Is it legal to play YouTube videos in your indoor cycling class?
Just because we’ve gotten away with it doesn’t mean it is legal or right. Are we as instructors using purchased videos (DVDs, downloaded, or streaming) or videos freely downloaded from the web legally? As the popularity of video and virtual rides in cycling studios increases across the country, what do we need to know to avoid legal repercussions as instructors and for the clubs we teach?
I asked Teri Karobonik, staff attorney at New Media Rights, a non-profit that provides legal services for those who require Internet, intellectual property, privacy, media, and communications law expertise.
She said that it is NOT considered “fair use” to use a YouTube video in a commercial class such as an indoor cycling class.
What if you really want to use a particular video?