When a YouTube video goes viral these days, it often means that the owner of that video also gains a financial benefit by generating income from it˳ What people don’t realize is that they must choose the appropriate distribution license so that their video can actually go viral˳ Thousands of people are making this simple common mistake˳
There seems to be a key element that most YouTubers don’t understand˳ It’s for a good reason as well, because the license option of a video is somewhat hidden from the creator on YouTube˳ It is no secret that YouTube prefers that your video be distributed exclusively by them, and them alone˳ After all, if you are participating in revenue sharing with YouTube, it means that all of your video views will generate a portion of the profits for them as well˳
Usually your reasons for wanting to go viral is simply to bring more attention to yourself and the content of your video˳ In a case like this, you want to enable your video to be distributed as easily as possible, in as many forms as possible˳ Choosing the correct copyright license for your video is incredibly important˳
I will explain the license differences, but I before I do, I will provide two simple examples which reiterate my point˳ You may have been watching a TV news broadcast where they show “clips” of a video that is garnering a lot of attention on YouTube˳ More often than not, TV broadcasts only show a few second clips of a viral video˳ Even worse, they show the video in the background while the news anchor is busy talking about it˳ This phenomenon is usually due to the fact that the TV broadcasts only have “fair use” rights to cover the story˳
“Fair use” generally means someone is legally allowed to re-use small portions of the video for the purpose of criticism or comment˳
If the YouTube author had previously chosen the Creative Commons license option, the same video could have played in its entirety on television˳
In another example, I watched a video where a customer was complaining in a very animated way about a particular store that was price gouging˳ Unfortunately in the heat of the moment the person was holding his camera sideways through parts of the film˳ At the end of the video, he mentioned “Please make this video go viral!” By default the video was released on YouTube with the “Standard YouTube license”˳
As a result, the author of the video made it difficult for his video to actually go viral for a number of reasons:
1˳ Any major media source, namely television, couldn’t air his video in its entirety˳
2˳ Anyone that wanted to fix the horizontal problem (which is possible) was unable to do so, because they are prohibited to reuse, edit, or manipulate the video˳
3˳ Anyone streaming content (an internet TV show) couldn’t re-broadcast the video either˳ All they could do is link to the video on YouTube or embed the unedited version into their website from YouTube directly˳ At the very minimum they would be limited to show small clips or sections of the video under fair use laws while they commented about it˳
The point here, is that the person who shot the video wanted it to go viral and to be seen by as many people as possible˳ By releasing it under the standard YouTube license, he limited the distribution possibilities˳ This situation is counter productive˳
The point? As of the time of this writing, that video has whopping 60 views˳ I’ll be surprised if it goes viral anytime soon˳ Let’s use this as a learning experience˳
If you have something that you’d like to go viral, investigate the Creative Commons license option˳ It’s a simple radio button that can be clicked in the video information section of your YouTube video˳
Creative Commons generally allows reuse of the video while still maintaining the original version to be copyright by the creator˳ It means people can digitally manipulate your video, re-broadcast it in its entirety with other media transport methods, like TV, other YouTube videos, etc˳
At this time, I must declare IANAL˳ (This acronym IANAL means “I am not a lawyer”), so please do your own research˳ If I, myself, ever produce a YouTube video that I’d like to see go viral, I will take extra time to choose the Creative Commons license instead of the Standard YouTube license to release it˳ I recommend you do the same˳
The point of releasing something on the internet is to give it the greatest reach and exposure possible to the entire world˳ Don’t limit yourself, and the potential viral videos you create, because of a poor choice of which distribution license you’ve allowed it to be released˳
If you haven’t learned about Creative Commons licenses yet, let this single article awaken you to what you’ve been missing˳ Take two minutes of your day and take a peek at http://www˳creativecommons˳org˳
If you want to see the video I’ve referenced in this article, it is embedded on my blog for you to watch along with a more in depth analysis˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Choosing-the-Wrong-License-on-YouTube-Can-Stop-Your-Video-From-Going-Viral!&id=6845495
