Platform rules
Can I clip someone else's YouTube video and post it?
Short answer
Not by default — the video is the creator's copyrighted work, and reposting a cut of it can be removed or monetised by them. Safe routes are: your own footage, footage you have permission for, or genuinely transformative use with commentary. Straight reuploads of someone else's clips are the pattern platforms remove. This isn't legal advice.
The detail
The common failure mode is assuming credit equals permission. Tagging the original creator is courteous and does nothing legally — attribution isn't a licence, and content-ID systems don't check the caption.
Transformative use — commentary, criticism, analysis, reaction with substantive input — is a real defence in some jurisdictions, but it's a defence, not a permission slip, and it's judged on the specifics. A clip with your genuine analysis over it sits very differently from the same clip with a caption added.
The route that actually works at scale is asking. Many creators are happy to have their long-form clipped for social if you credit and link, and some run formal clipping programs with explicit terms. A short message costs nothing and converts surprisingly often.
If you're clipping streamers specifically, check their channel rules — a lot of them publish clipping policies, and some prohibit monetised reuploads outright while welcoming credited clips.
None of this is legal advice. If money depends on the answer, ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Follow-up questions
What if I credit the original creator?
Credit is good manners and not a licence. Automated copyright systems don't read captions, and the rights holder can still claim or remove the video.
Is a 30-second clip short enough to be fine?
There's no safe-length rule. Short excerpts are more defensible in a fair-use analysis, but length alone doesn't make copying permitted.
How do clip channels operate then?
Mostly with permission, under a creator's published clipping policy, or by accepting takedowns as a cost of doing business. The first two are the ones that last.
Also asked as: is it legal to clip other people's videos · can I repost clips from YouTube to TikTok · copyright rules for clipping videos