanks to multimedia, people often create things that use other people's work — say, adding a piece of music you didn't write to a video you've made — and they don't realize that they're doing anything wrong. Collaboration is a good thing, but you need to have the proper permission to use any music, artwork, photographs, excerpts, or whatever else was created by an individual other than yourself.

When someone infringes on copyright — whether it's someone doing it to you or you doing it ...