Legality of selling transcription services on copyrighted material?
<p>I provide an audio transcription service, for which I charge according to the audio length. Mostly I receive either audios or videos that have been produced by the person or organisation that sent me the material to be transcribed, so the copyright is theirs on both the source and transcript. No problem.</p>

<p>Sometimes, however, I get asked to transcribe material that is publically available online (e.g. podcasts or YouTube videos), and not owned by the person requesting the transcript. The transcript may or may not be for the requestor's personal use.</p>

<p>Is it illegal for me to transcribe this sort of material? I  understand that a transcript of a podcast or video is a derivative work, and only the copyright owner can authorise creating a derivative work.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"I understand that a transcript of a podcast or video is a derivative
  work, and only the copyright owner can authorise creating a derivative
  work."</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You've answered your own question, at least for the US and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Berne Convention (Wikipedia)</a> signatories.</p>

<p>A <em>transcript</em> is pretty much the very definition of a derivative work. The 4 tenets of <a href="https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fair use</a> in the US are:</p>

<ul>
<li>the purpose and character of your use</li>
<li>the nature of the copyrighted work</li>
<li>the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and</li>
<li>the effect of the use upon the potential market.</li>
</ul>

<p>The purpose and nature of your product is a commercial sound-to-text transcript, so a text.</p>

<p>The nature of the work you work on is a copyright protected work of art or expression.</p>

<p>The amount is the totality of the work.</p>

<p>A Transcript is a usurpation of the potential market the original producer might have: video transcripts are the basis for translations.</p>

<p>In this case, all the factors weigh against the transcriptions, especially the commercial aspect and the market usurpation.</p>

<p>So in fact, <strong>yes, it is copyright violation.</strong></p>

copyright derivative-work