Hi and thank you in advance for any input here. What is reasonable in terms of using some Youtube or other video created by someone other than yourself within an app that you are creating? My gut tells me that it's always best to use my own unique content in every case, if possible, and that will produce a higher quality product. In some cases though there may a video out there that can complement my unique app content. What is the standard on this? Is it ok to add outside videos to your app? If it is permissable, how does it affect your app getting approved for sale, etc? What about acknowlegments to the creator of that content? Is that necessary, or is that basically built into the youtube video already? Any comments as to best practices both as far as what is allowed, and how it affects the quality of your final product? Just learning - and wanting to do it right. Thank you

Hi @realwinner I would get the permission from the Youtube author to be on the safe side. you never know:)

Hi @realwinner, Giving full credit is a must. Much better to have prior authorisation from the owner. Cheers, Farcat

Youtube's a bit different, when a user uploads a video they grant youtube non-exclusive royalty free rights to distribute that video through any youtube services, for example, the youtube mobile api. Users have the option to dis-allow embedding or viewing on mobile, in these cases the videos wouldn't be available for us to use anyway.

If you would be using YouTube, the author has already agreed to the terms in which it says that the distribution of this video may be shared to the public. This means you can put YouTube clips onto any website (as long as it is listed on YouTube - not private YouTube video). If you are going to use a video directly off someone's website, then you will need the authors permission. The same goes for Images and chunks of text. If you're using a location to sell your app, you will also need the location's permission. For example, if you sell an app priced $1.99, but you use a location like Apple Inc, Cupertino: you would need to ask them to use it, because you are making a profit out of their organisation. Copyright is something that we all must follow. A fellow friend of mine created a website but he used images off the Oxford University website without their permission. He was caught doing this and was ordered to take these images off, unless he gave 75% of the profit he made from his app. When I want to use images from other websites, I always contact the author of those images to make sure it is alright to use them. 90% of the time, they say, "Sure. Go ahead and use them, but please place a little watermark on the image noting the name of the photographer" Only once was I told to pay for an image, so I went in search of another one!

Thanks for the responses. I wouldn't take a video or image off of another person's website. I know that you aren't supposed to do that. I also understand about copyright infringement. After thinking more about it, and doing some advanced searching around here in the forum I beleive it's fine to use youtube videos because when you upload there you give permission for it to be shared. It actually gives whoever created the video more exposure, and they usually want that, or they make it private. I also wanted to know if using them would lessen your chance of having your app approved for the markets, but I have seen that others use them and have gotten approved. Thanks for the help.

Just as a 'by the way'... If it's not 'your' video, then the future of that video (with respect to your app) is unknown. It may be linked for a thousand years, or it could be pulled the day after your app is released. Keep that in the back of your mind... Cheers! -- Smug

Excellent point Smug! Thanks