Is it allowed to embed YouTube videos behind a paywall?

Question

Is it against any legal law or YouTube TOS themselves to embed videos (which are available for embedding obviously) for streaming on your website and put them behind a paywall, e.g. give access only through membership subscription?

If that is allowed, is it to allow to go one step further and embed the stream into an own player, like https://plyr.io/ ?

Note, which might be important: the player does not change anything about the YouTube advertisements in the video and I do not plan to play my own ads on the videos or to imply that the embedded videos are mine or similar).

Solution

You may not use embedded YouTube videos behind a paywall. That is prohibited by YouTube in section 4 of the YouTube terms of service:

D. You agree not to use the Service for any of the following commercial uses unless you obtain YouTube's prior written approval:

• the sale of access to the Service;

Youtube does make exceptions for using the embedded player on advertising supported sites, but there is no exception for paywalls.

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You may not use a third party player for YouTube videos. This is also from section 4 of their terms of service:

A. You agree not to distribute in any medium any part of the Service or the Content without YouTube's prior written authorization, unless YouTube makes available the means for such distribution through functionality offered by the Service (such as the Embeddable Player).
B. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service.
C. You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Service itself, the Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate.
...
F. If you use the Embeddable Player on your website, you may not modify, build upon, or block any portion or functionality of the Embeddable Player, including but not limited to links back to the YouTube website.

Streaming the video through another player would violate the prohibitions on making the videos available other than the ways provided by YouTube or the prohibitions on modifying their embedded player.

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I'd suggest looking at using another video service such as Vimeo. They have relatively inexpensive packages that can be used with commercial service.

Comments

[JAB]

What prevents people from watching the original, non-paywalled videos, in the first place? Even if they're unlisted they can just share the links.

[Ed Girão]

I see a lot of talk about paywalls and such. I see what's in the agreement. How many times have you heard content creators talk about exclusive videos that people will get if they support them through patreon? Early access? I don't see an exception for patreon, and that's one of the perks that patreon advertises: Early access. So take it for what it is.

[jkd]

Does prohibiting in the TOS make it illegal? Just curious.

[Thomas]

@jkd N, because a company cannot write laws. But prohibiting will make you lose a very expensive lawsuit, which is also undesirable.

[Stephen Ostermiller]

The most likely result from violating the terms of service would be termination of the service. There is also the possibility that you could be sued.

[Maxim Zubarev]

Vimeo or any other platform doesn't fit my needs. I want to use content that's most of the time available only on YT. Basically I want to just organize the videos differently, but I want to get paid for that. Guess it's just not happening then.

[deep64blue]

Illegal might be a bit strong depending on location, definitely against Terms of Service.