Youtube – Is it possible to auto report copyrighted content usage on YouTube to avoid strikes

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I noticed that uploading content on YouTube which is not immediately recognized as copyrighted by someone else on the platform, creators become subsceptible to get copyright strikes out of the blue.

The same does not happen when YouTube already knows who's the original content owner, thus making extremely dangerous for creators to fairly use someone's else content which is not already on the platform.

For example one could get three copyright strikes in a week and get his channel closed without any appeal. I already saw this happening to many good, polite creators.

So I was wondering if it was possible to have the uploader reporting fair usage as soon as the video gets processed.

Best Answer

I noticed that uploading content on YouTube which is not immediately recognized as copyrighted by someone else on the platform, creators become subsceptible to get copyright strikes out of the blue.

This is the wrong conclusion here. If something gets caught by ContentID, it's not any safer than something which doesn't get caught. The copyright holder can take it down at any time, and there is no mechanism to prevent this*.

This is because the entire "strike" thing is based on US copyright law and formally is called a DMCA Takedown Notification. If you believe that the takedown was wrong, you can send a counter notification, after which the claimant has 10 business days to take the case to court. And only there it is that fair use really becomes relevant.

* While it doesn't prevent strikes, asking the copyright holder for permission before using a copyrighted work usually results in a much nicer experience for everyone involved. Do be prepared to be asked to pay a license fee or similar though.