With more than 50 million channels, YouTube has become a lucrative career for content creators. After Google’s acquisition, monetization fueled the growth of YouTube, empowering it to be one of the present-day giants of the ever-growing digital media industry. At the same time, just because you purchased the content or just because you got it forwarded from someone in either WhatsApp or Facebook doesn’t mean you own the rights to upload it on YouTube. Even if your video has someone else’s copyrighted content like image, audio, background music, etc. you still need permission from the appropriate owners.
YouTube’s monetary rewards have attracted a large number of audience towards the platform. Various malpractices for triggering income from YouTube such as copyright infringements, duplication and reuse of original content became frequent. When someone infringes on copyright – whether it’s someone doing it to you or you doing it to someone else – there will be consequences. YouTube takes the breach seriously and will take down the infringing video. YouTube also penalizes the offender with a strike.If you get three strikes, you’re out! YouTube can ban you and your channel if it gets to this point. Keep the below points before you post any video on YouTube.
Remember Who owns the Copyright!
It’s simple: if you created the video, the copyright belongs to you. If you upload content created by someone else, copyright belongs to that person – you better get their permission before uploading. As soon as the video is created, so is the copyright. Since 1992, there is no renewal process for copyright of a work – even after the death of the creator.
Attribution does not absolve a Copyright Violation
Some people steal other’s work and claim it as their own, and that’s blatant infringement. But it’s no less of an offense when you use content and just add a line like “Created by so‐and‐so” or “No copyright infringement intended” or “All rights belong to their respective owners”. It’s still a breach that can earn a strike and a block of the video.
Hence, if you are using someone else’s work in your video, permission from the person to upload it in YouTube is a must.
The Profit Motive is Irrelevant
Some folks will say, “Hey, it’s alright if I use someone else’s content, because I’m not looking to make any money.” Say that before the judge and the verdict will still be “Guilty of copyright infringement!”. Whether you intend to make money from the video or you simply want to share your masterpiece with the world, it still doesn’t mean that you can violate copyright law. You need to get permission from the copyright holder.
Why Should YouTubers Understand The Policy?
Most of the content creators in YouTube are motivated to create content for the reason that it generates decent revenue for the YouTubers. For this purpose, a channel has to enable monetization and the video uploaded should be as per the “Advertiser Friendly Guidelines” prescribed by YouTube.
The primary source of income through YouTube comes through running advertisements in the video. A channel becomes more exposed to advertisements when the popularity of content increases. So, when a content created by a party is reused or re-uploaded by another party, the content gets duplicated and the owner of the video loses revenue. Hence a YouTuber should always be well versed with YouTube’s copyright policy along with the procedures governing copyright strike down and content-id mismatch.
Don’t let Copyright Issues on YouTube lead to a Strikeout
If YouTube gives you 3 strikes – especially for copyright issues, then it’s a lifetime ban from it’s partnership program. That’s something you don’t want on your record. Worst is if that happens to you, you won’t be able to recover your videos. So, better avoid getting strikes – categorized into two as ‘Community Guidelines Strikes’ and ‘ Copyright Strikes’.
Copyright is not Forever, but it’s forever enough for YouTube
Copyright lasts for 60 years (in India – as on Jan 13, 2022) past the death of the author – after that point, the copyrighted content enters the public domain. At that instance, the content is no longer protected by intellectual property laws, anyone can use it without permission. Considering it that way the content in YouTube isn’t available to use without permission until the next century.
Check out the YouTube Help section on Copyright and Right Management for complete details & FAQ Section for simple briefs.
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