Am I allowed to use YouTube videos for my presentations?
Human Performance Trainers know one of the biggest impacts you can have with your audiences is to add a little humor, or seriousness to your presentations and YouTube certainly has content for us! Videos (and photos) can add a beneficial dimension to your training including making the content more accessible and interesting to participants. Great consideration needs to go into which videos you show, so the entertainment factor is directly linked to the learning, or to getting audience "buy-in" into a topic. Some poor selections may make your content seem too entertaining and less educational. We thought it would be a great topic to explore and assist other practitioners that may be wrestling with this question.
What we've learned so far
If your classroom computer has internet access that doesn't block YouTube content, playing straight from youtube.com, doesn't appear to be an issue. If you plan on using a video in a classroom environment, and you are making any money giving that presentation, you need to protect yourself by contacting the video owner and getting permission ahead of time.
Some of us have been to small-sized class training where video was used, and have even seen clips used with hundreds of onlookers at keynote speeches where the speaker has pulled clips straight from the internet, all presumably with permission. The best advice is to protect yourself so you never have to worry. In best efforts to protect the Human Performance Tools team, whenever we want to discuss a video, we will share the link to it, instead of copying and hosting the content - most bloggers and podcasters use this method. The bad news is that it is always up to the users and not always easy to find appropriate permissions prior to using a YouTube downloader tool like a FireFox extension or a separate piece of software like iSkySoft or many others found online for free or at a minimal cost.
By the way, some of the absolute best video content for what we do, has been or is being developed by other practitioners - even if the end product has an amateur look, it shines with authenticity and that adds a personal quality to the presentation that nobody else has. We'll discuss more on video production ideas and even how to host a Human Performance Film Festival in a future post.
In the end using links to posted video content seems pretty safe. If you want to explore downloading and even editing the video content for your training purposes, the safest thing to do is to contact the owner and get permission. *TIP* Don't forget to check to see if the internet access in your training room can successfully link to your videos prior to your first teach.
Supporting Links
How to Use Online Video in Your Classroom
An example of someone you know who has been sued for using YouTube content without permissionBlog about using photos with potential copyrights
Where to directly learn about YouTube copyrights:
YouTube copyright schoolYouTube complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998