YouTube is Removing Videos - Are You Affected?

[Hirudov]

Regarding the copyright issues, I was put in a very absurd situation this Friday and was in a serious danger of getting my gaming channel a copyright strike and no live-streaming for 3 months. I won't reveal the parties involved, since we resolved everything peacefully and the claim is released now, but here is how it went.
More than a year ago I've used a song from a royalty free site from a band that gave the song approval for use in YouTube videos. The band released an album with the same song this year and they used a music aggregator for distribution and content management. The music aggregator is a big music label that also happens to have ContentID, so, unsurprisingly the song appeared as reference in the YouTube's identification system. I got a claim on the song! I followed the standard procedure in the situation stating that I own all the content in my video and have all the necessary licenses. Surprisingly the dispute was not approved and the claim was reinstated. I appealed the decision stating and citing more facts about the used song, including the license, the song in the ContentID and the reason I've used it. The appeal wasn't approved as well and I got notice that in a week time my video will have a takedown notice and my account will receive a strike (at least nice by the aggressive music label they gave me a week to react).

So, in a hurry and in a rush (and little arrogantly, but I had no other choice) I've contacted the band to which they were surprised there are copyright claims, they said there is nothing coming from them and they have released a fully licensed album and EP recently, so there may be the issue, but they have no access to the tools and they can't do much about it. I provided them with all the information I have and the claims and so on, and they forwarded the information and me to their music agent. Fortunately, the music agent was willing to help, so he contacted that BIG music label and after several days the claim is released (I had only 2.5 days left). I see the song is still in the ContentID and most probably and obviosuly I won't be able easily to use the song in the future with such aggressive music label, but at least the claim was released on my video.

tl;dr You can get copyrighted even for content that you have license to. If you don't have the right licenses, deep understanding of copyright and willing people to help you, forget about releasing copyright claims or countering copyright takedowns if you use someone else content in your videos.

 

[FamilyToyReview]

Wow! You hit the nail right on the head, that is exactly the problem that I am having now as it has become very costly to stay on top of all the new toys when we are still a very new and small channel. We honestly feel a little lost right now with our channel because we don't know if we can keep up with big channels posting the new toys daily, and there are only so many toys! We might try to focus on a niche like trains and cars with pretend play. I noticed that the Naiah and Elli Show opened a new channel based on playing with dolls. I am wondering if they are branching out from their main channel now as well with all the changes. Kiddie Toys Review we have learned so much from you over the past few months, thanks for giving such good insight. It helps when you feel like your on your own island as a small channel.

We bought a lot of toys for unboxing. But our best performing videos are actually very low cost or free. All our pretend play, toy stories, toy hunts (walk around don't actually buy toy) do better for us than our unboxings. I jus don't have enough brain juice to keep churning out little toy skits. But the skits give us a lot more views and evergreen views compared to our unboxing videos. So there is a way to make popular videos without spending too much. But it's not easy making so many.

 

[6StringMadMan]

Regarding the copyright issues, I was put in a very absurd situation this Friday and was in a serious danger of getting my gaming channel a copyright strike and no live-streaming for 3 months. I won't reveal the parties involved, since we resolved everything peacefully and the claim is released now, but here is how it went.
More than a year ago I've used a song from a royalty free site from a band that gave the song approval for use in YouTube videos. The band released an album with the same song this year and they used a music aggregator for distribution and content management. The music aggregator is a big music label that also happens to have ContentID, so, unsurprisingly the song appeared as reference in the YouTube's identification system. I got a claim on the song! I followed the standard procedure in the situation stating that I own all the content in my video and have all the necessary licenses. Surprisingly the dispute was not approved and the claim was reinstated. I appealed the decision stating and citing more facts about the used song, including the license, the song in the ContentID and the reason I've used it. The appeal wasn't approved as well and I got notice that in a week time my video will have a takedown notice and my account will receive a strike (at least nice by the aggressive music label they gave me a week to react).

So, in a hurry and in a rush (and little arrogantly, but I had no other choice) I've contacted the band to which they were surprised there are copyright claims, they said there is nothing coming from them and they have released a fully licensed album and EP recently, so there may be the issue, but they have no access to the tools and they can't do much about it. I provided them with all the information I have and the claims and so on, and they forwarded the information and me to their music agent. Fortunately, the music agent was willing to help, so he contacted that BIG music label and after several days the claim is released (I had only 2.5 days left). I see the song is still in the ContentID and most probably and obviosuly I won't be able easily to use the song in the future with such aggressive music label, but at least the claim was released on my video.

tl;dr You can get copyrighted even for content that you have license to. If you don't have the right licenses, deep understanding of copyright and willing people to help you, forget about releasing copyright claims or countering copyright takedowns if you use someone else content in your videos.

Not directly related, but stuff like this is the reason why whenever I use an image from a free stock site I take a screenshot of the photo on the site along with the license just in case I need it in the future.

 

[HondawithanS]

All of you guys have given me great feedback. Thank you so much. I have strolled through a few book channels and noticed that Eric Carle books---The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a really known and liked book so I followed suite and uploaded. I was contacted by YT with a copyright strike for that book only. However, I HAD at the time 4 books including the one mentioned above in a playlist setting. Random House UK had it taken down but not the others. So, a friend of mine went and researched the Author and we found out he is EXTREMELY strict about his books being read anywhere. Like, you have to have permission to have it read in story time at your local library. After that I just decided to ax the entire playlist.

I keep looking at StoryTime Castle and Nita Reads along with Mr. Awesome. We ALL READ ALOUD the same books---they have just been on YT longer. They are making a couple of thousand and I am wondering if they have contacted every book company to get permission also.

 

[HondawithanS]

We looked at reading books as well. I was told it may be against copyright, because you are displaying work for public consumption. This was advise in Australia by a senior lecturer at a university in professional writing and editing course. When they read books on Play School, apparently they get copyright clearances from the publisher. That's what I have been told anyways. So we decided not to have that. It may be different in different countries and different publishers may have different views on this.

I think Yt's heading towards having only a limited number of approved and monetized channels in the kids space. Perhaps even collated to a certain degree. Major players like Family Fun Pack and ToysAneMe have been demonetized, while other have been permitted to operate, even though there is overlap in the types of videos, metadata and content. I think they have picked their winners already, who they favor for monetization in the kids pace, everyone else can still upload on guidelines, but likely not monetize.

If you have invested minimum in terms of $ and time, I'd say stay clear of the kids/toy area. The gold rush and hey day is over for 99.8% of channels. if you want to do it as a business, find a hungry niche willing to spend $ on upsells and cross-marketing. Two things hot right now are cryptocurrencies and dropshipping. For knowledgeable and hungry internet marketers, there are serious dollars to be made as affiliates, and of course in the actual businesses if you can operate them. Check out some of the channels in those spaces (and cross reference with their facebook groups). If I was starting, that's where I would focus on. Unless of course you have a wacky way-out personality, quirky friends, willing to annoy your neighbors and bust up stuff, and can run a channel like that, like some of the tops Ytbers, that seems to be highly profitable if it takes off.[DOUBLEPOST=1513718717,1513718183][/DOUBLEPOST]

Ye, but he is an adult acting in a childish way, which appears one of the no-nos in the new guidelines. Maybe it's only when an adult acts in a childish way when there are also kids in the video. But he has kids in his videos. I don't know, the guidelines are vague, it depends who Yt likes and who they don't like. Like Blippi has learning colors at a playground, some of the channels deleted also had learning colors at playgrounds. Go figure??

This is great information. I may just pause for the cause and watch what happens.

 

[6StringMadMan]

All of you guys have given me great feedback. Thank you so much. I have strolled through a few book channels and noticed that Eric Carle books---The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a really known and liked book so I followed suite and uploaded. I was contacted by YT with a copyright strike for that book only. However, I HAD at the time 4 books including the one mentioned above in a playlist setting. Random House UK had it taken down but not the others. So, a friend of mine went and researched the Author and we found out he is EXTREMELY strict about his books being read anywhere. Like, you have to have permission to have it read in story time at your local library. After that I just decided to ax the entire playlist.

I keep looking at StoryTime Castle and Nita Reads along with Mr. Awesome. We ALL READ ALOUD the same books---they have just been on YT longer. They are making a couple of thousand and I am wondering if they have contacted every book company to get permission also.

When I was researching niches I came across the same idea. I looked at the competition and potential and figured that it would be quite easy to get thousands of daily views for each video, and it's such a huge niche too. I did a couple of ranking tests using the Hungry Caterpillar (what a coincidence) and was able to easily rank on the first page. Then I thought about it and decided that it's going to be a problem with copyright, especially if I was to monetize the videos.

 

[KidsCorner]

I think a lot of people have this idea but drop it after doing research. My initial idea was the same as well, read be time stories but after research I was too afraid of copyright issues so decided to do something different.

 

[HondawithanS]

I think a lot of people have this idea but drop it after doing research. My initial idea was the same as well, read be time stories but after research I was too afraid of copyright issues so decided to do something different.

Yes. Now I have noticed that Let's Read Stories channel has been taken down due to too many copyright infringements. I have to wonder however, Storybook
Nanny is the number 1 channel for read aloud on YT when you search. I wonder if she has asked permission from every author??

 

[HondawithanS]

When I was researching niches I came across the same idea. I looked at the competition and potential and figured that it would be quite easy to get thousands of daily views for each video, and it's such a huge niche too. I did a couple of ranking tests using the Hungry Caterpillar (what a coincidence) and was able to easily rank on the first page. Then I thought about it and decided that it's going to be a problem with copyright, especially if I was to monetize the videos.

funny thing is, there are many more channels whom have the ads running with that same book. None taken down.

 

[KiddieToysReview]

Yes. Now I have noticed that Let's Read Stories channel has been taken down due to too many copyright infringements. I have to wonder however, Storybook
Nanny is the number 1 channel for read aloud on YT when you search. I wonder if she has asked permission from every author??

Ask the channel owner! Would like to know too.