Our problem-solving so far:
On whether or not reading a poem on a YouTube video makes it illegible for publication in many journals, this is how we see it so far, but which we will try to get authoritative proof of: In practice, what makes a poem on the internet unpublishable in some journals is whether the editors can Google it and it comes up in the search. If it does, then that poem already has a copyright on it in the sense that it can be found and read, and is indelibly stamped with the date on which it was first saved in the computer server. However, you can’t Google a poem that only consists of sounds on a video, unless it has its written title associated with it, which we wouldn’t do. So a journal that Googled the poem wouldn’t find it if it was only in a video. And thus it would say the poem is publishable. Well, this is only my backwards way of looking at the problem. What I will try to do between now and September is get this verified by journals themselves. If anyone knows the answer right now, please make a comment here or email me.
The other possible problem which has been brought up in terms of publishing is whether or not we would have to get permission to have a poem read which has already been published. Not if the poem is from a book: the author owns the copyright. If it was in a journal, or an anthology, what then? Not sure yet. Some of you published poets must know.
The other problem concerns those who object to having a video camera pointed at them, for any reason. We simply won’t videotape that person. We’ve discussed it. No problem.