YouTube's Copyright Team Giving Me the Run-around

[Idec Sdawkminn]

I have a video that I can watch just fine, but it doesn't show up in search results and when someone other than me tries to view it from the URL, it says "This video is not available in your country due to a copyright claim by UMG" as if it was blocked worldwide. But when I view it in my Video Manager, there is nothing that says it has a claim on it. There is no link to click on to dispute it. It doesn't have a Copyright tab when I go to edit the video, either.

I sent an email on December 15th about it to copyright@youtube.com with the following:

Hello Copyright Team,

I was going through my videos and I noticed one that is set to Public and has no copyright claims, but it is unavailable to everyone except me like it has been blocked worldwide. Can you correct this?

Video URL:

They replied back on December 22nd with:

Hello,

A content owner has claimed content in your video using YouTube’s Content ID system.
You can find specifics of the policy applied to your video in the copyright notices section of your YouTube account. There, you may click the underlined link to the right of the video's Edit menu to learn more about the claim.
If you believe that this claim was made in error, you can dispute it directly from that page at any time. Once the dispute is filed, the claimant will be notified and they'll have 30 days to respond.
If you were previously monetizing your video, and the claimant wants to monetize the video as well, we'll continue to collect revenue on the video and set it aside until your dispute is resolved. If you dispute within the first 5 days of receiving the claim, we will hold revenue generated on that video from the first day the Content ID claim was created. If you dispute a Content ID claim more than 5 days from the date of the original claim, we will start holding the revenue on the date the dispute is made. Once the dispute is resolved, we'll pay the revenue earned during the dispute to the appropriate party. Learn more about monetization during a Content ID dispute.
Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes.


Regards,
The YouTube Legal Support Team

A canned response that assumes I don't know how to dispute claims and what the process is. I know how to dispute claims just fine. My email said it "has no copyright claims". I was a little put off by their response, but I understand they have to deal with people who don't know what they're talking about. So I replied back the next day with:

I know it looks like there is a copyright claim on the video, but there isn’t. It is not listed in the copyright notices section of my YouTube account. There is no copyright tab on that video’s edit page. When I manually try to visit the copyright page by putting in this video’s ID after the copyright notice URL, like so: https://www.youtube.com/video_copynotice?v=ThhkdKOW6-k it gives me a red bar at the top saying “There are no copyright claims on this video”. And yet, when I try to go to the video’s URL from an account other than my own, it says it is blocked in my country by UMG.

Please look into this further than a surface glance.

There. Now there's no way they can think I just don't know how to tell if a video has a claim or not.

They replied back on December 28th with the same exact canned response. Did they not read anything I wrote? How can they think any of their response is an appropriate reply to what my email said? I could understand if they were telling me it isn't something the copyright team handles and direct me to a different department that does, but they might as well be sending me instructions on how to install a shelf in my bathroom. How can they just send me instructions that they know won't work for my problem as stated? So I replied back with:

Again, there is no copyright claim on my video. Your 2 previous emails are incorrect. I cannot follow any of the instructions you sent because THERE ARE NO COPYRIGHT CLAIMS ON MY VIDEO. There is nothing to dispute. I would like to dispute whatever is blocking it, but there is nothing for me to click on to do so. If you can't help me, I'm not sure what I can do.

Just last night I finally got a reply back on this. Their reply?:

Hello,

Thank you for your message. It appears the issue you are inquiring about has already been resolved.

Regards,
The YouTube Legal Support Team

Excited, I went to check the video. I guess I'm an optimistic at heart. But sadly, nothing has changed. It is still blocked worldwide without giving me an option for doing anything about it. I work in IT. There's no way in Hell a conversation like this would fly:

Them: My computer won't turn on.
Me: Try rebooting it. Click the start button in the bottom left, then click restart.
Them: No, it won't turn on at all. It's plugged in and I've verified that there is power, but when I press the power button, nothing happens.
Me: Try rebooting it. Click the start button in the bottom left, then click restart.
Them: WTF! I just told you that I can't do that! My computer won't turn on at all. None of that even applies to my problem. Please come fix it!
Me: Looks like your issue is resolved. Have a nice day.

Well, they can't just brush me off because they don't want to deal with it. If nothing else, they should at least acknowledge my issue and direct me to someone who can help, not just sending me instructions that are irrelevant and then mark it as closed. My last reply to them last night was:

I just checked and it hasn't been resolved. It is still unavailable even though it doesn't have a copyright claim on it. Try again.

I'm not holding my breath for this anymore, but I'm going to keep replying to any email they send me that is of the same nature.

 

[Kush Patel]

I'm not surprised. YouTube Copyright is garbage. I wish you luck, hopefully you can get it fixed.

 

[offbeatbryce]

I have a video that I can watch just fine, but it doesn't show up in search results and when someone other than me tries to view it from the URL, it says "This video is not available in your country due to a copyright claim by UMG" as if it was blocked worldwide. But when I view it in my Video Manager, there is nothing that says it has a claim on it. There is no link to click on to dispute it. It doesn't have a Copyright tab when I go to edit the video, either.

I sent an email on December 15th about it to copyright@youtube.com with the following:



They replied back on December 22nd with:



A canned response that assumes I don't know how to dispute claims and what the process is. I know how to dispute claims just fine. My email said it "has no copyright claims". I was a little put off by their response, but I understand they have to deal with people who don't know what they're talking about. So I replied back the next day with:



There. Now there's no way they can think I just don't know how to tell if a video has a claim or not.

They replied back on December 28th with the same exact canned response. Did they not read anything I wrote? How can they think any of their response is an appropriate reply to what my email said? I could understand if they were telling me it isn't something the copyright team handles and direct me to a different department that does, but they might as well be sending me instructions on how to install a shelf in my bathroom. How can they just send me instructions that they know won't work for my problem as stated? So I replied back with:



Just last night I finally got a reply back on this. Their reply?:



Excited, I went to check the video. I guess I'm an optimistic at heart. But sadly, nothing has changed. It is still blocked worldwide without giving me an option for doing anything about it. I work in IT. There's no way in Hell a conversation like this would fly:

Them: My computer won't turn on.
Me: Try rebooting it. Click the start button in the bottom left, then click restart.
Them: No, it won't turn on at all. It's plugged in and I've verified that there is power, but when I press the power button, nothing happens.
Me: Try rebooting it. Click the start button in the bottom left, then click restart.
Them: WTF! I just told you that I can't do that! My computer won't turn on at all. None of that even applies to my problem. Please come fix it!
Me: Looks like your issue is resolved. Have a nice day.

Well, they can't just brush me off because they don't want to deal with it. If nothing else, they should at least acknowledge my issue and direct me to someone who can help, not just sending me instructions that are irrelevant and then mark it as closed. My last reply to them last night was:



I'm not holding my breath for this anymore, but I'm going to keep replying to any email they send me that is of the same nature.

I'm the copyright guru. Message me and I will figure it out