How to Reuse Other Creators' Content Legally

You can reuse another creator’s content legally in four main ways: get the owner’s permission, use work released under a license that allows your use (such as Creative Commons), use public domain material, or rely on a copyright exception such as fair use in the US. Outside those routes, copying someone’s article, video, image or audio is risky, and giving credit doesn’t make a copy legal on its own.

What you can always do is use the ideas and facts in someone’s work. Copyright protects how something is expressed, not the underlying information, so writing your own take on a topic, in your own words, with a link to the source, is how most legitimate content repurposing of other people’s material works.

This is general information, mostly based on US law and platform rules, not legal advice. Copyright rules differ by country, and for anything commercial or high-stakes, check with a qualified lawyer.

Reusing vs. Repurposing: Why the Difference Matters

Reusing means publishing someone’s work again in more or less its original form: reposting an article, re-uploading a video, sharing a photo on your own account. Repurposing means turning material into something new: a video becomes a blog post, a report becomes an infographic, a podcast becomes a thread.

Both are simple when the content is your own. When it belongs to someone else, they carry different risks:

• Reusing the work itself (the text, footage, images or audio) almost always needs permission, a license that covers it, or a solid exception.
• Repurposing the ideas (summarizing what a creator argued and adding your own analysis, in your own words) is generally fine, because copyright doesn’t protect facts or ideas.
• Adapting the work itself (translating an article, turning someone’s script into your video, cutting their footage into clips) creates what copyright law treats as a derivative work, and that right belongs to the owner.

Four Legal Ways to Reuse Someone Else’s Work

1. Ask for Permission

Permission is the most reliable route, and many creators will say yes if you ask clearly. A useful request says:

• What you want to use (the exact article, video, clip or image, with a link)
• How you’ll use it (quote, translate, adapt into a video, republish in full)
• Where it will appear and whether the use is commercial (sponsored, monetized or promoting a business)
• How you’ll credit them (name, link, handle)

A short example: “Hi Sam, I’d like to turn your guide to [topic] (link) into a 5-minute video for my YouTube channel, which is monetized. I’d summarize the main steps in my own words, show two of your diagrams, and credit you with a link in the description. Would that be OK?”

Keep the reply. An email saying “yes, that’s fine” is far better than a verbal OK. Make sure the person agreeing actually owns the rights: a guest author may have assigned them to a publisher, and a social account may be reposting someone else’s photo.

2. Use Creative Commons and Other Open Licenses

Some creators publish work under a license that gives everyone permission in advance, on conditions. Creative Commons (CC) is the most common. All six CC licenses require attribution; the rest differ:

If you can’t see a license on or next to a work, assume all rights are reserved. Copyright applies automatically from the moment a work is created; no © notice or registration is needed.

Creative Commons recommends crediting with TASL: Title, Author, Source (a link to the original) and Licence (with a link to the license). For example:

“Product Launch Checklist” by Jane Doe (link), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (link). Adapted into a video script.

Saying what you changed (“adapted”, “cropped”, “translated”) is part of a good attribution.

3. Use Public Domain Works

Work in the public domain can be used without permission. That includes works whose copyright has expired and works the creator has dedicated to the public domain with CC0, which lets anyone copy, modify and distribute the work, even commercially, without asking.

Copyright lasts a long time. In the US, works created since 1978 by an individual are protected for the author’s life plus 70 years. “Old” doesn’t automatically mean “free”: a modern recording, translation or edition of an old work can have its own copyright.

4. Fair Use (US) and Fair Dealing (UK and Elsewhere)

Fair use lets you use limited parts of copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching and research. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, courts weigh four factors:

1. Purpose and character of the use: commercial or non-profit educational, and whether it’s transformative, meaning it adds something new with a different purpose rather than substituting for the original.
2. Nature of the original work: using factual work is more likely to be fair than using highly creative work.
3. Amount and substantiality: how much you take, and whether it’s the “heart” of the work.
4. Effect on the market: whether your use could replace the original or harm its existing or future market, including licensing.

The Copyright Office is explicit that there’s no set percentage, number of words or number of seconds that’s automatically safe, and that each case depends on its facts.

Fair use is a US doctrine. The UK and several other countries use fair dealing, which is narrower and limited to listed purposes such as criticism, review, quotation, news reporting and parody, usually with a sufficient acknowledgement of the source. If your audience or business is outside the US, check your local rules.

What You Can Use Without Anyone’s Permission

• Facts, ideas, methods and data points. Copyright doesn’t protect facts, ideas, systems or methods of operation, only the way they’re expressed. Explaining a creator’s idea in your own words and linking to them is fine. (Copying their structure and phrasing paragraph by paragraph is not “your own words”.)
• Titles, names and short phrases. These aren’t protected by copyright, although names, slogans and logos can be protected as trademarks.
• Links. Pointing your audience to the original is the simplest way to “share” content you don’t own.
• A platform’s own share or embed tools. Sharing a post or embedding a video through the features the platform provides keeps the content on the creator’s account rather than making a copy. It’s a different thing from downloading and re-uploading.
• Short quotes, used for a purpose. Quoting a line in order to discuss, review or respond to it is the classic fair use or fair dealing case. Quote only what you need, and credit the source. If you’re summarizing, our guide to summarizing an article without plagiarizing walks through the process.

YouTube’s Extra Rules on Reused Content

Copyright law is only part of it. If you’re reusing material on or from YouTube, three platform rules apply on top.

1. Downloading is restricted by YouTube’s Terms of Service. YouTube’s terms don’t allow you to download, reproduce or redistribute content except through features the service provides, or with prior written permission from YouTube and the rights holders. Ripping someone’s video to re-edit it breaks the terms even before copyright comes into it.

2. Reused content can’t be monetized without meaningful changes. The YouTube Partner Program’s reused content policy covers videos that use someone else’s content with little or no change, such as clips compiled with no narrative or content copied from another source without substantive changes. Reaction videos with real commentary, or footage edited with your own storyline and commentary, can qualify. The test is whether viewers can tell there’s a meaningful difference between the original and your video. YouTube says the policy applies even if you have the original creator’s permission, so permission solves the copyright question but not the monetization one.

3. Some videos are licensed for reuse. YouTube lets creators mark their videos with the CC BY license. You can find them with the “Creative Commons” filter in YouTube search, then reuse them as long as you credit the creator (YouTube suggests title, author, source URL and license). Videos with a Content ID claim can’t be marked CC BY, and YouTube can’t grant you rights to anyone else’s video; for that, contact the creator.

YouTube’s Content ID system can also match reused audio or video automatically. Its fair use guidance points out that automated systems can’t decide fair use, which is a case-by-case question only courts can settle. A claim isn’t a verdict, and getting past Content ID isn’t permission either.

Myths That Get Creators in Trouble

• “I gave credit, so it’s fine.” Credit is required by most licenses and is good practice, but YouTube’s fair use guidance is clear that crediting the owner won’t by itself turn a non-transformative copy into fair use.
• “No copyright infringement intended.” A disclaimer doesn’t protect you.
• “It’s only a few seconds” or “only 10% of the article.” There’s no safe amount; even a small part can be too much if it’s the heart of the work.
• “I’m not making money from it.” Non-commercial use can weigh in your favor, but it doesn’t automatically make a use fair.
• “It was posted publicly online.” Public isn’t the same as free to reuse. Unless a license says otherwise, all rights are reserved.
• “I changed a few words.” Lightly rewording or AI-paraphrasing someone’s article still copies its expression and structure. Transformation means a new purpose and real added value, not synonyms.

A Safer Workflow for Repurposing Someone Else’s Content

Say you want to build a blog post, thread or video around another creator’s video or article:

1. Decide what you’re adding. A review, a critique, a comparison, a practical how-to based on their advice, a response with your own data. If the answer is “nothing”, don’t publish it.
2. Check the license. Look for a Creative Commons notice or reuse terms. If there’s none, assume you need permission to use the actual material.
3. Take notes and write from your notes, not the original. Summarize the key points, close the source, then write in your own structure and voice.
4. Quote sparingly and attribute properly. Use short quotes only where you comment on them, with a clear credit and link. For academic or formal writing, see how to cite a quote from a YouTube video.
5. Link or embed rather than copy. Send readers to the original; use the platform’s embed option instead of re-uploading.
6. Ask permission for anything more. Full republication, translation, substantial clips, images or diagrams, or anything for a paid product.

AI tools help most with step 3. TubeOnAI, for example, can summarize a YouTube video, podcast or web article so you can pin down the main points quickly and ask follow-up questions about it. Treat the summary as research notes: the commentary, opinion and examples you publish should be yours. TubeOnAI’s repurposing templates, such as its video script prompt, are meant for turning your own material (or material you’ve licensed) into new formats.

If you’re repurposing your own content, none of these limits apply. See 30 creative ways to repurpose content for ideas, or our guide to turning videos into blog posts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I post someone else’s article on my blog?

Not in full without permission or a license that allows it (for example, CC BY). You can write your own post about the same topic, quote a short passage to comment on it, and link to the original. If you want to republish the whole article, ask the author or publisher and get their agreement in writing.

Can I use articles from other blogs if I give credit?

Credit alone doesn’t give you the right to copy. It’s required by Creative Commons licenses and expected whenever you quote, but the copying itself still needs permission, a license or an exception such as fair use.

How do I re-share user-generated content legally?

Use the platform’s own share, repost or embed feature where it offers one, or ask the creator for permission before downloading and reposting their photo or video, especially in ads or on brand accounts. Credit them the way they ask, and keep a record of their permission.

Can I repurpose a YouTube video into a blog post?

You can write a blog post about a video, summarizing its ideas in your own words, adding your own commentary and embedding or linking the original. Publishing a full transcript, or the creator’s script lightly edited, is reusing their work and needs permission.

Is it legal to repost a YouTube video on my own channel?

Not without permission, unless the video is licensed CC BY and you credit the creator. Even with permission, a re-upload with little change usually can’t be monetized under YouTube’s reused content policy.