YouTube Copyright

YouTube Copyright

With the advent of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) YouTube Copyright policing is occurring on a much wider more advanced scale than ever before.  If you’re an online marketer, video publisher, or social media account manager then you should definitely take heed of these new policies and understand them throughly or you may unknowingly violate YouTube’s copyright code and subsequently have your video deleted or even worse have your page shut down.  So here’s an outline of the new policy and ways to protect yourself.

YouTube Copyright | Content ID

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, YouTube isn’t actually held accountable for the copyright infringement, its users are.  However, that didn’t stop Viacom’s billion dollar lawsuit and with SOPA creeping in, YouTube doesn’t want to take any chances.  Just how does YouTube copyright laws work and how can you protect your images, logos, and videos?  Through something that YouTube calls Content ID, and its explained throughly in Mashable’s recent article on YouTube copyright.

To use Content ID, rights holders submit copies of content or ID files that are then run against user uploads. Copyright holders can assign various policies to their content in the event of a match. The policy options are:

  • Block — This means that if a content match is found, the video will not be viewable.
  • Track — The video can stay online, but the content owner will be able to track how many views it receives and from where.
  • Monetize — Rights holders can choose to serve ads on the content and they will receive revenue from those ads.

Policy options are available on a regional basis, which allows rights holders to block content in some regions, while keeping them accessible in others.

YouTube users can find out about any copyright notices or Content ID matches by visiting the “Copyright Notices” section of the video manager.

The thing is not everyone out there actually claims their Content ID, so thousands of videos violate copyright laws and are uploaded everyday.

YouTube Copyright | Monetizing

Its no secret that one of the major reasons that YouTube copyright policies are being enforced so strictly is that YouTube makes a good deal of money from this Content ID according to a trusted source.

Within a year, Google had tamed the Wild West of copyright infringement that characterized YouTube’s pioneer days, both through licensing deals with major content providers and through a content-management program, called Content ID, that alerted copyright holders automatically whenever any part of their content went up on YouTube. Owners can choose to remove the content, sell ads against it and share the money with YouTube, or use it as a promotional tool. Content ID generates a third of YouTube’s revenue. (In June, 2010, Louis Stanton, the judge in the long-running Viacom v. YouTube case, granted summary judgment to YouTube. Viacom is appealing that ruling, and a decision is expected soon.)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/16/120116fa_fact_seabrook#ixzz1mgUsjTPg

YouTube Copyright | Conclusion

Every one is cracking down on piracy and copyright violations these days.  It makes me wonder if YouTube will disappear from the YouTube that we all know and love.  One where we can easily listen to any song at the click of a button.  However its better to be safe than sorry, so stay informed about YouTube copyright updates.

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