Manipulating YouTube videos in mobile application
<p>If a developer creates Android and IOS applications that use YouTube API, what limits are legally applicable?. Suppose the applications will get videos from YouTube, then will manipulate these videos, accelerating, slowing down, playing only certain interval, etc.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If the apps have ads, is there any copyright problem with  the video owners or YouTube company. </p></li>
<li><p>Is it a copyright violation or other legal problem to excerpt the videos on YouTube? For example, the apps play only the first minute of the videos? Can the app add extra sounds on these videos?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it allowed to play videos on the background? I mean, can the app play only audios of the videos? </p></li>
<li><p>Is there any legal way of playing the YouTube videos without YouTube ads in such apps? </p></li>
</ol>

<p>These are all going to depend on permissions from YouTube, or from the copyright holders on the individual videos.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>YouTube permits posted videos to display ads under certain limited conditions. But this is not displaying videos on YouTube, it is copying them and displaying them in another medium -- an app. This will require specific permission from the copyright holder on the video, who is often but not always the person who posted the video. It may also require permission from YouTube. Some vids are posted under a permissive license which allows anyone to reuse them under specified conditions. But if that is not the case, then specific permission must be obtained. Moreover, one must confirm that the poster had the right to grant whatever license the vid purports to be posted under. People often post vids to YouTube when they have no right to do so. Then no reuser has any rights either.</p></li>
<li><p>This is the creation of a derivative work of the original video. It requires the permission of the copyright holder. When a video is posted with a license permitting reuse, it may or may not also permit modifications. if not, specific permission would be needed.</p></li>
<li><p>This is essentially the same issue as number 2, it is creating a derivative work, and required permission unless the posted license grants such permission. </p></li>
<li><p>This depends on the YouTube TOS document. It describes the conditions under which YouTube content can be reused.  </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Doing any of these things <strong>without</strong> the needed permissions would be copyright infringement. The copyright holder could sue. The available damages would depend on the commercial value of the videos, and if and how those were harmed. it would also depend on the profits, if any, made by the infringer. And it would depend, in the US, on whether the videos were registered with the Copyright office. (If they are, statutory damages may be available without proof of loss or profit.)</p>

<h2>You can do what the <a href="https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/api-services-terms-of-service" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ToS</a> allow you to do</h2>

<p>The uploaders have licences their work to Google (YouTube) and they have licensed their work in accordance with the general <a href="https://www.youtube.com/static/?template=terms&amp;gl=AU&amp;noapp=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ToS</a> and Google have sublicenced it in the api <a href="https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/api-services-terms-of-service" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ToS</a>.</p>

<p>With respect to your particular questions, I’m not going to answer them because a) interpreting contracts is legal advice and I’m not a lawyer and b) I haven’t read them.</p>

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