What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I run a webhosting company that has been pretty successful over the past couple of years in getting new customers. The past couple months have been a bit slow since there are so many big names out there overselling services by offering unlimited this and that - so I'm looking for a way to bring in some new customers and had a quick question.
There are about 30-40 reviews about my hosting company that are on YouTube from customers who say they enjoy using it. Would it be legal for me to use YouTube's embed feature to add these to my website so people can see what our customers have to say? I know that people agree to YouTube's TOS and have the option to not allow videos to be embedded so obviously I would only be using the ones where permission was given.
My main concern is the FTC's guidelines on endorsements since I wouldn't really have any proof of who the customers are or what account they had with us - basically not documentation - also it's very possible that some were created by affiliates.
However, I didn't think it would be a problem if I added them all on a reviews page and explained that these were reviews we gathered from YouTube where customers are talking about our services. And of course at the bottom of the page add in a disclaimer about how results aren't always the same and that the reviews hadn't been verified.
My concern isn't about having the rights to the videos since they are posted publicly on YouTube with the embed feature enabled. My main concern is that there is no way for me to say which review belongs to which customer in the case that it got investigated for something like false advertising or paid endorsements or whatever it's legally called.
Note: this is actually something I've been wanting to do for a long time but just wasn't sure if it was okay to do. The last thing I'd want to do is mislead someone or run into any legal issues - God knows we already have to deal with enough DMCAs for hosting accounts and trademark emails for domain names lol
Am I on the right track with doing this or could I run into legal issues or problems with the FTC for this?
I run a webhosting company that has been pretty successful over the past couple of years in getting new customers. The past couple months have been a bit slow since there are so many big names out there overselling services by offering unlimited this and that - so I'm looking for a way to bring in some new customers and had a quick question.
There are about 30-40 reviews about my hosting company that are on YouTube from customers who say they enjoy using it. Would it be legal for me to use YouTube's embed feature to add these to my website so people can see what our customers have to say? I know that people agree to YouTube's TOS and have the option to not allow videos to be embedded so obviously I would only be using the ones where permission was given.
My main concern is the FTC's guidelines on endorsements since I wouldn't really have any proof of who the customers are or what account they had with us - basically not documentation - also it's very possible that some were created by affiliates.
However, I didn't think it would be a problem if I added them all on a reviews page and explained that these were reviews we gathered from YouTube where customers are talking about our services. And of course at the bottom of the page add in a disclaimer about how results aren't always the same and that the reviews hadn't been verified.
My concern isn't about having the rights to the videos since they are posted publicly on YouTube with the embed feature enabled. My main concern is that there is no way for me to say which review belongs to which customer in the case that it got investigated for something like false advertising or paid endorsements or whatever it's legally called.
Note: this is actually something I've been wanting to do for a long time but just wasn't sure if it was okay to do. The last thing I'd want to do is mislead someone or run into any legal issues - God knows we already have to deal with enough DMCAs for hosting accounts and trademark emails for domain names lol
Am I on the right track with doing this or could I run into legal issues or problems with the FTC for this?
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