Vocat allows users to upload their own media or pull videos from YouTube or Vimeo. If you are uploading your own media, copyright is not an issue. If using videos from YouTube or Vimeo it is important to model good attribution and citation practices by choosing videos that make every attempt to respect copyright law.

Videos from YouTube and related sites are hosted externally on their respective sites. It is the host site’s responsibility to ensure videos meet the requirements of copyright law. Content creators on YouTube and related sites often sidestep copyright by sharing videos that they do not own with modifications. For an example, check out this “Black Lives Matter Remix of Beyonce’s ‘Formation'”.  This video adds historical footage of civil rights marches and speeches to the ‘Formation’ video. If you want to use a video of this type in a class, we encourage transparency about the copyright complexities involved.

For a fun overview of the fundamentals of copyright law, check out the video below:

If you want to use this video on VOCAT, simply copy & paste the following link into your “Manage Media” Tab, without quotation marks:

“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo”