Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:31 am
Updated 23.8.2021
Those who aren’t YouTube literate think they can upload any video to YouTube.
You can if you follow the community guidelines. Most importantly, you must own the copyright of the video.
While it’s a no-brainer that the copyright of videos you upload must belong to you, sometimes you simply can’t avoid using someone else’s video(s).
This is true especially if you’re putting together top 10 videos for YouTube.
Say, you’re putting together a video of Top 10 Movies of the Year. You would need to use videos or images of these movies.
Of course, you can plead Fair Use if a copyright claim crops up. But let it be known that YouTube doesn’t decide whether the use of a copyrighted video is fair use or not. The matter is decided by the courts.
If you’re just listing down the movies in the top 10 order, without adding context, then you may not be able to successfully plead fair use if the copyright owner takes you to court.
You would have to prove that your video is transformative. The video must be part of a commentary or a review, for example.
If your video doesn’t fall into a proven fair use category, it’s wise not to fish in troubled waters.
There may be a Content ID claim put up by YouTube or you may receive a legal notice from the copyright owner.
Either way, the hard work you put in may end up in nothing.
Also, you don’t want to spend time and energy contesting copyright claims or dealing with lawyers unless you have the resources to do so.
Just because others are doing it and getting away with it, it doesn’t mean you could do it, too, without really knowing how they’re doing it.
Instead, try out these ideas on how to make top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright problems.
Top 10 Quote Videos
Just as top 10 quotes are popular in blogs, top 10 quote videos are popular over YouTube, too.
A top 10 quote video provides a quick way for a viewer to be inspired or motivated.
It is one of the easiest Top 10 videos you can do without showing your face or talking. You can easily do it as a slideshow with nothing more than text and music.
For example, if you’ve collected quotes by Steve Jobs, you can put together a top 10 list of Steve Jobs quotes.
And while putting together the video, you’ll also add context in the form of when he said the words.
Say, you have this Steve Jobs quote: “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?“
And if you mention that it was part of his Stanford University commencement speech, it would prompt viewers to explore the full text of the speech.
If you like to collect quotes or sayings pertaining to famous people, you can easily get started creating a top 10 quote video for YouTube.
Top 10 Travel Videos
The easiest way to get started making top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright is making top 10 travel videos. You must have collections of videos or photographs you have shot during your travels.
If you’ve visited a city for days and explored places of interest, you can easily put together topics like Top 10 Kids Attractions, Top 10 Value-for-Money Shopping Spots, Top 10 Outdoor Activities for the Family, and so on.
While many others may have done videos on the same subject, you can name an item in the list many have not heard about which might prompt them to explore it further.
You don’t necessarily have to travel beyond the home to come up with a top 10 list of travel videos. You can do it in your own hometown. You can always come up with similar top 10 topics related to your hometown.
Depending on where you live, you may come up with Top 10 Things to Do in _________________ on a Weekend. Top 10 Free Museums in __________ and so on.
Such top 10 list videos will be useful for those planning to visit your hometown or to those who have visited and missed out on any of the items in your videos.
Since you’ll be using your own photos and videos, you’ll not have to contend with copyright issues.
Top 10 Product Review/Information Videos
Review
If you often buy a certain type of product and have amassed quite a number of them, you can do a top 10 video of the products based on your experience of using them.
They don’t really have to be expensive products. Say you buy pen drives and have collected more than a dozen of the different brands, you can put together a top 10 Pen Drives for Office Data Back-Up.
Product Information
What if you don’t own the products? No problem. You can still make top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright based on the information you’ve researched.
Say, you’ve researched a particular type of product and read customer reviews on them, you can do a top 10 product information video, listing the top 10 items in that product category.
For this, you can use photos or videos released by the manufacturers. Of course, they are copyrighted material, but you can leave a credit to them. Which manufacturer would mind if you’re promoting their brand and product without cost to them?
There are many product videos and photos you can find over at the manufacturer’s sites and also on online shopping platforms like Amazon.
Some sites like Ezvid Wiki are fully focused on this. Take a look at the video below for inspiration,
Top 10 General Knowledge Videos
Many smart people out there don’t even know basic facts that apply to their lives or work.
If you ask an architect to name the top 10 tallest buildings in the world, can all of them do it? It’s doubtful.
What about the top 10 healthiest fruits, if you’re a fruit lover?
Many have not bothered to find out basic facts that they ought to. So, they’ll be glad to take a quick look at the top 10 lists relating to their subjects of interest.
When a choose a general knowledge niche, the whole world is your subject. You can do anything top 10 lists relating to animals, history, countries, and so on.
Wouldn’t folks be interested in the top 10 worst building designs?
One advantage of making General Knowledge Top 10 videos is you don’t have to create your own videos.
You can use royalty-free free videos and images. Why you can even get free copyright-free videos.
You may also use Creative Commons videos on YouTube. All you have to do is provide attribution or credit to the copyright owner.
Top 10 Tips /Ideas Videos
This is another easy way to make the top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright issues.
Top 10 Tips videos are popular as they act as idea or knowledge refreshers. They provide food for thought and act as impulses for action.
You can base your top 10 tips or idea videos on articles or blog posts you have written. You can then reuse the content into a top 10 video script.
If you have enough knowledge and experience in a particular subject, you can easily come up with top 10 list video content ideas.
What about top ten tips on saving on grocery spending? Top 10-holiday money-saving tips. Top 10 gardening tips and so on.
Also, free videos and photos for them would not be difficult to find. You don’t have to find videos that specifically relate to what you’re saying in your video.
Say you want to compile a video on Top 10 Walking Tips, you can easily find walking videos from free video stock footage sites to illustrate your messages.
Let’s say looking for online deals is one of the ways to save on holiday spending, you can just show a video of someone on a laptop and not really have to show a holiday deal on the computer screen.
There are limitless topics on which you can make top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright problems.
Here’s an example of a Top 10 tip video you can put together without having to speak or show your face.
Top 10 Video Ideas to Avoid
The above Top 10 video subjects may not seem hot enough for you. You may want to try out hot topics like celebrities, sports, or entertainment.
Examples of topics may include Top 10 Singers with the Highest INcome, Top 10 Penalty Misses, or Top 10 Movie Sci-Fi Scenes.
While these topics may attract a lot of interest, you may run into copyright issues. It is always safe to stay clear of these topics.
Generally, you can’t use photos of celebrities without the permission of the agencies the images are licensed to.
Sports videos are copyrighted as are movie scenes. While you may use them as part of a video for educational purposes and get away with it, you may not be so lucky if it is applied to compilation videos.
Generally, Google will give you the green light if you transform what you use into something unique. In the case of top ten penalty misses you’ve to explain why the penalty taker missed the kick. In other words, you’ll have to include commentary. That approach would not fit into most top ten list videos.
Stick to Safe Zone Videos
If you use videos belonging to others without permission or license then you would be stuck with a content ID or a copyright claim.
With a monetized channel such an issue will adversely affect your channel income.
But then you shouldn’t stay away from creating top 10 videos for YouTube because of potential copyright issues.
There are ways to make top 10 videos for YouTube without copyright issues. The key is to choose a subject that doesn’t require you to use copyrighted work or a subject where permission for copyrighted work can be easily obtained, without cost in most instances.
So, the examples given above are some types of top 10 videos for Youtube without copyright you can easily make.
So, for peace of mind in the long term stick to such safe zone videos, as explained above, though they may not go viral.
Always, always, avoid using videos where there are chances of copyright issues cropping up.
