Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Idiot's Guide to You Tube

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A metal detectorist, apparently disturbed by my discussing on my blog a "stealth" device which means you can metal detect noiselessly claims that my use there of a link to a You Tube video to illustrate what this device looks like and what it can do is a breach of copyright for which he claims he can get me sent to prison.

He is of course wrong. First of all he is not the author of that film, nor the copyright holder. Secondly in my blog post, I stated who was. Thirdly the use of You Tube's "embed" feature on a blog is not a copyright violation, and this problem has already been discussed at some length in the blogosphere.

The 'embed' feature of any video posted on You Tube can be turned off by the person who posts the item, thus signifying their objection to the linking to that video in that manner. The fact that it is not disabled is a tacit agreement to its use (as explained in the You Tube terms of use).

The video has not been copied onto a server and that copy inserted into my blog post, the embed code is as follows:
< i frame w i d t h ="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/71hgyYN0I1E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

so clearly is a link to the original film, still on the You Tube servers, which is merely viewed, through a window as it were - via my blog. At the bottom is the You Tube logo on the frame which retains the features seen on the original page, to which you can go by clicking on the video title at the top of the frame. Nothing has been "copied", convenient access is allowed through the code supplied in the embed function of the You Tube page itself, and this facilitates seeing the video in the context of the discussion.

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