Official Blog
Our Terms of Use Clarified
Thursday, July 20, 2006
You may have seen some of the blogs out there talking about our 'new' Terms of Use that would supposedly allow us to sell any videos our users uploaded to the site. Before going further, allow me to clarify: YouTube has never had the rights to sell, nor do we have any intention to sell, our users’ content. Plain and Simple.
These blogs posted a section from our Terms of Use completely out of context omitting a few key sentences (always be mindful of those darn ellipses). The section in question is quoted below and the sentences in bold were the ones omitted. If you don't want to read all that boring legalize, here are the CliffsNotes:
You keep ALL the rights to your videos.
We have the right to syndicate the content of our website. We have to have this to allow for our embed and API functionality.
As soon as you remove your video from YouTube, we lose all rights to redistribute or syndicate that video in any way. So once your video is gone from the site, we cannot do a thing with that content.
Terms of Use
Section 5 (B):
For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions.
However, by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service.
The foregoing license granted by you terminates once you remove or delete a User Submission from the YouTube Website.
Hopefully this clarifies matters and puts any unrest at ease about who owns the rights to your videos on YouTube. YOU own the rights to your videos.
Best,
Maryrose
The YouTube Team
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