SMcArthur:
“Hi ReviewNinja, I saw that your post about wrongful ContentID takedowns on YouTube. A colleague and I are writing an article for WIRED about this subject and would love to talk to you. Our goal is to get YouTube to change its policy so it doesn’t steal monetization from people who have received wrongful ContentID copyright takedowns. We want instead for them to put it into escrow. Do you mind chatting for a bit about your channel and any wrongful ContentID takedowns against you that have taken your monetization?”
The Revisionist:
Well for starters, the first copyright strike or ContentID takedown really hurts. When I got my first copyright strike, I panicked and deleted my video. But what I didn’t realize is that I could have kept the video if I did a few things:
- Talk (email) with the company that put the strike on me and comment on their posts on social media to get their attention. Usually it’s the music-video channels that strike people’s videos. Sometime your successful and you can convince the channel to leave you alone.
- File a retract claim, and keep going until the channel striking you has to sue in order to take the video down. Many channels won’t go that far to sue, due to the expensive nature of hiring a lawyer.
Now I got one strike for Royalty Free music I had used; and another for a small clip of video that was someone elses. Although I understand why I got copyright striked the second time, there are 3 problems.
- The music company/channel is striking content that isn’t in anyway related to them. The striked a portion of video about a group of lions playing with a ball.
- The channel striking is getting my monetization. That encourages channels to strike others to make some money. You don’t want to encourage a person to steal and get away with it too.
- The YouTube guidelines are extremely vague. A YouTube Content Maker does not know what lines not to cross. I understand fair use exists, but to what extent? What can a person use from another individual’s video?
For example, if Tyron Magnus (that’s his name? You know, the guy who basically did a ‘silent’ review on Grade A Under A’s entire video) can copy a person’s video directly, and not only that but also strike Grade A Under A’s original video, you definitely know something is wrong.
Now I realize that the reason that YouTube isn’t doing jack shit about the copyright system is that its protecting itself from liabilities so that YouTube can be sued. But for sure, YouTube can be sued for one thing. YouTube can be sued for allowing other channels to steal another person’s monetization.
