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Saw this, this morning - the prior ruling which allowed it was overturned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THatbuKRwzg
An important point of this is clarified by the youtube channel linked above: If filming is done spontaneously (example, an unexpected event of noteworthy nature occurs... like an earthquake or a meteor or something) it would still be criminal to later post it on a for-profit platform like youtube even though it would have been impossible to obtain a permit in advance.
Interesting share. When I received a notification that someone posted this in the portal I knew it was you. 😉 Well, there are hundreds of videos on YouTube in National Parks. I imagine at some point they may start cracking down on the published video producers. I had no idea, frankly.
Interestingly, YouTube runs checks on all videos before releasing them. They can check all music for copyright, etc. For some reason, eventhough I tagged it Yellowstone National Park it didn't get flagged by YouTube.
It would make sense for the process to follow the copyright of music rule. The proceeds of monetization...or a portion of the proceeds...should be shared with the National Park (if a ruling states that revenue needs to be paid to the park service). A permit costs significantly more than I will likely make over the next 10 years on a video about the park I paid the permit to.
According to the National Forest Service, any commercial filming or photography in ANY national forest requires a special use permit from the Ranger District. This means, if you take an overland trip and cross over several national forests along the way, you must obtain in advance permits to film. This is stupidly reduculous and would literally put thousands of people in jail who you and I both know are filming in National Forests. In fact, pretty much every single overland trip you find on YouTube is within a US National Forest. You cannot take an adventure trip in the USA without passing through a NF, BLM or what have you. The permit process would completely disable the government agencies if every person who filmed on YouTube who filmed generally in NF were to apply for permits.
The ruling also suggests that if I take a photo for personal use at a NP and then post it to my personal facebook page and that photo shows up in a facebook feed that you are scrolling through...and before or after my photo you see a sponsored post (an ad someone purchased from facebook), then facebook should be fined for making money from the photo that they shared with you.
I think that the prior or in-between ruling before it was overturned made the most sense.
Just the equipment you could carry, just a tripod, no impact to the resources, no trespassing on areas that are ordinarily off limits anyway, no impact to other visitors, etc.. in other words exactly as if you were taking the same footage to share with your family.
That still leaves it open to acquire permits if you're going to film a feature.. along with all the other stuff that goes along with filming a feature (closing areas to keep the public out during filming, setting up camera tracks or bringing in vehicles/equipment, accountability for any damage that may occur, etc) .
Ultimately we individuals are going to have to follow the law and if we break it (because it's ridiculous) we have to take our chances - I think this will be set right in the long run but it's going to take the public noticing it on a broad scale first. I agree with some other comments I've found around the internet that this is likely not about youtubers filming Yellowstone but rather about the public filming police and other political/social events - so that means it will likely end up one day at the feet of the supreme court and I hope at that time they make the right decision.
Thanks for sharing. Sounds like the requirements related to drone filming in general.....if the intent can or could create revenue then you have to have a drone part 107 pilot license. It's unfortunate that government continues to add laws which make so many things that seem harmless, unlawful. The tax code has become so complicated that you need a professional to do them in order to avoid violations.
The absolute best solution to this situation lies with YouTube and the other platforms. So, agreed that if you are shooting photography within the national park and then blowing it up to sell it in a gallery, you should get a permit.
If you are shooting for YouTube, which takes a lot of views to get any money out of it, YouTube should handle the profit share with the government no differently than if I use a song that is copyright protected and I either lose the revenue generation all together or end up sharing it with the copyright owner. YouTube has a simple way in the backend to add your location. In fact, YouTube can detect your location automatically. All they have to do is handle the passing of the (shared) revenue to the goverment when on government land. It should be shared as the government controls the land but I spent the time to capture the scenes and make it into something worth watching...adding value.
Note, this entire situation also applies to National Forests. I just found out after talking with a National Forest Ranger that anyone conducting any commercial activity in a national forest (i.e. shooting video or photos for commercial purposes for instance), are required to get an approved permit PER JURISDICTION!!! In other words, there may be 3 or 4 jurisdictions within a single national forest. Thus, if I were to take an overland trip across New Mexico and Colorado and I filmed it, I would need to get permits for every jurisdiction within every national forest, BLM, State Trust, or what have you. That could easily be over 20 permits for a single trip, BUT, adding fuel to the fire, I would have to apply for them in advance (several weeks) so this means I would need to know exactly the route I want to take in advance. No free flow.
The entire thing is a mess.