Is Posting A YouTube Video Plagiarism?

No. Copying a video and then re-publishing it as your own would be, but that's not what I'm talking about. If you follow the various shooting related blogs you may have seen accusations about someone stealing a YouTube video by posting it on a blog and not providing written attribution. That would be polite, but it certainly isn't necessary. The attribution is built right into a YouTube video, along with several other things that most viewers may not even be aware of. (Click the screen shots to enlarge.)

While your YouTube video is uploading you have several tasks to handle. You need to type in the title as you want viewers to read it, describe your video, add pertinent search words in the hope that people can find your new video, and you select your Availability option. There are other tabs besides the basic info that you should also open.

Most of my videos are Public. You can find them on YouTube and the Internet by searching with words related to the subject of the video. You can make them Unlisted, and they will not be found by searching. If you post it on a blog, others can come back to YouTube from your posting and copy the Embed Code. They can then post it elsewhere. If you want your video to be private, you must select Private.

 Under the Advanced Settings tab you will find your embedding options. I make most of my videos Available Everywhere, and I Allow Embedding. If you don't check that, no-one can post your video on a website or blog.

You also select whether or not you want your new video monetized. If a video is all yours, it will pay you back a few nickels. The old records we post are never monetized because the music is not our creation. YouTube allows much of my antique music, and they have an extensive list of music that you can look up for status. Many of my records are monetized by other parties who hold copyright, and allow it to be published. It is a good way for them to get cheap advertising. I have to monitor those videos, though, because if they change their wishes, I could get Copyright Strikes from YouTube and lose my account. I currently have two old records monetized by copyright holders, and I will take those down before I upload another old record, for my safety's sake.

Now, when you are playing a YouTube video you will see in the lower right the YouTube logo. Click that and it takes you to the YouTube website where you can read all the information provided by the party who uploaded the video. You can click on the channel name and go to that party's YouTube channel.

And here we are at a screen grab of my YouTube channel page.

Anyhow, if you wonder who actually posted the videos you see on the Internet, that is how you check it out.