How to Use Other YouTube Videos Without Copyright Issues

To use other YouTube videos without copyright issues, you need a legal basis before you hit upload: fair use, a Creative Commons license, public domain status, or direct written permission from the person who owns the footage. Every video on YouTube is automatically copyrighted the moment it’s uploaded, so “I found it online” is not a defense. Getting this wrong can cost you ad revenue, get your video taken down, or — after three copyright strikes within 90 days — end your channel permanently.¹

The stakes go beyond the platform. A copyright owner can sue for statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, rising to $150,000 per work if a court finds the infringement willful.² Most disputes never see a courtroom, but the exposure is real, especially when the borrowed content earns you money.

The Four Legal Pathways

Fair Use

Fair use lets you borrow copyrighted material without permission for purposes like commentary, criticism, news reporting, education, and research. It is a legal defense, not a blanket license, and courts weigh four factors together on a case-by-case basis.³

Purpose and character: transformative uses that add new meaning, commentary, or context are strongly favored. The Supreme Court has held that the more transformative the new work, the less other factors like commercial motivation weigh against you.
Nature of the work: using factual or informational content is more likely to qualify than borrowing from a highly creative work like a music video or narrative film.
Amount used: smaller portions generally help, but even a brief clip can hurt you if it captures the “heart” of the original — the most recognizable or valuable part.⁴
Market effect: if your video could substitute for the original and pull away its viewers, that weighs heavily against fair use.³

In practice, the strongest fair use cases add something new the viewer came for. A film critic showing a 20-second scene while explaining why the cinematography works is transformative because the clip serves the commentary. A reaction video where the creator pauses to offer real analysis or humor sits on firmer ground than one where the reactor watches silently while the original plays in full. Educational breakdowns of news footage are exactly the kind of use the doctrine was written for.

The weakest cases are compilations, re-uploads with minor edits, and “best moments” videos. If your version lets people skip the original, you are replacing it rather than transforming it.

Creative Commons

YouTube supports one Creative Commons license: CC BY, the Attribution license. A creator who uploads under CC BY lets anyone copy, adapt, and commercially use the video as long as they credit the original creator properly.⁵ To find these videos, run a search, click Filters, and select Creative Commons under Features.

The stricter Creative Commons variants — NonCommercial, ShareAlike, NoDerivatives — exist in the broader ecosystem⁶ but are not available on YouTube itself. If you’re pulling Creative Commons material from somewhere like Wikimedia Commons or the Internet Archive, check the specific license and follow its terms.

One quiet limitation: a video with an active Content ID claim on it cannot be released under CC BY, so the CC-licensed pool on YouTube skews toward original footage without borrowed audio or clips.

Proper CC BY attribution goes in your description and includes the creator’s name, the video title, a link back to the original, and a link to the license itself, along with a note if you made changes.⁷

Public Domain

Public domain works carry no copyright restrictions. No permission, no fee, no attribution required by law. Works land in the public domain when the copyright expires, when the creator dedicates them there using a tool like CC0, or when they were never eligible for copyright in the first place.

As of January 1, 2026, everything published in the United States before 1930 is public domain, and sound recordings published before 1925 are as well.⁸ That cutoff advances one year every January.

Federal government works are automatically public domain regardless of age, as long as they were produced by a federal employee doing their job.⁹ That covers NASA footage, congressional hearing recordings, and many military videos. State and local government works don’t always follow the same rule, so check before using them.

CC0 functions as a voluntary public domain dedication — the creator waives all copyright and lets anyone copy, modify, and distribute the work, including commercially, without permission or credit.¹⁰ You’ll find CC0 material on some stock footage sites and creative repositories.

Verifying status is on you. Getting it wrong is not a defense.

Direct Permission

When nothing else fits and you still want a specific clip, ask. Many channels list a business inquiry email in the About section of their channel page.¹¹

Be specific when you write. Name the exact video and timestamps, explain how you plan to use the footage, describe your own channel and the context of the new video, and say whether it will be monetized. Vague requests get ignored. Detailed ones make it easy to say yes.

Get the agreement in writing. An email exchange is enough, as long as it covers what footage you can use, how you can use it, whether monetization is allowed, and any attribution requirements. If a Content ID claim hits the video later, that written record is what you’ll point to.

Music Is Its Own Problem

Music is the single biggest trigger for copyright claims on YouTube, and it often catches creators who thought the rest of their video was safe. A few seconds of a popular track in the background of a clip you’re reacting to can be enough for the copyright holder to monetize your entire video — meaning they collect the ad revenue instead of you.¹²

The safest source is YouTube’s own Audio Library. It offers free music and sound effects cleared for use in your videos. Some tracks require no attribution, others are offered under a Creative Commons license and require credit in your description; you can filter by license type to see which is which.¹³ When credit is required, the automatic Music in this Video notice on the watch page does not satisfy the attribution requirement — you still put the credit in your description yourself.

For a specific commercial song, you generally need two licenses: a synchronization license from the songwriter or publisher for the composition, and a master use license from whoever owns the recording, usually a record label. Royalty-free music libraries and stock music platforms bundle both rights into a single license, which is why most creators use them instead of chasing major-label clearance.

What Doesn’t Protect You

Some assumptions creators lean on have no basis in copyright law, and each of them leads to preventable claims.

There is no safe number of seconds. Five seconds of a song or ten seconds of a clip does not automatically qualify as fair use. Content ID can match brief snippets, and if those seconds are the hook, the amount-used factor cuts against you.⁴

Disclaimers in your description carry zero legal weight. “No copyright infringement intended,” “all rights belong to the original creator,” “I do not own this music” — none of that changes anything. Fair use depends on how you actually use the content.⁴

Credit is not permission. Attribution is polite, and some licenses require it, but naming the original creator does not create a legal right to use their work.

Not monetizing is not a shield. Commercial versus noncommercial is one factor among four. A free video that still substitutes for the original has a weak fair use case.

If You Still Get a Claim

Even careful creators get claims. Content ID matches ambient noise, public domain music, and properly licensed material more often than you’d expect. It helps to know what you’re looking at.

A Content ID claim is automated and affects only the individual video — usually by redirecting ad revenue to the claimant. It is not a copyright strike and does not put your channel at risk.¹² A copyright strike is different: it comes from a formal DMCA takedown request, the video is removed, and three strikes within 90 days terminates your channel. Strikes expire after 90 days if you complete YouTube’s Copyright School.¹

You can dispute a Content ID claim through YouTube Studio if you own the rights, your use qualifies as fair use, or the match is wrong. The claimant has 30 days to respond, and if they don’t, the claim expires.¹⁴ If they reject the dispute, you can appeal, and they get 7 days to respond to that.¹⁵

Here is the risk to understand before you dispute anything. If you challenge a Content ID claim without a solid legal basis, the claimant can escalate by filing a formal removal request. Your video is then taken down and your channel receives a copyright strike.¹² A dispute that was costing you ad revenue becomes a threat to the channel itself. Don’t dispute unless you actually have grounds.

If a video is removed through a formal takedown and you believe the removal was wrong, you can file a DMCA counter-notification, which is a legal document filed under penalty of perjury and includes consent to federal court jurisdiction. The original claimant then has 10 to 14 business days to file a lawsuit; if they don’t, YouTube restores the video.¹⁶ Your name and address go to the claimant as part of that process, so weigh who you’re dealing with before filing.

1
Google Help. Understand copyright strikes
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for infringement: Damages and profits
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 107 – Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
4
Google Help. Fair use on YouTube
5
Google Help. License types on YouTube
6
Creative Commons. About CC Licenses
7
Creative Commons. Attribution 4.0 International
8
Duke University School of Law. Public Domain Day 2026
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 105 – Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works
10
Creative Commons. Deed – CC0 1.0 Universal
11
Google Help. Business Inquiry Emails
12
Google Help. Learn about Content ID claims
13
Google Help. Use music and sound effects from the Audio Library
14
Google Help. Dispute a Content ID claim
15
Google Help. Appeal a Content ID claim
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 512 – Limitations on liability relating to material online