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Learning patterns/Find free license videos on YouTube for Wikipedia

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A learning pattern forcontent release partnerships
Find free license videos on YouTube for Wikipedia
problemPublishers on YouTube have the option of publishing their material under a CreativeCommons-Attribution 2.0 license.
solutionUse filtered search and https://tools.wmflabs.org/youtube-channel/
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created on20:04, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
status:DRAFT


What problem does this solve?

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Very few Wikipedia articles feature video material, though it's a nice addition to have. The world's biggest video platform, YouTube, does offer the possibility to publish material under a free license. This is a source of content that's currently underutilized.

Things to consider

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There are a lot of users that upload content to YouTube that is not their own and thus not theirs to license. Please use caution and common sense. Especially be weary of slicing out photos that have been montaged in. These are OK on YouTube under a fair use rational, but not on Wikimedia Commons.

Especially watch out for non-free licensed music being used, even on professional channels. Sometimes it is possible to cut out offending bits, consider clarifying this on the description page with the Edited Video template to aid in the license review process.

Videos that use non-free music or have authors read at length from their books may still be useful for screenshots.

Example: A Vienna art gallery, Christian Zürn, had posted free licensed videos about contemporary artists who's work featured heavily in those videos. Those artworks themselves are still under copyright, but the sections where the artist themselves appeared in could be used for screenshots:

What is the solution?

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Filter options for search on YouTube
YouTube filter settings on mobile
  • go to YouTube.com and put in a search term
  • click on 'Filter' at the top of the search results and select option 'Creative Commons' under the heading 'Features'
  • Screenshots YouTube browser extension for Chrome
  • Screenshot YouTube browser extension for Firefox
  • video2commons can transfer videos to Wikimedia Commons.
  • Found good footage? Consider digging into a channel's catalog of free licensed videos using the YouTube Channel-tool. It gives you an overview of the videos within a YouTube channel that have been published as such.
    It also allows you to subscribe to the free license publication of a channel through an RSS feed.

When to use

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  • Illustrating biographical Wikipedia articles with an image of the subject
  • Illustrating Wikipedia articles with videos

Endorsements

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See also

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References

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