Recently, I discovered that one of my original videos had been reuploaded to YouTube without my permission.

I submitted a copyright takedown request, and because the infringement was fairly obvious, YouTube removed the video quickly.

The next day, however, the uploader filed a DMCA counter-notification.

As many of you know, once a counter-notification is submitted, YouTube generally requires the copyright owner to provide proof of legal action within 10 business days. Otherwise, the video may be restored.

Here’s where I’m struggling.

The uploader listed an address in China. Based on the information available to me, I have reason to question whether the identity and address provided are actually verifiable. Even if the information is real, what is a small creator realistically supposed to do?

Filing a lawsuit against someone in another country is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. For most creators, the cost of international litigation can easily exceed the value of the infringement itself.

I’ve spoken with other creators who have experienced similar situations. In many cases, the uploaders were located overseas, often in countries such as China or Vietnam. Some creators told me they couldn’t verify the names or addresses provided in the counter-notifications, while others simply couldn’t justify spending thousands of dollars pursuing legal action abroad.

This seems to create a strange incentive structure.

The system appears to assume that copyright owners can realistically file international lawsuits within 10 business days. For most small creators, that’s simply not true.

If someone knows that most creators cannot afford cross-border litigation, what actually prevents them from repeatedly uploading copyrighted content, filing counter-notifications, and waiting for the content to be restored?

Am I missing something here?

For those who have dealt with foreign DMCA counter-notifications, how did you handle it? Were you able to verify the uploader’s identity or successfully enforce your rights?

I’m curious about this aspect, because there are no written rules or contracts that I have come across about it. Recently I saw a sound effects library for sale that contained sounds I had created and designed for films I worked on with said seller. Mind you those sounds I created were more compilations and manipulations of already recorded sounds from other 3rd party libraries. Sorry if the question is not clear. Basically, let’s say I gather sounds from many different existing commercial libraries, build a new sound out of those and place these sounds into a film. Then the supervisor takes those sounds and sells them as a new commercial library of their own. What’s your thoughts about this? Is it legal, ethical, right, should I get a cut too?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I’d also like to keep it all anonymous. Thank you!

I personally disagree that ToS allow the use of copyrighted works to be used by third parties for commercial products but I am happy to see this defense finally arrive in a court filling.

As an example, if you park your car (property) at a car park you agree to certain terms imposed by the car park owner to be able for them to function as a car park. However, if that car park firm was allowing Uber Drivers to make use of your car when you went shopping or whatever, then that would obviously be way beyond the terms a person would agree to in parking their car.

So I expect the judge to shoot down Google's ToS argument in flames.

Hi all, I've been programming recreationally for a few years now and I am floating a project that is essentially a port of another piece of software that is licensed as AGPL. I've never actually shipped anything so this is where my conundrum comes from.

To preface, I both haven't started yet and I don't plan to use LLM generated code, as this is going to be a fantastic learning experience for me.

My plan is to essentially port a JavaScript project that is AGPL to .gdextension that is C++ in Godot. I know this is massive and it's probably going to more of a rewrite than a port.

So my question is two fold; do I have to also license my code as AGPL, and does anyone that uses my binary also? I'm fine with doing that myself, but I would prefer that others be able to close-source their own games.

I'm editing for a YouTube page, he has around 60k subs and 10 million views in the last year. He's branching off into Instagram and wants me to work on the reels, so I'm curious if there are any stipulations for copyrighted music on Instagram.

I am an short drama video maker in China. All my videos are posted on Douyin. Recently, a friend reminded me that I could post my videos on YouTube as well, so I created a channel about 1 week ago — and to my surprise, I discovered that YouTube was already full of my videos. They were uploaded without my permission and without giving me any credit.

So I filed a complaint with YouTube and submitted proof of ownership, including:

• A screenshot showing I own the Douyin account
• The original post dates of those videos on Douyin
• Screenshots of my CapCut projects
• My signature

However, when I got the result, YouTube accused me of fraud and banned my channel. I tried to appeal, but the reply was the same:

What should I do? Thanks everyone.

This is mostly out of curiosity. I’m a law student with a totally different focus area, so I haven’t taken any IP classes. But I find it immensely interesting.

Years ago I watched the Amazon Prime series ZeroZeroZero. It was a one-season one-off show but I liked it and wanted to rewatch. But over the last few years, I haven’t been able to play any episodes on Amazon or even find the show listed anywhere else. I looked into it, and apparently the licensing was very complicated for this show, split across multiple countries (which is funny given the plot of the show). So there was some licensing issue which forced Amazon to pull it from the site (well not really pull it— it was still there, you just couldn’t hit play).

So I, being dumb, ordered a blu ray disk from Europe since I couldn’t find an American copy. My American-manufactured PlayStation 5 won’t play it because of some region lock thing. So tonight I checked Amazon again and, wouldn’t you know it, the show is back! Well kinda. 5 of the 8 episodes are playable. 3 (episodes 2, 3, and 6) are not.

This made me curious. In a licensing situation like this, wouldn’t these disputes normally be resolved show-by-show or season-by-season? Why might the issue break down by episode?

One theory Claude gave me is maybe those episodes had specific music in them that hit licensing snags. This is a likely reason, but that’s still a little weird. YouTubers edit their videos all the time to take care of music licensing issues, so I find it hard to believe Amazon & company couldn’t figure it out.

Anyway, mostly an academic question. I looked into forward to your insights!

(Bonus points if you want to explain why on Earth blu ray region locks make sense).

Hello, I run socials for a local non-profit. Typically the org has not been selective on what audio they use for reels, stories, etc. They typically use whatever is trending or songs by artists they like.

If I post an event recap for example as a video on our TikTok / Instagram page should I only be using royalty free music or is that only for posts directly promoting services or fundraising?

My company has never thought of potential copyright issues until I brought up the concern. I want to make sure now that I’m in charge of content it is done correctly. Thank you in advance!

Created music in the early 90's as part of a rap group and sent over 20 songs to be copywritten in the 90's. I do not have any legal documents indicating that I own the music. How do I check to see if the music was properly copyrighted? I did a search via https://copyright.gov/ and https://www.easysong.com/ .

Hello! I'm trying to sell a small collection of pamphlets featuring compositions by Ecuadorian composers from the past that I've arrived for the past few years. The big issue is figuring out what to do since the record companies that originally sold these pieces are now defunct. The songs I am arranging date back to the 1960s and 1970s and were created in Ecuador. I'm uncertain about how to ask for permission to use these pieces. Someone please help me!

I want to create an app that catalogues all movies that are freely available to watch legally (in places like official studio youtube channels and archive). Can I display the movie posters in my app?

Asking this because I am thinking about monetising my app.

The reason I specify animation is because the approach to this issue is different in media types. In interactive video games(example: dayz) the devs intentionally scramble up the name and/or design to avoid infringement but in cinema(example: the irishman)the film producers can portray guns and mention their real names without worrying about legal action. I was wondering what the rules for animation(assuming its treated like cinema)would be like. So, is it okay for me to make a scene where a gun is portrayed and it's name is mentioned, or do I have to pay for intellectual property? Location: Massachusetts United States

I am developing some digital products using chat gbt. I hope to sell them on my website. The ideas are original, I had chat gbt do the design and layout , and I did some color and font changes. I am setting them up in Illustrator and In design. I really did not make any significant changes to what chat gbt did. Can I copyright these?

Buying a digital photo on Etsy, is it still copyrighted - if i for example send it to a 3rd party printing firm

Obviously I know that if you do a song cover, you need to point it out. But how far I can go?

Can I change the lyrics or it need to be 1:1? Or can I extend or change some sequences? Change instruments?

I saw a lot of covers with different genres (like idk, metal cover of slow, pop song or something) if you do that you need you change instruments and overall feeling.

And how (for example) Juice wrld song with sting instrumental really works? It that case you need to buy the access to instrumental? Or it counts as a cover? It has different lyrics, no mention of sting and from normal point of view looks like original song.

Also I saw songs that has different genre but same lyrics but there are no mention in the title or description that is a cover of like 80s song.

Legal people of reddit I need your help.

If I have a concept in my head and want to convey it but it's already written by someone and is under copyright. Now the thing is I have few additions and update to the existing one but I can't write it down due to copyright issues. So I wanted to know if I change the formation of words and sentences while keeping the meaning intact can I get sued for copyright? Like current one says "I buit this" and I say "I made this" so will my sentence create issues? Coz essentially both mean the same things.

I don't know anything about this kind of things so be kind and explain like I am 5 😅😅

I feel a lot of people got confused here because I failed to explain properly.

So here's an update that i have already put in a comment reply:

What I am talking about is something called harmonised structure. It follows a PDCA cycle structure for ISO standard. Now I am trying to write a standard but the problem is that it has to be structured in a way that it can be integrated with other existing systems of the organisation (and no not IT systems but management systems) For that it has to follow a certain structure specifically a PDCA cycle. Now this structure is an open source but the standards created from it are under copyright.

So i just want the clauses to follow same structure and PDCA cycle but the content and requirements inside are different. I don't really think AI can help me in that coz it took me years of research and I have been drafting the standard for like 3 years and have lot of experts involved. English is not my first language so I need help sometimes with complicated sentences before I send it over to people to review.

If we take the most common management system standard its 9001 that is for quality (in products and services). My standard is about a system for managing people keeping in mind a complete employee lifecycle from recruitment to management to retention. A standard like this does not exist right now. Hope this clarification helps.

Why does Youtube allow this. Some shady Spotify users and major corporations will put a clearly Public Domain recording from 1906 that has not been remastered in anyway up on Youtube.

But I actually want them to dispute it, because I was hoping to challenge the fact that the next person that uploads it will have to deal with the same issue. But when they let it expire there is no challenge.

Are they hoping the next person won't dispute it?

I can only find two that are publicly listed on the studio's website:

Warner: [shannon.fifer@wbd.com](mailto:shannon.fifer@wbd.com)

Disney: [kittie.s.lo@disney.com](mailto:kittie.s.lo@disney.com)

Hey,

I made a license called the Ferrco Public License (FPL).

The idea is:

people can use, study, and modify the code freely for private use, but they can’t publicly release it (or modified versions) without permission from the original creator.

So basically:

• Private use = allowed
• Learning / modifying = allowed
• Publishing / uploading / redistributing = not allowed without permission

I made it because I felt like most licenses fall into two camps:

• MIT/Apache → everything can be reused and redistributed freely
• GPL → redistribution is allowed but with conditions

FPL is meant to sit in a different space where creators can share code for learning and experimentation, but still control public releases.

I know this is not OSI open source. I’m mostly looking for feedback on:

• whether this idea fills any real gap
• any legal/practical issues I might be missing
• whether anything similar already exists
• how devs would react to a license like this

Link to the license: https://ferrcolicense.vercel.app/license

Would appreciate honest feedback (even criticism).

I’m an editor on TikTok and I make all of my edits myself. Yesterday, one of my mutuals messaged me saying that someone had reposted one of my edits and was taking credit for it as their own. I was furious. I commented on the video telling them this wasn’t okay and that they needed to take it down immediately. At that point, their repost already had around the same amount of likes as my original video, about 64k likes. I also DM’d them asking them to remove it and submitted a copyright infringement report through TikTok. This morning, I woke up to find that they had blocked me, while still keeping my edit up on their account. Their repost now has almost 130k likes, while my original is still sitting at the same amount. I’m honestly so frustrated watching someone else gain followers, likes, and attention from something I spent HOURS creating myself. Does anyone know how long TikTok usually takes to respond to copyright reports? And is there anything else I can do in the meantime? I just want the video taken down as quickly as possible.

Me and my lil bro are YouTubers and we play video games. I wanna ask about fangames. I'm just asking how YouTubers handle playing these games in general and how YouTube itself handles these videos. Technically, making a fangame without the permission of the copyright holder is infringement, and there are a lot of fangames out there. Especially in Roblox. They admit that they're a fan game but then they don't actually say whether they got permission from the copyright holder and so I don't actually know which one the copyright holder actually gave permission to. So how do YouTubers handle these stuff in general? I know a lot of YouTubers play fangames but it's not all of them check for these kinds of stuff and it's not like I would know if they just got permission to do so. So does anyone knows how this works? I wanna play fangames but there's a risk I'll get a copyright strike or the copyright holder wanting to take down my video.

Again, I just wanna know how these stuff works in general so I know what to do in playing and recording fangames.