Is JW Player YouTube TOS Compliant ?

 
Hire a lawyer — this isn't a legal forum!

While it might sound like a legal question, the answer is purely technical and surprisingly simple.

(Q) Is JW Player using YT chromeless player and is it doing so without modifying the display nor click events within the video display area ?

(A) Yes or No ? (there are no in between answers)

>> Hire a lawyer — this isn't a legal forum!

Your comment is totally out of place because this is a "General Chat" forum.

P.S. I will never select and buy a product if it means that I must hire a lawyer just to determine if I should.

Let me just add that this compliance issue came up on the YouTube API forum and that I have there raised these same questions. However, in order to be fair, I am also asking the same questions here as well. I am making even this comment just to try to make sure that I am being fair. However, this is my second thread and nobody is responding, even though it is in JW [player] 's interest to respond.

So, considering the official silence here, let me a bit more blunt.

Who in their right mind would use JW Player to build a YouTube video based site, only to have the site black listed and put out of commission by YouTube ?

Could any of us withstand the financial loss and loss of all of the effort, just because JW Player may end up not being YT TOS compliant ?

In these cases, the biggest problem lies in the fact that nobody will go after our unknown and unsuccessful sites but only once pour into them lot of sweat and expense and get it off the ground.

IMHO, ignoring and not commenting on this issue illustrates utmost callousness and irresponsibility on behalf of all good willed JW Player customers.

Since I was waiting for a response on another topic I thought I would respond to your post. I'm not an expert in JW, just started using it a week ago but I have a few questions if you don't mind.

1.You say there's no water mark? Does the water mark = Youtube logo? If so, my player always shows the Youtube logo when I run a Youtube playlist, I'm using a licensed player, if that has anything to do with it.

2."YT chromeless player". Are you saying the JW player is plagiarized? From all the documentation I've been through this last week, that's hard to believe.

I'm new, so I could be totally clueless, I'll give you that, so either I'm wrong or I don't understand your posts.

Please elaborate.

The watermark being displayed over the video itself may not be an issue because varying of player size can be used to achieve a black strip underneath the video. So, this one should be easy to confirm.

The little more difficult question is why clicking on the video or just the watermark, why it prevents the viewer from going onto the YT site. It would appear that mouse events are being intercepted and this is against YT TOS.

If J.W. has a special agreement with YT then that would explain a lot. Otherwise, the only YT TOS compliant way to build third party players is by using the YT base SWF file as a starting point and building on top of it.

Here is what the chromeless version looks like without a movie http://www.youtube.com/apiplayer

Perhaps you could point to some sections of all of that documentation, that you have been through, and that would put my concerns to rest.

I believe that after this too long silence, it is relatively safe to assume that the JW Player is not YouTube Terms-Of-Service compliant.

It is a real shame and an act of total irresponsibility not to answer this simple question.

I am out of here !

I'm not a lawyer but it seems to me that because the YouTube logo in the bottom corner of a YouTube video no longer links to YouTube when it's in the Longtail Player, that there may be a problem complying with the YouTube API terms of service at http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/terms.html. Section II, Item 6 reads:

"Your API Client will not, and You will not encourage or create functionality for Your users or other third parties to: .... modify, replace or otherwise disable the functioning of links to YouTube or third-party websites provided in the YouTube search results or otherwise provided through the YouTube API or YouTube player;"

Good that I saw this post. If the player is not TOS compliant, it's a big issue. After all the hard work, one may find the site blacklisted by YouTube.

youtube seems to know whats going on in these forums as well. I came up with a solution yesterday that fixed the youtube videos that weren't loading into my jwplayer, and miraculously, today, without changing any code at all...the fix doesn't work anymore.

I know...sounds like a conspiracy theory, but this is a pretty popular, and likely, noncompliant player. I reckon they pay attention.

 
Pull your tinfoil hat tightly down around your head!

you betcha....tinfoil hat in full effect. Obviously, I doubt that my theory is correct....but funny enough, I still have no explanation and the jwplayer wizard > youtube example isnt working either.

Is it really just me here?

I guess this has all been resolved, Ive just tested a youtube video and it displays the YT logo and when clicked on that logo it takes me to youtube

SORRY are you guys saying, if i used JW player to play youtube videos even with the youtube watermark on the right, it is violating with youtube's TOS?

@Sho - No, it is not violating the TOS, as the logo (YT logo) links to the YT page.

Great stuff.

Np

When you play someone elses' video that you get from Youtube on your JW Player does the content owner who originally put the video on youtube get credit for plays? And, do you owe the content owner any payment for using their video in your JW player?

@Ben - We go through the YouTube API, so we comply with their terms of service.