Did you know you can use other people’s videos to create your own video without getting a copyright strike or a copyright claim?
This is possible with Creative Commons videos.
Today, you’ll learn what Creative Commons videos are, how to find them and how to use them in your videos so you don’t get a copyright strike.
What are Creative Commons Videos?
According to YouTube…”Creative Commons licenses provide a standard way for content creators to grant someone else permission to use their work. YouTube allows users to mark their videos with a Creative Commons CC BY license. If you’ve marked your video with a CC BY license, you retain your copyright and other users get to reuse your work subject to the terms of the license. By marking your original video with a Creative Commons license, you are granting the entire YouTube community, the right to reuse and edit that video. “
Basically, you can edit and reuse a Creative Commons video in your own video.
How can you use a Creative Commons video without copyright strike?
If you use a CC BY license, you’re free to copy and redistribute the material and any medium or format. You can remix, transform and build upon material for any purpose even commercially. It says the licensor, (that means a person that has created the Creative Commons video), cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
The terms mean you must give attribution by giving appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if any changes were made.
Here’s a good example of the kind of attribution you want to add to the description of your video.
Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0
You also want to make sure that the content in your video adds value, is unique and relevant. You don’t want to just upload the entire Creative Commons video, you want to add your own commentary and narrative to the video so it won’t be flagged by YouTube for duplicate content, or reuse content.
Click here if you want to learn more about reused content. You will see answers to frequently asked questions about reused or duplicate content.
Here’s how to find Creative Commons videos on YouTube.
Enter main topic in YouTube search bar. I’m going to enter big waves, click the search icon, filter, click Creative Commons. Now you’ll see listed all the Creative Commons videos for the term “big waves” I’m going to select the video, “biggest waves ever surfed in history”.
If I click show more, then I can see the license is Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed). Notice the video also used Creative Commons music.
Here’s an important thing to keep in mind…
Sometimes a personal download a copyrighted video, then change the video to a Creative Commons video to use it for commercial purposes.
Therefore, make sure you identify the original copyright holder of the Creative Commons video before you use that in your video, and give attribution to them in the description of the video.
Another way to find creative commons videos, images or music is to go to oldsearch.creativecommons.org and enter big waves”. Make sure you have the boxes checked…use for commercial purposes, modify, adapt, or build upon. I’m going to select YouTube and you’ll notice in the search bar, the topic appears as…big waves, Creative Commons.
If you want to quickly find Creative Commons videos for a particular topic, replace the topic “big waves” with your own topic, add a comma after it then add Creative Commons to the end.
If you want to search for Creative Commons images, use the search bar at: https://search.creativecommons.org/. Enter your topic then, click the search icon. For example if I enter “cats” I’ve got the image attribution right on the image DSCF3306 by Ralph, is licensed under CC BY 2.0. If you click on Click on “info” you’ll see the title, the creator, license, source, and dimensions.
Here are 3 ways to use Creative Commons videos in your own videos.
- Save time by using other people’s videos. Instead of wasting time recording and editing your own videos, why don’t you use other people’s videos to get across your message? Just make sure you give attribution to the original creator in the description of your video.
- Spice up your videos with B-roll footage. Need a quick video clip of a dog jumping for your dog training video? Just enter dog jumping, Creative Commons in the YouTube search bar to find a Creative Commons video of a dog jumping.
- Make money. You can simply grab some CC video footage to create a review video of an affiliate product. At the end of the video, tell viewers to click the affiliate link in the description below your video so you get a commission for selling the product.
Let me ask you a question, have you ever used Creative Commons video clips in your own videos? Post your answer in the comments below.
There’s one big thing you need to know when using Creative Commons videos. You must not use duplicate or reuse content. Watch my next video to learn how to avoid duplicate or reused content. You’ll also learn about the best practices so you don’t get a copyright strike.
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