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How YouTube Copyright Claims Work
🕑 Added 2017-08-01 08:18:58 +0000 UTC Hello!I’ve had a number of people tell me that they’re a bit scared to make YouTube videos about games, because they’ve heard spooky stories about copyright claims on game footage.
I wanted to try and demystify the whole process and provide some practical advice on dealing with sort of stuff. This post will be public so I can share it with anyone who asks about this.
How does it work?
As soon as you upload, your video is automatically checked against a database of videos and music to see if it can detect an audio or visual match. This is called ContentID.
What will happen to my video if there's a match?
You will receive an email from YouTube, or you can see the claim in your video manager. It looks like this:
It tells you who owns the original material, the exact part of your video that got flagged, and whether it was visual or audio.
You can also see what the copyright holder has done. They will most likely put ads on your video and then take all of the revenue for themselves.
They have the power to block the video, block it in certain countries, or mute the audio. But simply taking your cash is much more likely. The most overzealous copyright holders, Nintendo and Konami, just take the cash.
What can I do about it?
You can fight it (Fair Use in US and Fair Dealing in UK allow you to use some copyrighted material for criticism purposes) but it’s a bit scary.
The claim goes to the copyright holder to decide, not YouTube. And YouTube threatens you with account termination if you misuse the system. Eek! If you need to do this, you may wish to seek legal advice.
Here's what the form looks like:
In most cases, though, it’s easier to simply delete the video, re-edit, and try again.
You can replace the offending music or audio with something different. Try to use public domain music or get permission from artists. And capture your own footage, or ask a Let’s Player if you can use their video, instead of using trailers or videos from publishers.
The nice thing about games is that they're interactive, so your own gameplay footage will always be different to the stuff in the database!*
If you absolutely need to show a specific piece of video (maybe a non-interactive section like a cutscene) or audio to critique it, you can try and use less of it. Instead of playing a full cutscene and then taking about it, play 20 seconds - cut away to discuss that part - cut back to the cutscene and repeat.
(Though, if you are specifically talking about a piece of video or audio because you're reviewing or critiquing it, then you should probably dispute the claim).
Does anything bad happen if I get one of these claims?
Nope. It means nothing. You won’t lose features or risk an account ban. I’ve got a handful of them!
So nothing to worry about then!
Well, I'd be remiss not to mention that there are more serious claims, called Copyright Strikes, which is when a copyright holder manually complains to YouTube about a live video, and YouTube agrees that the claim is accurate.
But this is extremely rare (especially in games). Plus, you can fight these strikes as well, and you’ll need three copyright strikes before your channel is terminated.
Oh, and in the most famous example of this - when developer Digital Homicide tried to kill Jim Sterling’s videos because he was criticising their games - the YouTube creator came out on top. That should scare off any naughty devs trying to shut down valid criticism!
Phew!
Yeah So don’t worry.
Getting a copyright claim can happen on YouTube but it isn’t all that scary - especially in the realm of games. You can live with it and miss out on some cash. Dispute the claim and hope for the best. Or just edit the video and try again.
Don’t let the fear of this stuff stop you from getting your voice out there, or your opinions heard. The world needs to hear your thoughts on how you would fix Sonic the Hedgehog’s gameplay, damnit!
Lemme know if you have any questions in the comments below, or on Twitter.
*I once got a copyright claim on footage I captured myself, from Super Mario Run. YouTube's algorithm is very good, and Nintendo are the worst.
Comments
good
If use full for me
Illuminati Games
Keep it up!
ForwardCreating
shared :)
Josh Foreman
Heh, I did a cross promotional video with a band where I did a sculpture for them and had their music playing. While THEY are all friends of mine and obviously gave full permission, and their label (Unique Leader) didn't care, some OTHER distribution company apparently had rights to it and it became a nightmare of scary emails and that thing about threats of having my channel shut down. I hate this system SO much. :[
Justin Raymond
You mean if the footage is 29 seconds, or the entire video?
Turbo Button
"Try to use public domain music or get permission from artists" Hahaaaaaaaaaaaa
Bevibel Harvey
Also, one other thing. If it's under 30 seconds, no content ID claim. Make it 29 seconds at a time and you should be good. This is definitely true for audio, probably also true for video.
Bevibel Harvey
Great guide. One criticism - I'm the creator of the Line Rider Archival Project, and Line Rider videos nearly always get flagged for the music the track is set to, so I have a wealth of experience here. I just want to mention that copyright strikes are not always manual, and are indeed sometimes automated. We've had a few examples of well-known creators getting a strike immediately upon upload, and a few other examples of creators getting 3 strikes within a few months and having their entire channel deleted. This may have changed so that they must be manually detected in recent years, but it certainly has been automated in the past. Studio Ghibli, for example, as of 2013, gives an automatic copyright strike for any footage from a movie included in your video. If your channel is deleted, even if you sue there is no way to get your channel back as YouTube does not store them.
Dan Root
This is really helpful, Mark! 👌🏼😗
Tim Romero
"The nice thing about games is that they're interactive, so your own gameplay footage will always be different to the stuff in the database!*" apparently it's common for videos of mega evolution in Pokémon games to get content ID'd because Nintendo released some trailers with footage of mega evolutions, and the video and audio usually matches up perfectly.
